The White House said a transgender model would be banned from future events due to photos and videos that show her topless on the South Lawn during an LGBTQ Pride month celebration on Saturday.
Rose Montoya, a trans model and activist, was among hundreds invited by the Biden administration to mark Pride Month, which is observed every June.
Montoya shared a video from the event on Instagram that features a clip of her standing in front of the White House topless and covering her nipples with her hands.
Right-wing media shared screenshots from Montoya’s video, with commentators and media personalities calling her actions “disrespectful.” Many of Montoya’s critics misgendered her by referring to her with male pronouns and called her anti-trans slurs.
A White House spokesperson said Tuesday that Montoya and the other people featured in her video would be banned from future events organized there.
“This behavior is inappropriate and disrespectful for any event at the White House. It is not reflective of the event we hosted to celebrate LGBTQI+ families or the other hundreds of guests who were in attendance,” the White House spokesperson said. “Individuals in the video will not be invited to future events.”
Montoya, who was not immediately available to speak with NBC News, addressed the backlash in a video on Instagram.
“Conservatives are trying to use the video of me topless at the White House to try to call the community groomers, etcetera,” she said. “And I would just like to say that, first of all, going topless in Washington, D.C., is legal, and I fully support the movement in freeing the nipple because why is my chest now deemed inappropriate or illegal when I show it off, however, before coming out as trans it was not?”
Montoya said her critics are affirming that she is a woman by being outraged, “because for some reason, people like to sexualize women’s bodies and say that they are inappropriate.”
“My trans masculine friends were showing off their top surgery scars and living in joy, and I wanted to join them,” she said. “And because it is perfectly within the law in Washington, D.C., I decided to join them and cover my nipples just to play it safe. Because I wanted to be fully free and myself. I had zero intention of trying to be vulgar, or be profane in any way. I was simply living in joy, living my truth and existing in my body. Happy Pride. Free the nipple.”
The backlash over Montoya’s video takes place amid an increasingly hostile national climate for the LGBTQ community, particularly transgender people. So far this year, state lawmakers have introduced 491 bills aimed at restricting LGBTQ rights, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Nearly half of those would restrict trans rights, with most focused on restricting transition-related medical care and trans athletes’ participation on school sports teams.
Brands have also faced more criticism in recent months for featuring LGBTQ people in their advertising or selling LGBTQ-inclusive merchandise. Bud Light faced boycotts in April — which have negatively affected sales — after featuring Dylan Mulvaney, a trans influencer, in an ad campaign.
Target announced last month that it was pulling some LGBTQ-themed items from stores following what a company spokesperson described as “threats” to employees over this year’s Pride Month merchandise. Many conservative critics online specifically took issue with the company selling tuck-friendly bathing suits for adults that are inclusive of trans people.
Kristen Welker, Caroline Kenny and Elyse Perlmutter-Gumbiner contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
