Alabama Republicans target transgender Space Camp employee
Alabama Rep. Dale Strong called for the U.S. Space & Rocket Center to "immediately remove" a transgender employee who works for its Space Camp program.
Three Republican Alabama officials are expressing concern that a transgender person is employed at Space Camp, an educational program for children held at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville.
One of the lawmakers is calling for the employee to be removed and for the center to “open a safety review to consider the potential harm and damages they have inadvertently caused children.”
The backlash began Saturday after Clay Yarbrough, a father who lives just outside of Huntsville in the small town of Owens Cross Roads, posted a screenshot of the LinkedIn profile and social media photos of a crew trainer at Space Camp on Facebook. Yarbrough said he had planned to send his daughter to Space Camp the following week, “but we have just found out that this freak is a team lead and a hall monitor in the girls dorms and at times could be allowed to be alone in the halls at night.”
The state operated U.S. Space & Rocket Center, in Huntsville, Ala., on Jan. 8, 2019.David Goldman / AP fileYarbrough said in the post that the director of Space Camp confirmed “this was true.” Yarbrough did not allege in his post that the employee had committed misconduct but said he wanted his post “to spread.”
Yarbrough’s post was then shared on Facebook and X by Libs of TikTok, a far-right social media account that criticizes LGBTQ teachers and allies, hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to minors and others. An NBC News investigation last month, which Libs of TikTok called a “hit piece,” found 33 instances in which people or institutions that were the subject of posts by Libs of TikTok later reported being the target of bomb threats or other violent intimidation.
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