The Daily Signal - Tweet on Superman's Bisexual Son Ignites Cancel Culture Fight

Episode Date: November 8, 2021

"What if Christian parents of children reading comic books don’t want their kids exposed to bisexual characters?" Sophia Nelson thought it was a reasonable question in the wake of DC Comics' announcement that Superman's son, Jon Kent, would have a pink-haired boyfriend in an upcoming comic. Nelson, a scholar-in-residence at Christopher Newport University in Virginia and a bestselling author, never expected her Oct. 11 tweet to ignite her own ordeal with cancel culture. Students petitioned, professors protested, and the university's president—a former Republican U.S. senator from Virginia—acquiesced to the pressure rather than defending Nelson. Today, Nelson joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to share her concerns about cancel culture, fear of returning to campus, and what she has planned next. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Monday, November 8th. I'm Rob Bluey. And I'm Virginia Allen. On today's show, Rob talks with Sophia Nelson, a scholar in residence at Christopher Newport University. She is speaking out against cancel culture after an angry mob of students and professors attacked her for questioning Superman's bisexual son. We also read your letters to the editor and share a good news story about a group of dads who are stepping up to meet the needs of kids in their community in a unique way. Before we get to today's show, Rob and I want to tell you about the only annual non-governmental assessment of U.S. military power, the newly released Heritage Foundation 2020 Index of Military Strength. The Index provides both government officials and the public with the facts about our military, such as the ease or difficulty of operating in key regions, the presence of U.S. military forces, and the condition of key infrastructure.

To learn more about the new 2022 Index of Military Strength, just visitheritage.org slash military. Now stay tuned for today's show coming up next. We are joined on the Daily Signal podcast by Sophia Nelson, a scholar in residence at Christopher Newport University in Virginia and a best-selling author. Sophia, welcome back to the show. Hey, it's great to be with you. I always love being on this podcast. Well, we last spoke shortly before COVID in early 2020, and boy, the world has changed.

changed a lot since then. And unfortunately, you're here today to talk about a problem on college campuses that many people have experienced, and now you yourself have encountered it, cancel culture. And The Daily Signal recently highlighted your story, but for those listeners who are not familiar with it, I'd like to just start by having you tell us what happened and how you became the target of this angry mob at Christopher Newport. Well, again, thank you for having me because I think what you do in the world do this podcasts and your stories are important to highlight that there are things going on in our great country that we need to really pay attention to as Americans and as citizens, most of all.

And I am a professor normally at the university, and this year I had the honor and distinction of becoming Christopher Newport University's first black female scholar in residence in the history of the school. So a great honor. and everything was going well there to build a women's institute of politics, policy, and gender. And next thing you know, I sent off a tweet. A tweet, you guys be mindful of what you're tweeting. I sent off a tweet on Coming Out Day, which I had no idea that it was National Coming Out Day.

I wouldn't. But anyway, I tweeted there was a story from D.C. comic books that in honor of this day, they were going to make Superman and Lois Lane's son bisexual. And in the graphic that they tweeted out, there was an image of the young boy, Superman's son, in a Superman costume and grabbing another boy and kissing him. Well, I reacted to it, as did, by the way, millions of people on Twitter had the same reaction I did, which is first, wait a minute, what?

And then the second thing I asked was, okay, how do Christian parents tell their kids about this? Because the truth is most of them don't know how to talk about this. And that was my question. I asked the question. And I got a lot of thoughtful responses back. Some, you know, unkind responses. That's what you expect with these things.

I mean, you banter back and forth on social media. But what I didn't expect was that a group of LGBTQ plus professors, and one professor in particular who really declares herself as bisexual, took offense at this. And they brought my tweet in the public domain, my free speech, my protected speech, into the university sphere, and began an assault like nothing I've ever been through.

