An answer given by The Bachelorette contestant Bryce Powers was removed from ABC.com’s web site and the network has apologized because it was transphobic.
The bio page for Bryce, a 30-year-old firefighter from Orlando, included this:
What’s your biggest date fear? The chick is actually a dude.
Why is that so problematic, even if his intent was to joke? Writing for Elite Daily, Candice Jalili explains:
“Perhaps Bryce did not intend to offend an entire community of already marginalized individuals.
But careless statements like his only serve to further alienate the trans community. They continue to perpetuate our society’s popular, yet wildly incorrect assumption that trans people are simply ‘men disguised as women’ or vice versa, seeking only to deceive innocent dudes, like himself.”
Why didn’t ABC or Warner Horizon catch this?
ABC told The Wrap in a statement that is oddly reminiscent of their statement after Bachelor star Juan Pablo made anti-gay remarks:
“This comment does not reflect the views of ABC, Warner Horizon or bachelorette Rachel Lindsay We have removed it from ABC.com.”
It does not reflect their views, yet it made it on to the Internet without anyone noticing? And it’s notable that there isn’t really an apology here, just an okay, fine, we deleted it and it’s not what we think even though we published it to the world.
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