Republican Rep. Dale Strong called for Space Camp to remove a transgender employee after a viral social media post called the person a “freak.”

Three Republican Alabama officials are expressing concern that a transgender person is employed at Space Camp, an educational program for children held at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville.

One of the lawmakers is calling for the employee to be removed and for the center to “open a safety review to consider the potential harm and damages they have inadvertently caused children.”

The backlash began Saturday after Clay Yarbrough, a father who lives just outside of Huntsville in the small town of Owens Cross Roads, posted a screenshot of the LinkedIn profile and social media photos of a crew trainer at Space Camp on Facebook. Yarbrough said he had planned to send his daughter to Space Camp the following week, “but we have just found out that this freak is a team lead and a hall monitor in the girls dorms and at times could be allowed to be alone in the halls at night.”

  • @[email protected]
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    1803 months ago

    That man was never sending his kids to space camp. He just decided to doxx the only known trans person within 100 miles of his home.

    Hopefully the organization doesn’t cave and backs their employee.

    • @gmtom
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      73 months ago

      Yeah I’m wing to bet a guy called “clay” probably believes NASA is an evil organisation that lies to you about the earth not being flat.

    • @[email protected]
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      63 months ago

      Anything other than backing the employee would be grounds for a discrimination lawsuit. They can’t claim public pressure made them fire them if the main reason was gender identity.

  • @cybervseas
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    1153 months ago

    The South doesn’t deserve all the cool NASA stuff.

    • @[email protected]
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      253 months ago

      Huntsville is actually a really cool area although you could argue it’s because the cool NASA stuff is there.

      • Neato
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        263 months ago

        That’s the only reason. It’s still in the shit hole that is Alabama. Crap like this just proves it.

        • @[email protected]
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          53 months ago

          Same thing for most places with military bases, the only reason Dayton Ohio is even on the map is WPAFB.

          • @WidowsFavoriteSon
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            43 months ago

            Well, it’s also the birthplace of aviation, but whatever.

          • Optional
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            43 months ago

            How much does it cost to get in to see the . . . you know. winkwink

            • @[email protected]
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              23 months ago

              The aliens are a hoax, but there’s some other neat stuff. Graffiti from nazi POWs at one point, whatever the museums got going on, underground tunnels that totally don’t lead to underground hangers, etc.

  • @bmsok
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    763 months ago

    Fuck these bigots. I went to Space Camp as a kid and it was one of the most welcoming camp experiences of my life.

    The goal was to have everyone come together and work as a team for our ‘shuttle mission’ above anything else.

  • @[email protected]
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    723 months ago

    Any system that doesn’t immediately remove three people promoting blatant open hate speech is broken. My employer ( and hopefully most these days) would fire these people instantaneously. Government needs internal anti-hate regulation and fast. There’s zero reason to let this shit even happen anymore. Pathetic.

  • lettruthout
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    643 months ago

    So they’ve solved every significant problem for their citizens and now are inventing fake ones?

    • gregorum
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      533 months ago

      They have no interest in solving any problems, only creating new ones.

    • @[email protected]
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      53 months ago

      The only significant problem was that they didnt have the freedom to be openly hateful, now that right has been restored, America is great again and all is well.*

      *(For white males)

  • @jpreston2005
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    513 months ago

    Just elected officials targeting a minority citizen for existing, singling her out to their violent, ignorant base. Nothing to see here, they’ll probably doxx her next, maybe shoot at her feet, try to take some upskirt photos, I dunno, we’ll have to wait and see what they do next. One things is for sure, the officials won’t be reprimanded or face consequences in any way!

    • @[email protected]
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      373 months ago

      I’ve always been sympathetic toward Trans people, but cases like this really illustrate how shitty it can be to just exist while Trans in America.

      With most “minorities” there are still so many of them in any given community that it’s hard or pointless to single any one out for hate. But with a Trans person you can call them out by name because they rarely have anonymity within a local collective.

      Like, this person was working a cool job, probably proud of themselves, helping kids and enjoying life. Now they’re being called out by elected State officials and online random. Being called a pedo and a freak… I can’t imagine what that does to a person.

      Now let’s find all the quotes from these people railing about “Cancel Culture”.

      • Ms. ArmoredThirteen
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        253 months ago

        I’m sure you know but that’s how hate mongering and fascism works: target the group least able to fight back. Use that to build support so once the group folds you have the ability to target a slightly stronger group next. If they have their way, once trans people have been final solutioned they’ll go after other queer groups and minorities that are ‘hard or pointless to single out’. It’ll be easier to single them out then and far from pointless it’ll be required to continue to fuel their machine

        For a lot of trans people myself included this is part of why we’re so loud when even the smallest threat to our rights shows up. We know what happens next if we get removed from society we’re not just fighting for ourselves

        • @[email protected]
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          163 months ago

          Word.

          This is why I keep putting up our pride flag, if it isn’t safe to do that then we are not safe.

  • @Carvex
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    323 months ago

    We should send their children to a house of god to be sodomized by trusted leaders instead!

    Poor person just trying to live their life and educate kids.

  • @Suavevillain
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    153 months ago

    I saw the Facebook comments of the guy who started all of this. It is nothing but hate and paranoia of Trans people.

  • @[email protected]
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    13 months ago

    According to a 2020 Supreme Court ruling, they’re literally violating the Civil Rights Act here.

    Of course, endgame is probably to get a reroll because the Supreme Court is a joke now.