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.

  • Diva (she/her)@lemmy.ml
    3·
    6 hours ago

    And figuring out their preferred pronouns isn’t always easy.

    usually the pronouns are listed somewhere or you ask

    This isn’t as simple as a lot of people want it to be. Going neutral isn’t a slight. It’s not misgendering. It’s a way to avoid accidentally making an error even with the best of intentions.

    There’s a reason many trans spaces in Lemmy require listed pronouns, it removes the guesswork and you can reference inline.

    If you’re using gendered pronouns for most cis people but then specifically degendering trans people it’s going to eventually rub people the wrong way. People aren’t going to care if you make an error while being well intentioned, especially if you ask for more information and correct yourself going forward.