Wi Spa incident may have been staged

[loomer]

Alleged Trans incident at upscale LA Spa may have been staged

The video quickly made the rounds in far right, and Trans-Exclusionary Feminist (TERF) sites and Anti-trans “feminist” websites.

On June 24th, Instagram user “cubaangel” posted a video of herself angrily confronting a staff member at the Wi Spa in Los Angeles, accusing them of letting a disrobed transgender person into the women’s section of the business.

There is increasing doubt among law enforcement and staff at the Wi Spa whether there was ever was a transgender person there to begin with. Anonymous sources within the LAPD tell the Blade they have been unable to find any corroborating evidence that there was a transgender person present on that day.

Similarly, a source at the Spa told the Blade there’s no record of any of its usual transgender clients on its appointments guest list on the day in question. Treatment at the Spa is by appointment only, and most of its transgender clients are well known to the staff.

Several other factors cast doubt on the veracity of the claims in the video. Cubaangel’s Instagram account is almost exclusively Christian memes, which begs the question why she chose to go to a high-end spa well known for being LGBTQ friendly. During Cubaangel’s video, no transgender person can be seen, and no other witnesses have come forward to confirm the allegations made. It’s also not the first time Wi Spa has been targeted for catering to transgender people. After the alleged, unconfirmed incident, Wi Spa was deluged with 1-star Yelp! and Trip Advisor reviews.

It also remains a possibility that there was a person, unknown to the Wi Spa staff, who pretended to be transgender to create an inciting incident. In 2015, anti-transgender activists in Washington State deliberately encouraged men to enter women’s facilities. One cisgender man entered a swimming pool changing area wearing only board shorts while claiming that he had a right to be there (he was removed from the premises without charges being filed).

The video quickly made the rounds in far right, and Trans-Exclusionary Feminist (TERF) sites. Anti-trans “feminist” websites like Mumsnet, Ovarit, and Spinster were sharing content by far right provocateurs known for disinformation, like Ian Miles Cheong, by June 27th.

Shortly thereafter, flyers for a protest on July 3rd began circulating in religious right, far right, and TERF social media circles, and were shared by Cubaangel on the 29th and users on Spinster. They discussed defending the alt-right troll website, Kiwifarms, which is known for targeting transgender women.

Prior to the protest, a Los Angeles trans woman was falsely accused by anti-trans feminists of being the alleged transgender person in the video. She received multiple death threats and harassment, including a picture of a masked man brandishing an assault weapon threatening to shoot her.

The anti-trans protest was a mix of religious fundamentalist street preachers, QAnon conspiracy theorists chanting “save our children,” and Proud Boys. Black-bloc (like Antifa) and trans activists engaged in a counter protest at the same time, and violence erupted. Right wing personality Andy Ngo, who coordinates with far right groups when they’re looking to engage in violence on camera, was also there.

A right-wing protestor drew a gun on a person recording the event and told him it was “something to shoot you with.” A videographer wearing a vest marked “PRESS” was struck from behind by a right wing protester with a metal pipe. Another anti-trans protester stabbed two people: a pro-trans counter protester who was reportedly hospitalized by the wound, and a fellow anti-trans protesters while she was attempting to help him off the ground. The LAPD quickly declared the protest and counter-protest unlawful assemblies and dispersed them.

All of this fits into an emerging pattern of the alt-right, anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists, violent far right groups like the Proud Boys, the religious right, and anti-trans “feminists” collaborating and coordinating as they share the same media streams. Rhetoric against transgender people in popular right-wing media like Fox News has grown both more frequent, and more extreme. In April, Tucker Carlson (who serves as a gateway to the far right) declared that transgender people are a threat to the “perpetuation of the species.”

Dr Joe Mulhall, head of research at the UK’s renowned anti-extremist watchdog group Hope Not Hate, discussed this trend in a recent interview. “We see more anti-trans content from within the far right than against any other minority today… [They] disproportionally talk about trans rights way more than Muslims now”. He sees transphobia as more accepted publicly than anti-Semitism. “Talking about Jews isn’t. It ostracizes you. But if you talk about trans issues it opens the doors to the mainstream. The far right are saying things they know will be echoed in the comment pages of the right-wing press.”

