Cruel conservatives mock bearded woman with transphobic insults

Conservatives are now mocking Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg, a queer woman with a beard, calling her a “man pretending to be a woman” and other transphobic insults.

Rosenberg appeared on CNN to discuss the Israel-Hamas war, and instead of engaging with her ideas, the right is insulting her appearance. Five to 10% of cis women in the U.S. grow beards and Rosenberg chooses not to shave hers.

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“Man pretending to be a woman also pretends to be a rabbi,” hate influencer Chaya Raichik — who runs the LibsofTikTok account on X — wrote with a screenshot of Rosenberg’s picture.

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“Sir, Halloween was nearly a month ago,” wrote conservative pundit Riley Gaines, an athlete who has based her entire conservative speaking career around the fact that she once tied for fifth place in a swimming competition with University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas.

Oli London — a white man who drew media attention and widespread criticism in 2022 when he publicly identified as “trans-racial” and admitted to having extensive cosmetic surgery to look like South Korean pop stars — called Rosenberg a “transgender bearded ‘Rabbi'” and insisted that she is “a male,” even though she is not. He also said that she works for an organization funded by Jewish philanthropist George Soros, a figure in many right-wing and antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Outkick, a conservative sports site run by the Fox Corporation, called Rosenberg “a transgender with a beard” and used he/him pronouns to refer to her.

This isn’t even the first time conservatives have mocked her for her appearances in the past month. Several weeks ago, she heckled President Joe Biden at a campaign event in Minneapolis. Conservative talk show host Megyn Kelly called her “a man pretending to be a woman” who was “pretending to be a rabbi too.” Kelly is Catholic.

“I’m so proud to be a queer and visibly gender non-conforming femme woman who could take that action,” Rosenberg told Mother Jones about her heckling of Biden. “Let all, especially SWANA [Southwest Asia and North Africa] and Jewish bearded femmes see ourselves in power and unafraid.”

Editor’s note: A previous version of this article assumed that Rosenberg is cisgender, which was not confirmed. We regret making an assumption about someone’s identity without confirmation.