Far-right pundits already saying Laphonza Butler was only appointed because she’s a Black lesbian

This past weekend, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) appointed longtime union organizer, feminist activist, and political advisor Laphonza Butler to fill the Senate seat left open after the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) passed away last week.

It didn’t take long for conservative pundits to notice that she is not a straight, cisgender white man and use that to attack her, saying that she is unqualified and was only picked because of her identity, despite the fact that she is the current president of the reproductive freedom organization EMILY’s List – one of the biggest political advocacy groups in the country – a former advisor to several of Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaigns, a former member of the University of California Board of Regents, and the former president of SEIU United Long Term Care Workers, among other things.

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Butler is Black, a woman, and a lesbian. There are currently 24 women in the Senate, even though about half the population is women. There are only three Black U.S. senators, even though about 12% of the population is Black. And there are only two out LGBTQ+ people in the Senate, even though Gallup found that around 7% of the population is LGBTQ+.

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To most people, the fact that all three groups are underrepresented is a sign that, generally, voters and party establishments and other factors favor straight white men unfairly, helping them get into high office more easily and at the expense of other people. But to far-right pundits, anyone who is not a straight white man getting into any position of power is proof enough that they aren’t qualified and were solely picked because of their identity.

“So Gavin Newsom put himself in a corner because he said, look, it gonna have, it’s gonna be an affirmative action pick,” said Charlie Kirk of the far-right organization Turning Point USA. He then named two Black women whose names he does know – Oprah Winfrey and Meghan Markle – and said that Newsom should have picked them instead of the president of EMILY’s List.

“I can’t keep track of all the different identity politics stuff. Because Kamala Harris, they say is Black, but she’s also part Indian and part Jamaican,” he continued, insisting that “skin color means nothing to me, it’s completely irrelevant.”

“The name that we all know, Laphonza Butler. Not Oprah, not Meghan Markle. I know, I know, who the heck is Laphonza Butler? I never heard of Laphonza Butler before, so I have no idea if Laphonza Butler is a scholar, a smart person, but I’m always gonna think like, eh, I don’t know if she’s really qualified because she was selected merely for her characteristics that don’t matter.”

“Now, Laphonza Butler is also another thing. She’s also lesbian. So you have the Black, you have female, you have lesbian. I mean, she is the high priestess of the oppression Olympics.”

“Look at her. I mean, you’ve never seen a person as oppressed as Laphonza Butler. In fact, they needed to find a way to try to appoint a Black female, happen to be lesbian, that they couldn’t even find one in California.”

The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro at least acknowledged that he knew who Butler is, saying that “all she does is abortion,” but said that her appointment is “demonstrative, once again, of the fact that the way to get ahead inside the Democratic Party is to have some pretty excellent intersectional credentials.”

BEN SHAPIRO on Gavin Newsom appointing Laphonza Butler to represent California in the U.S. Senate: "all she does is abortion" pic.twitter.com/dwraTqm3F1

— Ari Drennen (@AriDrennen) October 2, 2023

Conservative podcaster Steve Crowder decided to go after Butler’s first name, which is a tactic often used by white people to demean the personhood of Black people.

“We researched it, just because you don’t wanna- we don’t wanna- look, it’s important, cultural differences,” he said. “Laphonza Butler, now, which, also, Laphonza Butler in Swahili means nothing. It’s a made up name.”

“There is, Laphonza means nothing. It’s something that African-Americans, Black Americans make up, and actually has no meaning. You guys can fact check me on that below.”

He then imitated what he thought a Black person’s voice sounds like and joked that she was named after Fonzie from Happy Days.

Then Crowder said that she is unqualified and was only picked because she’s a Black lesbian.

“Here are her qualifications for the role: she’s Black, she’s a lesbian, and she’s president of EMILY’s List, a pro-abortion organization,” he said.