Indiana House Representative Censored By Twitter After Referring to Rachel Levine As ‘A Man’

Twitter recently took down a post from Republican Representative Jim Banks of Indiana, accusing him of breaking the platform’s rules against “hateful content.”

Banks was shut out of his official Twitter account in a blatant form of censorship. His account would not be reinstated until he removed a message that referred to Assistant Secretary of Health Rachel Levine as “a man.” Levine was born a male, but he now believes he is a woman.

Banks said in the since-deleted tweet:

“The title of first female four-star officer gets taken by a man.”

This statement came after the announcement that Levine would be the “first-ever female four-star admiral” in the U.S. Public Health Services Commissioned Corps.

Twitter sent a message to Rep. Banks claiming that “this Tweet violated the Twitter Rules. You may not promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease. We also do not allow accounts whose primary purpose is inciting harm towards others on the basis of these categories.”

In their hateful conduct policy, Twitter states, “We prohibit targeting others with repeated slurs, tropes, or other content that intends to dehumanize, degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category. This includes targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals.”

In response to the censorship, Banks posted to his personal Twitter account explaining that the tweet, was in fact, factual.

Ruben Gonzales of the LGBTQ Victory Institute stated to the Indianapolis Star:

“Whether Jim knows it or not, he has served next to countless LGBTQ military members who risk everything for our country, and with hundreds of LGBTQ appointees who work tirelessly for the American people. For him to go out of his way to denigrate Admiral Levine and those LGBTQ public servants tells us much more about him than it does about them.”

Democrat John Stephens, who is running to replace Banks in Indiana’s 3rd Congressional District, also criticized Banks’ comments, tweeting, “Calling yourself a Christian while you live the life of a bigot doesn’t make you Christian. Weren’t you taught to respect officers when you served?”

A separate tweet from Banks, in which he stated, “Calling someone that was born and lived as a man for 54 years the first ‘female’ four-star officer is an insult to every little girl who dreams of breaking glass ceilings one day,” has not been removed from the platform.

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