They've got a petition with over a thousand signatures to have me removed from my position. They want me out. I've gotten hate mail. I've gotten threats. So much that I made a decision that I was not going to return back to the school to have a meeting with students,

which is what I always intended to do. after I apologized, by the way, publicly and took the tweet down, and it wasn't enough. And so we're at a stalemate nail is what I call it where both sides are kind of retreated to their corners. And it's just an awful experience I've been through. This is awful. I have no words. I think that for people who are Christian or conservative and see this, and as a parent myself,

seeing this in a comic strip, it didn't seem to me like it wasn't. an unreasonable thing for you to ask. So tell us about what prompted you to even, even, you know, do the tweet in the first place and, and some context around it. Well, as I mentioned, it was a national coming out day. So I probably didn't pick my timing, right? Because I can get that for the LGBTQ plus community, look, you and I are Christians, we're conservatives. That doesn't mean we don't love and care about people because we do. And I get that this community has a hard time. I get that. I've learned a lot. I've heard from students. I get that they deal with self-esteem issues and all those things. And representation matters. Look, Rob, when Black Panther came out, we loved it. The black community was excited, but not just the black community. Black Panther was the biggest superhero, billion-dollar blockbuster they've ever had. The whole world was excited for this character. And so I get it. But let me say that the context of what I was talking about, Rob, you can't cherry pick a tweet because there were 10 of them. And if you read all 10 in the thread, and they're all still

there except for the first one I deleted with the Superman response, was over sexualization of children. I made it clear. I talk about this in the letter. I talk about it in my video address. I made it clear that I was talking about kids, pre-teens teens, being exposed to this type of sexualization with a one young boy grabbing another and kissing him, I don't think that's appropriate. I don't think it's appropriate for heterosexuals. I don't think it's appropriate for, I wouldn't want to see a character with a big cross around his neck flying through the air as super Christian. At the end of the day, I was talking about the sexualization of our young people and how

much they are exposed now, Robin, your dad, I'm an aunt, two things that you and I were not exposed to. They can get pornography on their phones. They can get things that you have to be very careful. And for me, I just don't want kids to be sexualized. I want them to be kids. I want them to be happy. I want him to see Superman, you know, rescuing buildings and rescuing earth and saving people and something positive and affirming in their lives. And I don't think we should be injecting sexuality and all that kind of stuff, again, whether it's heterosexual or homosexual. And that was the context and it was a great debate and people had thoughtful comments and there were people from the LGBT plus community who wrote back and said well let me tell you how you should talk

about it with your kids if you're inclined to do so here's some tips and they were thoughtful they weren't being nasty mean or unkind nobody thought my tweet was bad nobody thought my tweet was evil i did not get putting the jail by twitter i did not get my tweet flagged uh hello if I had said something homophobic or whatever, I would have been shut down pretty quickly by Twitter because, as you know, Congressman Banks got thrown off the Twitter what a few weeks ago over a transgender issue tweet

and they shut him down immediately because his speech was deemed hate speech. Again, we can talk about that on another podcast, but you get my point. So that's really the context. I was talking about protecting our kids, all kids, from being exposed to sexuality too early.

That's all. That's really what it was about. It's a concern that I think a lot of parents share, particularly in today's media environment, parents need to be more vigilant than ever. And as we apparently now know, even with our comic books, it's creeping in. Sophia, you are somebody who has been in the public spotlight as an author, as a commentator, as somebody who is a prolific tweeter. I mean, in this experience that you've had, what was your first reaction when you heard about the petition and saw some of your colleagues at Christopher Newport making the kinds of statements that they did?

Well, my reaction was candidly shock, horror, but then it became outrage because then the Sophia Nelson, you know, and the one that I am at my court, which is the lover of the Constitution, the attorney, the scholar, kicked in and said, wait a minute, hold up. They can't do this. He can't chill my speech. my speech, it had nothing to do with the university. My speech, it had nothing to do with the students. I asked a question. And I think most egregious of all of this, and it's been pointed out in many media articles about this situation at CNU, is that President Paul Tribble, who, by the way, I respect, I admire, and considered a mentor. You know, he used to be a Republican senator from the Commonwealth of Virginia, a U.S. senator, a congressman, family long, deep roots in the

Commonwealth of Virginia. And for Paul Tribble to send out the letter that he did to students, which you have a copy of, and it was in your story, basically throwing me under the bus and saying how bad what I said was and I caused damage and I caused pain. And no

balance in the note to say, hey guys, yes, we're going to gather to talk about this because that's what universities do. We dialogue. We discuss. We debate. We engage. Instead, it was, you know, she's going to come here. She's going to talk. We're going to listen. and you're going to talk, she's going to listen.

