Texas AG misgenders Assistant Health Secretary Rachel Levine on ...

ProfileSectionstvFeaturedMore From NBCFollow NBC NewsSome are accusing Twitter of applying its policy on hateful conduct unequally after it allowed a tweet from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that intentionally misgendered Assistant Health Secretary Rachel Levine to remain on its platform.On Sunday, USA Today honored Levine, the first openly transgender Senate-confirmed federal official, as one of its “women of the year.”In a tweet Thursday, Paxton shared an image of Levine from the USA Today feature and called her “a man.” Intentionally misgendering a transgender person, meaning referring to them with the wrong pronouns or by their birth gender, is offensive, and research has shown that it can have negative mental health effects on trans people.Users reported the tweet, but rather than removing it or suspending Paxton’s account, Twitter flagged the tweet and made it optional for people to view it in their feeds because it said the tweet is in the public’s interest.In a statement via email, a spokesperson for Twitter said the platform placed a public interest notice on the tweet “as it violates our hateful conduct policy.”“As is standard with this notice, engagements with the Tweet will be limited,” Twitter said.