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The Babylon Bee on Twitter

By Jon Sutz

 

Name: The Babylon Bee, a conservative satire site
Twitter handle: @TheBabylonBee
On Twitter since: 2016
Twitter follower count as of June 2022: 1,500,000
  • The Babylon Bee is a conservative satire website. Read the “About Us” page here, and learn more about the Bee’s success here.
  • Twitter recently locked The Babylon Bee’s account, due to a Tweet that it claimed is a violation of its policies: “misgendering” a public servant who was born and remains a biological male, but who identifies as a female. Twitter said it will not be reactivated until the Babylon Bee removes that Tweet.
  • The Babylon Bee’s CEO said he will not remove the Tweet, and as of June 2022, they are locked in this stalemate.

Content

(1) Background

(2) March 15, 2022: After USA TODAY named Dr. Rachel Levine one of its “Women Of The Year,” The Babylon Bee posted a Tweet naming Levine its “Man Of The Year”

(3) March 20, 2022: Twitter notified the Bee that (a) Its Tweet regarding Levine violated its policies, and (b) Its account would be blocked until it deleted this Tweet

(4) March 20, 2022: Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon announced it will not delete the Tweet

(5) April 15, 2022: The Babylon Bee posted on YouTube a satirical video it made, about a Twitter employee having a mental breakdown over the prospect of Elon Musk buying the site, and forcing it to support freedom of speech

(6) April 27, 2022: Twitter placed a “Sensitive Content” warning label on top of Babylon Bee’s satire video

(7) Additional notes about Dr. Levine

(1) Background

Rachel Levine, MD, was born a man, whom his parents named Richard, and he lived and presented himself as a heterosexual male until 2011. In 1988, during his last year of medical school, Levine married a biological female, Martha Peaslee Levine. With Levine he fathered two children, David and Dayna.

Sometime in the early 2000s, Levine later publicly described having “a midlife crisis”:

…and began seeing a therapist and attended meetings at TransCentralPA. “What is comes down to is I decided to live my life with no secrets … with no fear.” […] “All I knew is I wanted to be a girl, or I was a girl, or female,” she said while describing her feeling as a child.

As of July 2022, Dr. Levine physically remains a biological man, who identifies and presents as a woman.

At left: Richard Levine, MD; At right: how Dr. Levine began identifying and presenting,as Rachel, after 2011.

(2) March 15, 2022: After USA TODAY named Dr. Rachel Levine one of its “Women Of The Year,” The Babylon Bee posted a Tweet naming Levine its “Man Of The Year”

On March 13, 2022, USA Today announced that Dr. Levine is one of its “Women Of The Year”:

‘Be true to yourself’: A message from the nation’s highest-ranking openly transgender official; Rachel Levine is one of USA TODAY’s Women of the Year, a recognition of women across the country who have made a significant impact, by Suzette Hackney, USA TODAY, March 13, 2022. Excerpt:

In any administration, the public health of Americans is a priority – a tenet that signifies prosperity and perseverance among us. But during a global pandemic, when relative calm turns to crisis seemingly overnight, community well-being instantly becomes a matter of life or death for millions of Americans.

Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, this fact continues to keep Adm. Rachel Levine up at night.

Levine is the U.S. assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the head of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, where she leads a group of 6,000 uniformed public health officers.

In normal times, her job is important. During a pandemic, it’s crucial.

In response, on March 15, 2022, the satire site Babylon Bee posted on Twitter a link to an article it published, naming Dr. Levine its “Man Of The Year”:

The Tweet led to this story:

The Babylon Bee’s Man Of The Year Is Rachel Levine – The Babylon Bee, March 15, 2022. Excerpt:

Rachel’s original name is Richard Levine, but he changed it to Rachel for some strange reason a few years ago. Who cares? Who says a dude as accomplished as this can’t be named “Rachel?” This king doesn’t care what people think about him! He often wears a dress, which some people think is weird—but he doesn’t care one bit. Come on! Men in India wear dress-type garments, don’t they?

Rachel’s message is to “be true to yourself,” and we couldn’t agree more. This man is breaking barriers and showing us all the true meaning of courage.

(3) March 20, 2022: Twitter notified the Bee that (a) Its Tweet regarding Levine violated its policies, and (b) Its account would be blocked until it deleted this Tweet

As reported by the NY Post:

Twitter locked the account of a right-leaning parody site, The Babylon Bee, after it awarded Rachel Levine, the transgender Biden administration official, the title of “man of the year.”

The Babylon Bee story was a reaction to USA Today’s naming of Levine, who is US assistant secretary for health for the US Department of Health and Human Services, as one of its “women of the year” last week.

Twitter says it will restore the account, which has more than 1.3 million followers, if the Bee deletes the tweet, but CEO Seth Dillon says he has no intention of doing so.

Twitter suspended the account after it said the Bee violated its "hateful conduct" policy.

(4) March 20, 2022: Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon announced it will not delete the Tweet

More:

Babylon Bee refuses to delete tweet mocking Rachel Levine despite being blocked from Twitter – Daily Mail Online, March 21, 2022. Excerpt:

Dillon, The Babylon Bee’s CEO, shared the news of the temporary ban on his personal Twitter account.

‘We’re told our account will be restored in 12 hours, but the countdown won’t begin until we delete the tweet that violates the Twitter Rules,’ he wrote.

He continued: ‘we’re not deleting anything. Truth is not hate speech If the cost of telling the truth is the loss of our Twitter account, then so be it.’

So far, The Babylon Bee has not been kicked off Facebook, where on Sunday it posted a status update addressing its Twitter suspension.

‘We are now in a world where calling a man a man, even though satire and humor, is hate speech,’ the message read.

(5) April 15, 2022: The Babylon Bee posted on YouTube a satirical video it made, about a Twitter employee having a mental breakdown over the prospect of Elon Musk buying the site

Would you believe that Twitter deemed this video so dangerous that it placed a “Sensitive Content” warning label on top of it, anytime it was shared? No? See Section (6).

(6) April 27, 2022: Twitter placed a “Sensitive Content” warning label on top of Babylon Bee’s satire video

Babylon Bee skit mocks Twitter employees as sensitive, gets flagged by Twitter for ‘sensitive content’ — Fox New, .Excerpt:

A satirical video from The Babylon Bee mocking Twitter employees for being too sensitive was flagged by Twitter on Wednesday with a warning for “sensitive content.”

The video depicts a fictional character named “Mandy” entering Twitter’s human resources office to vent about Elon Musk’s takeover of the company.

“So tell me, what is it about Elon Musk buying Twitter that actually bothers you? And remember this is a safe space, there’s no judgement,” the HR employee says in the comedic short.

The link to the below Tweet is here:

(7) Additional notes about Dr. Levine

Dr. Levin said in a public speech in 2017 that “there is there is no medical treatment” for per-pubescent children that feel they were born into the wrong bodies.

From PolitiFact: Rachel Levine does not support gender confirmation surgery for all children – PolitiFact, February 26, 2021:

“During her lecture at Franklin & Marshall, Levine described the standards of care for transgender patients laid out by professional organizations such as the World Professional Association for Transgender Health. Current U.S. health guidelines do not recommend surgical treatment for minors.

“At one point of the lecture, Levine explicitly notes that the guidelines do not recommend any form of medical treatment for children prior to puberty. “For prepubertal children (with gender dysphoria) there is no medical treatment,” she says. “The idea would be to see a counselor or therapist who is supportive and has knowledge about these issues, to work with the parents.”

July 18, 2022: Rachel Levine: We need to “empower” kids to go on puberty blockers and get sex reassignment surgery