The American right relies on manufactured rage to keep its base engaged. Whether it’s Dr. Seuss, Mr. Potato Head, Critical Race Theory, or women soccer players not knowing which way to face during the National Anthem it doesn’t matter if the instigating event is real, so long as it is plausible to the base and it makes them angry. In the case of the mysterious trans woman at the Wi Spa, it no longer matters if she existed at all. The far right got the attention they wanted, and even if it proved to be a hoax or a set-up, no one will remember that in the long run.

source

Just in case there was any doubt left around here that the escalating anti-transgender rhetoric is part of the global resurgence of far right ideologies and that many of its proponents are using the exact same toolkit as the fash, this should put that to bed. Transphobes will invent a false reality in order to galvanize their supporters to violence, and are increasingly buying into the anti-Semitic nonsense spewed by Jennifer Bilek et al.

[Ralin]

Man. There are times when I get the impression that these TERF people are not really motivated by concern for women's safety.

[LadyTevar]

Man. There are times when I get the impression that these TERF people are not really motivated by concern for women's safety.

They're not. No more than Anti-Abortionists are concerned with women's health and safety.

[Solauren]

They're entirely motivated by the fact they spend their lives following a book created 1500+ years ago, and that if they are, then everyone else should, otherwise they've wasted their lives while others have not.

[Ralin]

They're entirely motivated by the fact they spend their lives following a book created 1500+ years ago, and that if they are, then everyone else should, otherwise they've wasted their lives while others have not.

Radical feminists. Infamous Bible-thumpers.

[loomer]

Okay, so, here's the problem.

The current transphobic movement is an alliance between three groups, moving within a larger milieu.

First, we have a relative minority of actual 'radical feminists', the majority of whom aren't particularly radical at all anymore and barely feminist even when we set the question of 'can you be a feminist and throw transpeople under the bus?' aside. A lot of them either were, or if they were a bit older would have been, part of the Political Lesbian set, with all that entails. A lot of people who identify with the specific label of TERF have a genuinely shockingly poor knowledge of actual radical feminist writings and theories (some good, some bad) and don't actually belong to this category - they're way off in the big crowd.

Then we have another relatively small but overly influential set of figures, which is various intellectuals, real and false, like Blanchard et al (and public commentators mistaken for intellectuals by their fans) who are generally conservative and motivated by either a desire to push culture war or by personal revulsion/attraction (Blanchard is pretty clearly in that latter category), and in a rare few cases, a kind of academic sunk-cost fallacy ('I spent thirty years writing about this as a medical condition best treated with torture and I'll be damned if I stop now').

Then we have a somewhat larger element, which is the religious right and the neo-fascist movement, who have been funding the above specifically to exploit and make use of their anti-trans rhetoric and nonsense as a means of breaking apart solidarity in LGBTQ circles and discrediting the idea of basic rights for all people. The above make common cause with one of the absolute enemies of feminism in the name of saving feminism, with predictable results.

And finally, we have the big picture, which is these three groups influencing and steering discussions to produce people who belong to none of the above, but who are combining long-held cultural repugnance for trans people (some of which is religious, some of which isn't) with the results of propaganda. Think JK Rowling and her legion of supporters, the people who take anything Joe Rogan has to say seriously, etc.

So yes. Some are bible thumpers. Some want to burn the church down. Some want to redecorate the church with the skulls of their enemies. It's not as simple as it being just one group pushing these narratives.

[Ralin]

So yes. Some are bible thumpers. Some want to burn the church down. Some want to redecorate the church with the skulls of their enemies. It's not as simple as it being just one group pushing these narratives.

I'm aware. Just not a fan of how TERF has started being used as a general term for transphobes. Because that leads to stuff like Mike Pence being called a radical feminist. Which I think we can all agree is pretty stupid.

[Zaune]

I'm aware. Just not a fan of how TERF has started being used as a general term for transphobes. Because that leads to stuff like Mike Pence being called a radical feminist. Which I think we can all agree is pretty stupid.

Same. But I'd still pay real money to see someone do so to his face.