When a photo of Jen Bornemann at work was posted to the CDC Twitter account, America breathed a sigh of relief. The US Public Health Service employee is shown in the COVID-19 emergency operations center.
Forget Mike Pence, there’s a competent lesbian on the job and she has a lanyard. The country is saved.
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“First relief I’ve felt on the US COVID-19 response is the CDC posting this picture from their emergency operations center showing there is at least one lesbian with a keychain neck lanyard that jangles when she walks on the job,” Tabor Bain tweeted with the photo.
But an even closer examination of the photo also revealed what it said on the lanyard: “CDC Disease Detective Camp: Get Exposed!”
While the piece was bringing smiles to folks’ faces on the web, there was, of course, the group of people who responded by chastising Bain for assuming Bornemann’s gender identity and sexual orientation.
“Additionally every person that’s been like ‘how do you know she’s a lesbian how DARE you make assu-‘ has been promptly met by a firm butch going ‘hon. she’s family. I am not going to explain this to you,'” Bain joked after the tweet had gone viral.
Bornemann herself appeared on the thread and confirmed that she is a lesbian.
And she had one message for all of her new fans: wash your hands.
Proudly fighting the good fight with my lanyard. #WashYourHands
— Jen Bornemann (@JenBornemann) March 9, 2020
the lanyard from "CDC Disease Detective Camp: Get Exposed!" oh yeah that's what you focus on and keep reading over and over again as she dresses you down for bringing a drink to your workstation in a non-spillproof vessel pic.twitter.com/Fsg15Nz1qI
— taber טבור (@taber) March 9, 2020
additionally every person that's been like "how do you know she's a lesbian how DARE you make assu-" has been promptly met by a firm butch going "hon. she's family. I am not going to explain this to you."
— taber טבור (@taber) March 9, 2020
sincerely chuffed at the apparent universality of trusting a lesbian with a lanyard
— taber טבור (@taber) March 9, 2020
Tim u inspired me pic.twitter.com/hloSeN1wF6
— Mary 'Reassuring Lesbian' O'Hara (@MaryEmilyOHara) March 9, 2020
Oh thank god, we might make it.
— Dr. Karen Kelsky (@ProfessorIsIn) March 9, 2020
I'm envisioning a room filled with keychain neck lanyard wearing lesbians holding hands in a circle solving basically anything with their/our almighty power ✊
— Lara Mulady (@laramulady) March 9, 2020