Free-speech advocate Lindsay Shepherd has again been suspended from Twitter, but this time it’s permanent.
Monday’s banning of the Wilfrid Laurier University grad student came after a heated exchange where Shepherd says Jessica Yaniv — a transgender woman with whom she’d had previous arguments with — began hurling insults towards her and her infant son, and making remarks about Shepherd’s genitalia.
Yaniv mocked Shepherd’s septate uterus — a reproductive condition which can lead to complications during pregnancy.
“I heard @realDonaldTrump is building a wall inside of your uterus aka your “reproductive abnormality” hopefully the walk works as intended,” Yaniv tweeted.
“At least I have a uterus, you fat ugly man” Shepherd replied, adding, “Of course, he thinks reproductive issues are something to be mocked.”
By Monday, Shepherd’s Twitter account was suspended, and an appeal to reconsider was quickly denied.
“I just find it really interesting that this person is allowed to make comments about my vagina on social media and I’m supposed to be cool with that,” Shepherd told the Toronto Sun.
“I’m not supposed to stand up for myself?”
While Twitter wouldn’t say what tweets got her banned, Shepherd believes it was her misgendering of Yaniv.
Shepherd became the centre of a free-speech firestorm when, as a teaching assistant, she was disciplined for showing her students clips of a TVO interview with Dr. Jordan Peterson as part of a classroom discussion of adding gender identity to the Canadian Human Rights Act.
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