How Transphobia Falls For Its Own Lies
This is Graham Linehan boosting a claim that “all the domestic ‘abuse’ guidance comes from AGPs”. The claim is referring to Janey Templer-Milligan, a Swindon-based psychotherapist who specialises in LGBTQ+ issues.
The tweet from the account @Callie43916570 includes a group photo of Janey Templer-Milligan in which a penis has been crudely photoshopped under the dress of a nearby trans woman.
Based on this, the account concludes that “hanging out with sexual fetishists should exclude you from any job around vulnerable people and children”, and includes details of Swindon Women’s Aid.
Further down the thread, @Callie43916570 also shares the original image from the Swindon Advertiser, claiming that “they clearly cleaned up the image before it went to press” (ie. that somebody photoshopped OUT the penis) and again uses it to question Janey’s employment qualifications.
However, if we return to @Callie43916570’s original post, we can click on the relevant image to find its source, an obvious parody account.
So we have a transphobic parody account photoshopping a penis into a newspaper group photo. Not only is it then believed to be real, but somebody recognises a psychotherapist who also happens to be in the image, and publicly accuses them of “hanging around with sexual fetishists” and being unsuited to working with vulnerable people and children.
When the original image subsequently surfaces, it is claimed that one is fake, and that somebody at the Swindon Advertiser photoshopped out the penis before publication.
The whole thing is boosted to half a million followers of a celebrity who regularly falls for parodies and misinformation, but impulsively takes any opportunity to demonise the trans community without bothering to research the accuracy of his claims.
Next time you hear “You couldn’t make it up,” remind yourself that they usually do.