And that was back on October 18th, before things had really escalated. And they just ignored that. That wasn't good enough for them either that I got thrown under the bus and said how bad of a person and being that I am. And they just ratcheted up. They had protests. I was silenced for three weeks. I wasn't allowed to speak. I tried.

Trust me, I tried to call in. I tried to attend some of these forums. I asked for a virtual meeting. Everything I suggested was denied. The student paper had made a deal. with me to have an open letter so that I could address the student body, also a Q&A with students and faculty, that all of a sudden disappeared for reasons beyond their control, but they gave the agreed angry professor who identifies as bisexual a platform over and over and over again,

as did the school. So I've gone from being upset, hurt, and disappointed to really outraged and I'm going to do something about this, and I'm not going to let this stand. This is happening at the University of Florida. It's happened at MIT. It's happened at Yale at Princeton. It's happened at schools all over the country. And it's happening a lot because when people don't like your speech, they don't just say, I don't like what you said. Or I'm offended by what you said. Let's talk about it. They say, we're going to wreck you. We're going to throw you out. We're going to harass you, intimidate you. We're going to make sure you never work again. We're going to make sure your reputation is damaged on the internet so that when people now Google me, Rob, what they see is homophobic, anti-gay, transphobic,

racist. That's one of the labels I got. Yes, me, a black woman. I'm a racist. And then they added anti-Semitic. I don't know if the Superman character maybe was Jewish. I don't know. I'm being very serious. I don't know where that comes from. Or maybe because the professor who leveled these ridiculous charges and brought this into the university is Jewish. I have no idea. But now anti-Semitic has been added. So this is what happens to you when you're conservative or you're a person of faith or you have a different opinion or point of view. This is what they do to you. Some people would simply shut down their Twitter account, resign their position, never be heard from again.

You're obviously not backing down. You are still actively tweeting. You're trying to engage people to explain to them why you posted what you did even after the fact. You're not intimidated. And I think that that's a great example. But what gives you the courage to be able to do that? And what advice do you have for others as they may find themselves in a similar situation? Listen, you know this about me.

Anybody that's known me and watched me for the last 20 years. And I've been in the public sphere on television and with books, et cetera, for 20 years. I'm not afraid of anything or anyone. I am a military kid. I'm a working class kid. I'm a black female and yeah I'll let that just kind of stay there for a moment

and just say I'm not afraid of anyone or anything I've worked for everything I've gotten in my life there was no privilege here there was no nobody gave me anything I worked for it that's number one so I'm not going to be afraid of some Twitter trolls or some Ivy League smug

academics who think that they're going to tell me or anybody else what to say that's number one number two this is America and we have not just free speech. And no, all speech is not protected. All speech is something that I think we're going to have to dialogue about, right? Like, what should we say and what shouldn't we say in the context of when we're professors or when we're doctors or when we're in a position of public trust?

I think we all know that we shouldn't use racial slurs. We shouldn't use gender slurs. I don't think any of us thinks that's okay. I didn't do anything of the sort. I ask a question. And so it goes to the heart and soul of this, which is, if in America I cannot ask a question about Christian parents' rights, I see LGBTQ plus people daily, daily denigrate on Twitter, on Facebook Christian people all the time. And nobody gets their job called up. Nobody gets told they need to be removed.

People are afraid of this community. I'm going to say it. I've gotten calls from all over the country, emails, encouragement, a good friend of mine, and this is an important story to share quickly, who is in HR at a big oil and gas company in Texas. I won't say which one. Called to share a story that they had a similar situation happening at the job where a member of the LGBTQ plus community was upset about something offended because they tried to help the person correct their work product.

They're smart, good person, but they need. needed some help as all young people do in their careers. And when this person went to mentor and to help, offense was taken. See, we're in our feelings again, right? A fence was taken instead of saying, hey, thank you for this. Thank you for coaching me. Thank you for helping me to be better. This person filed a complaint against the chief human resource officer, who, by the way, was a woman of color also, who tried to help. Didn't she explain how she had to go through this massive investigation? Luckily, she was exonerated. Nothing was done.

