Military pilot Jo Ellis said she had to hire private armed security for her family because of the false claims, which went viral on social media.

Military pilot Jo Ellis said she had to hire private armed security for her family because of the false claims, which went viral on social media.

A transgender military pilot filed a defamation lawsuit Wednesday against a conservative influencer who falsely claimed on social media that she was flying the helicopter that collided with a commercial jet near Reagan National Airport in January, killing 67 people.

“I want to hold this person accountable for what they did to me,” Jo Ellis, a pilot who has served more than 15 years in the Virginia Army National Guard, said in a statement to NBC News. “It’s become too common that people can say horrible things about someone, profit at their expense, and get away with it.”

On Jan. 30, less than 24 hours after the crash, conservative influencer Matt Wallace, who has 2.2 million followers on the social media platform X, shared a post from another account he operates stating that the helicopter pilot was transgender, according to the lawsuit. Wallace included a photo of Ellis, and the post went viral, the lawsuit states.

  • inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.world
    84·
    13 hours ago

    Uhm. Hey, I know you are well meaning and I’m only saying this to inform, not to call out, shame or attack.

    But most trans people deeply dislike what you’re doing, it’s called degendering and it’s not an appropriate or respectful way to refer to us.

    Detransphobia was found to be rooted in cisnormativity and transnormativity, together with socio-politically-located anti-transgender stereotypes related to the process and the outcomes of detransitioning. Detransphobia compounds gender minority stressors and social exclusion in those who shift or reject their past transgender identity through the process of detransition.

    I understand you are worried about saying the wrong thing, but this is a way to deny trans people their identity but talking around it. It’s extremely noticeable and as someone who has attended more than a few trans support groups, it’s dehumanizing and upsetting. Just as non-binary folk use they/them, binary trans folk use she and him. We have one correct way to refer to us, and apart from sentance where you are referring to a group, “they” is not a safe one size fits all.

    Again, I say this respectfully in effort to inform. You seem well intending, but I implore you to reconsider.

    • ThePantser@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      82·
      7 hours ago

      Like I replied below,

      Then we can’t win, it feels like people are purposely making it impossible to be respectful to everyone by always having an issue. So I will go with offending the gendered people.

      If y’all gonna have a problem with using neutral terms then you will have to live with being offended because it’s not fair if we can’t just use your name.

      • Chip_Rat@lemmy.world
        34·
        5 hours ago

        “It feels like people are purposely making it impossible to be respectful to everyone…” Yeah by ignoring simple social cues (or a written article) that would have allowed them to correctly and respectfully refer to another person, if they would have had the energy to allow a single additional neuron to fire off in there.

        “…I will go with offending the gendered people.” You know everyone here can see your previous posts right? Where you correctly gender Trump, Musk, and probably every other cicgendered person without having any trouble. But nice edgy touch…

        • ThePantser@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          31·
          5 hours ago

          I’m not talking to them in person, and they are not ambiguous. I was speaking from the point of not knowing the person on a level where it is public knowledge or personal knowledge. Nice try, trying to make this a personal attack.