Marvel is well known for its blockbuster superhero franchise, but anyone would have hardly imagined that the story of Marvel will be used to spread anti-trans sentiments. The above statement was proven true recently when a Floridian politician used an analogy from X-Men to describe trans people as an outer species altogether. The politician who marked such statements was Florida Rep. Webster Barnaby, who represented the Republicans during the debate about reforming laws concerning the transgender community.
Webster Barnaby On Comparing The Transgender With The X-Men
Florida Rep. Webster Barnaby (R) recently compared transgender people to “mutants” during a speech at the state capital. The congressman made these offensive comments while discussing a bill, which criminalizes the use of public bathrooms for transgender people. Barnaby in his speech not only compared transgenders to X-Men mutants but also reaffirmed his conservative ideology on the presence of only two genders in society. His statements clearly reflected that he surely does not include or consider the trans community as a part of society.
“I’m looking at society today and it’s like I’m watching an X-Men movie. When you watch the X-Men movies of Marvel Comics. It’s like we have mutants living among us on planet Earth. Some people don’t like that but that’s a fact we have people that live among us on planet Earth that are happy to display themselves as if they were mutants from another planet. This is the planet Earth, where God created men – male and women – female. I am a proud Christian conservative Republican, I’m not on the fence, not on the fence.”
Webster Barnaby didn’t stop there and continued by calling out the transgenders as “demons and imps”. The proud Christian conservative Republican added that the parade by the trans community is nothing more than a futile effort to pretend as if they are normal.
“There is so much darkness in our world today, so much evil in our world today, and so many people who are afraid to address the evil, the dysphoria, the dysfunction. I am not afraid to address dysphoria or dysfunction. The Lord rebuke you Satan and all of you are demons and all of you are imps who come and parade before us. That’s right I call you demons and imps who come and parade before us and pretend that you are part of this world. So, I am saying my righteous indignation is stirred. I am sick and tired of this. I am not gonna put up with it. You can test me or try to take me on, and I promise you that I will win all the time. Let us all vote upon this bill.”
Webster Barnaby Invited Major Criticism From The Public After Transphobic Comments
Barnaby’s comments have been met with widespread criticism from the public who expressed their dissatisfaction with the politician’s unnecessary X-Men analogy and transphobic comments. Marvel fans pointed out that the X-Men was created as a metaphor for marginalized groups, including the LGBTQ+ community. Fans accused Barnaby of completely missing the very point of the X-Men series, which has always been about promoting diversity and inclusivity.
Not a just a bigot, but apparently totally missed the point of X-Men as well.
— David Atkins (@DavidOAtkins) April 10, 2023
Someone missed the point of the X-Men movies. Can we now hear from Trump about how Lex Luthor was misunderstood?
— Ian Boothby (@IanBoothby) April 10, 2023
I know everybody is making fun of him because he got X-Men all wrong. But I think it’s just depressing. That he – of all people – would talk about other human beings in such a dehumanizing way..
— Thomas Ley (@thomas_ley) April 11, 2023
This jackass missed the point of the X-Men so completely.
— Cullen Bunn 🎃 (@cullenbunn) April 11, 2023
X-Men? There is LITERALLY a meme for that pic.twitter.com/kZ7OHtOArw
— Aqua: Guardian of the Cosmos (@fluttershyyay49) April 10, 2023
The bill was later approved by Florida’s Commerce Committee and is now headed to a vote by the entire House. It is upon the coming time to make it clear whether the efforts made by the trans community will be able to bring any positive change in society or not.
Source: Twitter
