Hobbs spokesperson Josselyn Berry late Monday posted an image on Twitter from the 1980 movie “Gloria
By Stacey Barchenger || The Arizona Republic
VA social media post from Gov. Katie Hobbs’ spokesperson suggesting the use of violence against those who disparage transgender people has prompted a backlash and calls for the governor to take action.
Hobbs spokesperson Josselyn Berry late Monday posted an image on Twitter from the 1980 movie “Gloria,” showing a woman with a handgun in each hand. “Us when we see transphobes,” Berry wrote in an accompanying post that followed a prior message.
The post was made hours after a mass killing at a Nashville school where the shooter was identified by law enforcement authorities as a transgender person. The tweet was amplified Tuesday by Republican lawmakers and consultants, who panned it as tone deaf and advocating violence.
The Arizona Freedom Caucus, which includes the state Legislature’s farthest-right members, called for Berry’s dismissal, saying that “calling for violence like this is un-American & never acceptable.”
The caucus and its leader Sen. Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek, is often at odds with Hobbs and has threatened to sue her over her first executive order. That order expanded protections from discrimination to include gender and reaffirmed that in matters of state employment and contracts, sexual orientation could not be considered. Hoffman charged that Berry was “threatening to shoot people Democrats disagree with less than 12 hours after the Nashville shooting.”
