Source: Women are Human
UK — London, England. A PhD student is under investigation for a slew of death threats on social media. The threatening posts included suggestions of going on a “terf hunt,” and creating for “target practice” a list of supporters of a woman recently arrested when an image of suffrage ribbons she retweeted was construed as a transphobic threat.
Andrea Cachia, a Brunel University-London student of Robotics Engineering who is male and self-identifies as a “trans non binary woman,” is reportedly under police investigation for posts made on the @Transalorian Twitter account between March and June.
The first known apparent threat was tweeted on the account on March 25, and uses a sexist slur for women while threatening to make an unspecified woman’s pronouns “was/were.” An attached image shows Mr Cachia pressing the side of a gun across his lips while casting a mysterious sideways gaze.
A tweet posted to the account on April 27 says, “PoV [point of view] you’re a terf who read this.” A photograph of a wide-eyed, stubbly-faced Mr Cachia pointing a gun at the camera ominously accompanies the tweet.
Another tweet, dated May 17, shows two images of guns, including a pink gun sporting a transgender symbol. “You’re going on a TERF hunt, what u takin,” the tweet reads.
Many of the remainder of Mr Cachia’s violent tweets were apparently a reaction to the case of Marion Millar.
Ms Millar, an accountant, business owner, gender-critical feminist campaigner and mother-of-two, was arrested earlier this month on suspicion of a transphobic and homophobic hate crime. The man who filed the complaint against Ms Millar purportedly told police that a photograph depicting a bow of women’s suffrage ribbons that she retweeted was actually a photograph of a noose, and put him in fear of his life as a transgender advocate who is also a gay man.
While Ms Millar is receiving support under the hashtag #WomenWontWheesht, “some reaction was hostile, with posts characterising Millar and her supporters as ‘terfs’, or trans exclusionary radical feminists,” a Times article noted. ‘TERF’ is a slur used against women who understand that there are two sexes and that humans cannot change sex.
According to the newspaper, the hostile backlash led to at least one police report, filed against a “PhD student in Coventry,” who “published a picture of a gun and tweeted: ‘Making a nice list of terfs tweeting WomenWontWheesht because she needs target practice’.”
Another tweet, posted to the account on the same date of June 3, reads: “I’m making a list / I’m checking it twice / Gonna find out who’s TERFy and who’s nice / #Transalorian is coming to town.”
A third threatening tweet posted that day is directed toward Ms Millar. “I wish this Marion lady a very Talk S*** Get Hit #WomenWontWheesht #TransRightsAreHumanRights.”
A woman tagged Brunel University to a tweet on Mr Cachia’s account, and asked what the university though of the threat to use “terfs tweeting #WomenWontWheesht” as “target practice.”
Mr Cachia interjected, tweeting, “Yes @Bruneluni what do you think about trans rights, also can we get the Airsoft society going again.”
The official account of the university responded to Mr Cachia: “Trans rights are human rights.” Met with backlash about seeming to support the mass murder of women that appeared on the top of the tweet chain, Brunel University deleted the response. A public letter of apology released by Brunel University explained that the staff member who responded to the tweet had misinterpreted the tweet’s context, and the staff member has since resigned.
University statement on threats posted on social media pic.twitter.com/VinX4SQ3Eq
— Brunel University London (@Bruneluni) June 4, 2021
A university investigation into the student is suspended pending investigation by police, the Brunel University letter said.
Twitter removed the threat to create a “terf” kill list that was earlier tweeted from the @Transalorian account, because it “violated the Twitter Rules.” The @Transalorian account remains active, but has been locked down by the account owner.
The Brunel Marxist Society, a student political organization, dismissed the terroristic threats tweeted from Mr Cachia’s account as a “joke,” and condemned Brunel University for “publically [sic] appologizing [sic] to transphobes and reporting a trans person to the bigoted police.”
On a still-active GoFundMe campaign created 18 April, 2021, Mr Cachia is requesting £5,000 in funding for “facial feminization surgery” and “bottom surgery.”
