'Vilified as boogeyman': Disinformation ensnares US trans pilot

by Anuj CHOPRAGingerly placing a gun on her kitchen counter, American trans pilot Jo Ellis said she no longer leaves her apartment without a firearm after false online claims about her involvement in a fatal air crash triggered a deluge of threats.The career of the Black Hawk pilot in the Virginia A...

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People gather in New Orleans for Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31, 2023. (Greg LaRose | Louisiana Illuminator)

by Anuj CHOPRA

Gingerly placing a gun on her kitchen counter, American trans pilot Jo Ellis said she no longer leaves her apartment without a firearm after false online claims about her involvement in a fatal air crash triggered a deluge of threats.

The career of the Black Hawk pilot in the Virginia Army National Guard hangs in limbo after a Pentagon memo last week revealed that transgender troops will be purged from the military unless they obtain a waiver on a case-by-case basis.

President Donald Trump has signed a series of executive orders targeting the trans community -- a flash point in the so-called culture wars roiling the United States -- including barring them from women's sports and instructing the government to recognize only two sexes, male and female.

Tens of thousands of social media posts falsely identified Ellis, 35, as one of the pilots of the army helicopter that collided with a passenger plane in Washington in late January, killing everyone aboard both aircrafts.

Without offering any evidence, Trump suggested the aviation authority's diversity hiring practices could partly be to blame for the crash, making trans personnel such as Ellis a ripe target for online rumors.

Her friends alerted her to a random Facebook account asking around if people knew Ellis, calling her the one who "killed those people in the crash" and other posts that questioned whether it was a "trans terror attack."

Others sent her screenshots of two news sites, including a Pakistani outlet, which suggested that Ellis was piloting the ill-fated helicopter.

As the rumors reached a fever pitch, with Ellis's name trending on the Elon Musk-owned platform X, a British newspaper reporter called her cellphone asking if she was alive.

"When I noticed how big the issue was, and I saw some of the comments, my first thought was: 'Is my family safe?'" Ellis told AFP at her apartment in the city of Richmond.

- 'We're a target' -

"I arranged armed private security for my house and packed my bags," Ellis said, displaying her personal firearms, including a gun the size of her hand that she carries in her purse.

Worried that someone might track down her home using public records, she temporarily moved her family to a new location.

Ellis posted a "proof of life" video on Facebook, which quelled only some of the rumors.

The threats facing Ellis, who has served in the National Guard since 2009 and has deployed to Iraq and Kuwait, highlight the real-life impact of disinformation for transgender people at a time when there has been a sharp uptick in the political rhetoric against them.

"I believe we're a target right now," Ellis said.

"We're being vilified as this kind of boogeyman," she added.

Online posts suggested that her hatred for Trump had motivated her to kill herself and dozens of others, an accusation she found strange for someone who had voted "red more than blue."

"I'm actually from a family that voted for Trump, so it's very strange to see that."

- 'Upsetting' -

Adding to that was job insecurity prompted by the Pentagon memo, which became public as part of a court filing in a case challenging Trump's recent executive order aimed at barring military service for transgender personnel.

Ellis said her supervisors, who reached out to offer support after the disinformation campaign, had informed her that the memo had not yet trickled down to them and encouraged her to continue for now.

"It's upsetting, but I will continue to place the mission first and do my job," Ellis said of the memo.

"I'm not sure I meet the criteria for a waiver, but I will try to exhaust all options that allow me to continue serving."

In a personal essay for the website Smerconish published just before the air crash, Ellis wrote she noticed symptoms of gender dysphoria from the age of five but learned to hide them from her family.

Growing up in a religious and conservative home with a history of military service, she tried to be "more manly" in hopes it would "cure" her.

She received "overwhelming support" when she notified her command in 2023 that she would begin transitioning. Ellis came out to her unit the following year.

"If I was serving today and was not out, I would consider not coming out, or I would consider leaving the military," she said.

"Because it doesn't seem like it's an environment where you can serve effectively with the current policies coming down."

ac/sw

© Agence France-Presse

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