Mouna's Story

Mouna Was Targeted with Anti-Trans Violence

What Anti-Trans Language Is

Before examining Tasha’s conduct, it is important to understand what qualifies as anti-trans language and why it matters. This is not a matter of opinion. Researchers and civil rights organizations have established clear frameworks for identifying anti-trans rhetoric, and Tasha’s language falls squarely within them.

The National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC) identifies intentional misgendering, deadnaming, and framing trans people’s identities as deceptive as core forms of transphobia.^[8] GLAAD, in its guide to anti-LGBTQ online hate, explains that phrases used to deny the validity of transgender identities are not neutral descriptors but rhetorical weapons wielded to stigmatize and deny trans and nonbinary people their right to live openly and safely.^[9] The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has documented how anti-trans language used by public figures normalizes bigotry and creates an ecosystem of hate that moves from the fringe into the mainstream.^[10]

In academic research, philosopher Talia Mae Bettcher identified the “deceiver” stereotype as central to transphobic violence: the trope that trans people who present in their authentic gender are perpetrating a kind of fraud. Bettcher demonstrated that this framing is deeply connected to broader systems of sexist and racist violence, and that it functions to excuse and promote harm against trans people.^[11] Sociologist Michaela M. Rogers (University of Sheffield) built on this work in a 2021 study published in Violence Against Women, documenting how misgendering and pathologizing operate as specific modes of abuse within intimate and domestic violence contexts. Rogers defines misgendering as an “active, not passive, act of abuse” and identifies identity abuse, misgendering, and pathologizing as distinct forms of cisgenderist maltreatment targeting a person’s gender identity.^[12]

Tasha’s language, documented below, maps precisely onto these expert frameworks. She deploys the deceiver trope. She misgenders. She pathologizes. She treats Mouna’s gender expression as evidence of dishonesty. Every one of these behaviors is recognized by researchers and civil rights organizations as anti-trans abuse.

The Performative Pledge

Tasha’s anti-trans abuse is made worse by the fact that she knows exactly what she is doing. She is not ignorant of correct pronoun usage; she has made a public performance of respecting it when it served her.

In court, she testified: “I just want to be respectful of their gender identity,” explaining why she uses they/them pronouns for Mouna.^[1] Two weeks before her most vicious public attack on Mouna’s identity, she wrote to another nonbinary person, Niles Zee: “Thank you for believing me. I want to assure you I am dedicated to using they pronouns for Nick and have been since I started speaking openly about this. I will not misgender them.”^[2]

This is strategic, not sincere. When Tasha needed credibility with someone who shared Mouna’s nonbinary identity, she performed allyship. When that audience was not watching, she did the opposite.

The “Deceiver” Attack

On December 1, 2017, just seventeen days after her pledge to Niles Zee, Tasha published a public Facebook post that reads like a textbook deployment of the anti-trans deceiver trope:^[3]

“i’m watching this conversation get derailed over and over by nick’s gender identity. in court, nick dressed to reflect the image of a rich white man. nick grew out their beard… nick can change their name and we should call people by the pronouns they identify with however that doesn’t change that nick leverages their white male privilege every single chance they get. as soon as nick realizes they won’t get their way using a different identity, they revert to white, rich, and male and throw it around like a weapon against vulnerable people”

This post does several things simultaneously, each of which experts have identified as anti-trans:

It frames gender identity as a costume. The suggestion that Mouna “dressed to reflect the image of a rich white man” and “reverts to white, rich, and male” treats nonbinary identity as something that can be put on and taken off, rather than an inherent aspect of who someone is. The NSVRC identifies this framing as transphobic.^[8]

It deploys the deceiver trope. The implication that Mouna strategically switches identities to gain advantage is the exact mechanism Bettcher described: the accusation that trans people’s gender presentations are a form of deception or manipulation.^[11]

It polices gender expression. The reference to Mouna growing a beard is treated as evidence that their nonbinary identity is fraudulent. In reality, Mouna grew a beard because their partner at the time agreed to quit smoking if Mouna grew it out and kept it for a month. Mouna’s facial hair choices are none of Tasha’s business, just as no cisgender person’s grooming choices are held up as proof that their gender is fake.

Escalation: From Tropes to Open Misgendering

Tasha did not stop at implication. Her language escalated over the following year, becoming more explicitly and deliberately anti-trans.

