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Credit: ITMDavid Tennant is being critiqued left and right by TERFs (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists) in the press – but he doesn’t care one bit.
It all started with the T-shirt that the Doctor Who star chose to wear for the press interviews for the highly anticipated second season of Neil Gaiman’s series Good Omens. Underneath of his ordinary look of a well-fitted suit-and-jacket combo, Tennant sported a shirt that read:
LEAVE TRANS KIDS ALONE YOU ABSOLUTE FREAKS
David Tennant – a good man by anyone’s measure – getting predictably jumped on by pond-life Twitter for standing up for trans kids. I’d ask you to look at the type of people lined up on either side of this ‘debate’. Pretty obvious who the decent folk are. pic.twitter.com/KLe5ZHeHP8
— India Willoughby (@IndiaWilloughby) July 11, 2023
Related: New ‘Good Omens’ Trailer: Something’s Going Down With Gabriel
The actor also sported a rainbow pin with the nonbinary pride colors on his lapel. This could possibly be because one of Tennant’s children is nonbinary, which has been discussed on social media but not confirmed by any official sources; however, it’s equally as likely that the actor wore it because his Good Omens character, Crowley, is a demon, and as author Gaiman has stated, neither angels nor demons ascribe to traditional gender roles.
Regardless of the reason, though, political detractors were not happy with Tennant’s choice to support a vulnerable community, and quickly began piling on on Twitter.
the game is:
“men who are in a stable happy marriage.”
david tennant – 1
graham linehan – 0 pic.twitter.com/KVU9PijtPZ— Beep | 💫 #BlueBeetleBattalion (@thebeepthemeep) July 11, 2023
Related: ‘Doctor Who’ Showrunner Shows Solidarity for Writers Strike Across the Pond
David Tennant, however, seems fully unbothered by the commentary of those less open-minded than him. He has made no reply to the attacks made against him on social media – after all, the perfect comeback to the whining of the fool is silence.
However, he also has a veritable army of fans who love him, so he doesn’t exactly need to. In fact, one parody account even replied for him:
“I’ll be fine, Terfs can’t climb stairs, and I still have my sonic screwdriver.”
BREAKING 🚨🚨🚨
David Tennant responds to backlash against pro-trans t-shirt.
“I’ll be fine, Terfs can’t climb stairs, and I still have my sonic screwdriver.” pic.twitter.com/SMpuSeq7m9
— Politics For You (@PoliticoForYou) July 11, 2023
Those who take issue with Tennant’s position come up with all sorts of arguments to justify their transphobia. Some say that it’s a push to convert all gay children to “straight” by changing their gender, which is ridiculous on the face of it. First of all, there are huge swaths of gay trans people, so that’s not even a good analysis of the situation.
Second, and more importantly, anyone who is actually trans, or knows a trans person, could tell you that while gender and sexuality are obviously linked, they are not the same thing. In fact, psychological studies have shown that our understanding of our own gender and our sexuality happen in two different parts of the brain. Trying to conflate the two shows nothing more than a lack of understanding of the subject matter.
Still others are hand-wringing about children being allowed to make decisions that will affect their body for the rest of their lives (an argument pertaining to puberty blockers,) but that also demonstrates a lack of understanding: Puberty is already a choice that children are not given over something that happens to their bodies. If they feel that the changes are making them deeply unhappy or damaging them, taking a puberty blocker does nothing more than delay the decision until they are certain of what they want it to be.
In short, David Tennant is a great, supportive ally who clearly truly cares about the struggles trans people – especially trans kids – are up against in this current climate. It’s nice to see that, while some celebrities disappoint us, there are still a few truly golden ones who care about supporting other people on their journeys, rather than tearing them down.
(By the way, if you want to own the same T-shirt, you can get it here!)
You can see David Tennant in Good Omens when it premieres on Amazon Prime on July 28.
Are you a David Tennant fan? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments below.