Gay pride was the name of the game at a White House pride event on June 10, 2023, and clearly, the winner of the game was trans activist Rose Montoya. The losers, however, were undoubtedly the many guests in attendance.
President Joe Biden’s claim to fame is failing spectacularly and destroying all perceptions of American dignity whenever possible, and this event was no exception. The sitting president had already created a controversy by flying a rainbow pride flag between two American flags at the White House, but more embarrassment was on the way.
Sometime during Biden’s self-promoting monologue and a perplexing announcement that LGBTQ equality around the globe is a top priority (apparently above economics, a looming threat of World War III, and even climate change), Montoya decided to lighten the mood by removing her shirt.
Montoya, a 27-year-old model, influencer, actor, educator, and trans activist, was at the event to celebrate pride month, along with hundreds of other guests.
For Montoya, it started innocently with a tweet about her joy over the White House flying a rainbow flag for the first time ever. She posed for a selfie with the president and should have quietly enjoyed the rest of her day without incident alongside her friends and allies.
But “quiet” is seldom the path chosen by influencers or by transgender persons at a pride event.
Montoya sparked outrage when she removed her top for a video, exposing and jiggling her breasts alongside two “transmasculine” friends who were displaying their scars following the removal of their own breasts.
Montoya has described her motivation as an act of joy, celebrating the transgender community.
“I wanted to be fully free in myself,” Montoya said in a video tweet. “I had zero intention of trying to be vulgar or be profane in any way. I was simply living in joy, living my truth, and existing in my body. Happy Pride, free the nipple.”
“Freeing the nipple” is not a welcomed activity at the White House, however, and Montoya has been banned from future events.
White House Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was, for once, primed and ready for the inevitable questions surrounding the incident. When asked about the impromptu burlesque show at the event, she expounded on the verbiage found in the statement issued by the White House.
“The behavior was simply unacceptable. We’ve been very clear about that,” Jean-Pierre explained. “It was unfair to the hundreds of attendees who were there to celebrate their families. So, you know, we’re going to continue to be clear on that and that type of behavior is, as I said, unacceptable, it’s not appropriate, it’s disrespectful, and let’s not… it really does not reflect the event that we hosted to celebrate the LGBTQ+ families, again hundreds of families who were here to celebrate their community and who were here in attendance. So, um, look, individuals in the video certainly will not be invited to future events.”
She then found it necessary to point out that this has never happened before during the president’s term. “And this has not occurred before, right? This was not a normal thing that has happened under this administration, but we’ve been very clear about how we saw this particular behavior.”
Montoya inexplicitly defended her actions on Tik Tok by stating, “I would just like to say that first of all, going topless in Washington, D.C., is legal,” going on to add “Why is my chest deemed inappropriate or illegal when I show it off, however, before coming out as trans, it was not.”
While D.C. law does not explicitly forbid toplessness, it is understood that decency dictates females keep their shirts on. The law states, “It shall not be lawful for any person or persons to make any obscene or indecent exposure of his or her person, or to make any lewd, obscene, or indecent sexual proposal, or to commit any other lewd, obscene, or indecent act in the District of Columbia.”
A female removing her shirt, even a biological male whose transition includes breasts, is considered an indecent act by most rational people. Apparently, the laws need to be rewritten for a generation that sees no problem with crossing the line every chance it can and has no working definition of the concept of “indecent.”
Transgender females want to be accepted as females and enjoy equal women’s rights. In their quest for equality, they might need to be reminded that there are consequences along with the rights. To be considered truly equal, they must completely accept their new lifestyle, including the drawbacks that come along with their new identities.
Keeping one’s top on at a White House function is one such drawback for females, both biological and transitioned. “Freeing the nipples” is, at least for the foreseeable future, frowned upon on the Capitol lawn.
As Americans, we are just grateful the president remembers to wear pants.