In January 2018, she wrote to Mickey Yacyshyn: “they also will dress feminine as it suits them” and “they are tricky tho as you will see. they change their appearance often which makes things hard.” She added: “i almost didn’t recognize them in court because they went full beard white man.”^[4] The word “tricky” and the framing that Mouna “changes their appearance” to evade recognition is the deceiver trope made explicit. This language mirrors the rhetoric of anti-trans bigots who treat gender expression as a mechanism of deception rather than an authentic expression of self.

By October 2018, Tasha had dropped the pretense of correct pronouns entirely. She wrote to Gabriela Szteinberg: “sometimes he has a beard. sometimes he wears women’s clothes.”^[5] In the same conversation, she called Mouna “a serial sex offender” and instructed Szteinberg to “ask the bro to leave if he shows his face.”^[5] The shift from “they” to “he” is not careless. It is deliberate. And calling a nonbinary person “bro” while discussing their clothing choices is a pointed act of gender-based contempt.

A month later, in November 2018, she wrote to Elle Dowd: “and says he is non binary.”^[6] The phrase “says he is” does two things at once: it misgenders Mouna with male pronouns, and it frames their nonbinary identity as a mere claim, something Mouna “says” rather than something that is true. In the same exchange, Tasha dismissed Mouna’s gender identity as “gender garbage,” writing: “anyway--that is why i’m not messing with the gender garbage.”^[6]

Why This Matters: Identity Abuse

Tasha’s language is not merely offensive. It is a recognized form of abuse.

Rogers (2021) specifically identifies the weaponization of a partner’s or former partner’s trans identity as a distinct mode of domestic violence and abuse, operating through cisgenderism, which Rogers defines as an ideology that “marginalizes and delegitimizes people’s self-identification in terms of gender.”^[12] Hall and DeLaney (2021), cited in multiple studies on trans trauma, note that relentless misgendering can cause trans individuals to withdraw from public life entirely to minimize the harm.^[13]

The ADL has tracked how anti-trans rhetoric from public figures normalizes bigotry in both fringe and mainstream spaces, creating feedback loops where extreme language becomes acceptable.^[10] Scientific American reported in 2024 that anti-trans rhetoric from public figures directly increases the likelihood of violence against trans and nonbinary people, citing research from Pennsylvania State University.^[14]

Tasha’s conduct fits this pattern precisely. She did not misgender Mouna in a single moment of carelessness. She did it systematically, across multiple conversations, to multiple people, over the course of more than a year, after publicly pledging not to. She used Mouna’s gender expression as a weapon. She framed their identity as deceptive. She called their nonbinary identity “garbage.” This is identity abuse.

A Broader Pattern of Bigotry

Tasha’s anti-trans attacks against Mouna do not exist in isolation. Her willingness to deploy identity-based attacks extends to other targets as well. During the same period, Tasha publicly accused Congresswoman Cori Bush, a Black woman and vocal survivor advocate, of accepting bribes and “selling women” in connection with a lawful $2,700 campaign contribution that Mouna had made to Bush’s campaign. When asked under oath whether she recalled publicly making this accusation, Tasha said: “I do not recall.” When pressed on whether it was possible she had said it, she acknowledged: “It’s possible.”^[7] Accusing a descendant of enslaved people of selling human beings, without any evidence, reflects the same readiness to weaponize identity-based harm that characterizes her anti-trans attacks against Mouna.

Conclusion

Using slurs, oppressive language, and anti-trans rhetoric against any person, regardless of the circumstances, harms the entire marginalized group those words target. Anti-trans language endangers all trans and nonbinary people, not just the individual it is directed at. The same principle applies across all forms of identity-based language: criticize the behavior, but do not weaponize marginalization.

Mouna has never used such attacks against Tasha. Tasha’s language is documented in her own words, produced in discovery, uncontested by any party. It follows the patterns that researchers and civil rights organizations have identified as anti-trans abuse: the deceiver trope, deliberate misgendering, pathologizing of gender identity, and the weaponization of gender expression. Because Mouna is both trans and a survivor, Tasha’s anti-trans bigotry compounds the harm, and she uses that.

Tasha is a bigot. Anyone claiming otherwise is an apologist.