Dana Nessel addresses the crowd at the MotorCity Casino Hotel in Detroit on midterm election night 2018. Photo by Kate Gowman
Michigan AG Dana Nessel Calls Her Transphobic Texas Counterpart a 'Walking Hate Crime'
AG Ken Paxton boasts long record of bigoted rhetoric and attacks on LGBTQ+ rights
By Jason A. Michael|2022-03-30T09:19:34-04:00March 30th, 2022|Michigan, News|
Michigan's out and proud Attorney General Dana Nessel is in the news once again. This time, it's for calling her Texas counterpart, AG Ken Paxton, a "walking hate crime." Nessel used those choice words to describe the Texas AG after Paxton shockingly came for United States Assistant Secretary of Health Rachel Levine, the first trans person ever to be confirmed by the Senate to a presidential administration position, in an ugly, transphobic tweet.
"Rachel Levine is a man," Paxton tweeted after Levine was named among USA Today's Women of the Year.
Nessel said comments such as those made by Paxton are the reason she no longer attends National Association of Attorneys General events.
"It's this," she said in a since-removed tweet. "Paxton is a walking hate crime."
Paxton's revolting tweet is, unfortunately, not a first for the homophobe. It comes after years of constant attacks on the LGBTQ+ community. Paxton recently accused parents who allow their trans children to access gender-affirming care of legally committing "child abuse" in a non-binding legal opinion already being challenged.
Paxton's greatest hits also include looking into possible "religious discrimination" by the LGBTQ+ community against Chick-fil-A and issuing an opinion in 2015 after the Supreme Court legalized marriage equality stating that local officials could deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples on the basis of religious grounds.
For her part, Nessel told Pride Source in an interview last year that she feels led to respond to such virulent attacks against the community she is a part of. "Being the first statewide elected LGBTQ person brings with it a certain responsibility and I'm not going to be shy about it," she said. "I'm not going to hide."