It was found to be frivolous. But my point is, and this is important, Rob, if we're raising a generation of young people, whether they be gay, black, white, Latino, Asian, whatever, who are so frail and so fragile that they can't have discussion, that they can't have debate, that they can't express their feelings with their words

without calling names and saying, I want your job, and I'm going to recognize. you and I'm going to destroy you. If this is the kind of generation we're raising, we are in very serious trouble. Because folks, you cannot lead with your feelings. You have to lead with facts. And in this case, I asked a question. And the school's general counsel has been clear from day one with the university. And I know this because it was shared with me by the people who have to keep me a prize of things, that the general counsel was clear on two things with Christopher Newport. One, Ms. Nelson's speech on her Twitter feed was protected. Number one. Number two,

she said nothing that had anything to do with this school. It's students, its faculty, or anyone. Now, none of that has been respected, as you know, because clearly they made a decision that they were going to coddle this community. They were going to let them come at me with everything on earth and run me over like a truck and not let me speak. And think of the danger of that, that someone who's had a stellar career I have for 25 plus years in the public sphere. And now my name is associated with homophobic, transphobic. I can tell you, Rob, that I've had speaking engagements canceled already. I will lose work behind this.

This will hurt me when I go to corporate America to talk because they'll see that I attack the LGBTQ plus community and I did nothing of the sort. and then I will take a hit, not just at the school where my name is mud and no one likes me and wants me there, but I'll take a hit and everything else I try to do in my life because this group has too much power. And if we continue to allow this to happen, today it's me, Rob, tomorrow it's you, and people need to really think about that. Sophia, you wrote a lengthy open letter, which we will make sure to link to in the interview. I'm wondering, first of all, how was that received on campus? Do you think that it helped people understand the issue perhaps more clearly? And secondly, you were supposed to go to campus on November 9th and have an open dialogue.

And you've since said it's not even safe to do so, given that it's been publicized. So I wanted to give you an opportunity to talk both about the letter and that appearance. So two things. The letter has sent shockwaves, as you can imagine, not just on campus because it has been also linked in articles like yours in the Virginia pilot, other national media, AP, et cetera. And I've had professors who are afraid, and I've been saying this for weeks, contact me, apologize that they signed either the petition or the first protest by this professor, which was on October 15. she filed a Title IX complaint against me for discrimination and violating human rights. And so when people heard from me and heard how, not only did I apologize twice, took the tweet down for people who weren't on Twitter, but to see the extraordinary efforts I made to talk to students to get there and how my voice was silence, people were angry.

And students have contacted me. Students have said, well, can I call you one-on-one then because I really wanted to see you on campus? and I get now why you wouldn't want to come here. I think the second thing is, so I think it's been very positive and I think it's been revealing to people because for three weeks, I wasn't doing any talking

and the students and the agree faculty were the only ones doing the talking. I think in the second instance of why I didn't go to campus, two really important points. I didn't go to campus because after I saw the petition in a news article,

I think it was a Fox News article, and I finally saw the petitioning, against me and it said, we want her removed and condemned for her racist and homophobic speech. That was a deal breaker for me. One, you've already got a thousand signatures against me to have me removed. You've already made a decision before you ever heard me speak a word that you didn't like me and didn't want me there. You've called me racist.

You've called me homophobic. Why would I sit down in dialogue with people who've already made their mind up and labeled me and damaged my character and reputation? That's the first thing. Secondly, the vile emails and things that I've gotten that the university has in their possession and is fully aware of, I've talked to the campus police chief emailed each other, not physically talked. I've said that I didn't feel safe. I've asked them what they were going to do to protect me for weeks, and I got no response. So why would I go to a school?

And it might not be that a student would try to hurt me or do something like that. I don't believe that's true, but what about some aggrieved person in the community? What about someone who doesn't like my stance or doesn't understand faith and why? Ask the question decides she should be removed from the face of this earth. I mean, Rob, you and I both know that any journalist, whether you're on Fox, MSNBC, CNN, wherever you are, if you write opinion pieces, we get death threats routinely now. That is a part of all of our territory now. All of us gets it. So being threatened isn't a new thing, but they publicized the date without asking me, and that really upset me, frankly, because there were security concerns raised not just by my team, but by the university.

Dina's students wasn't sure it was wise to have me come there. And at the end of the day, I made a decision in my family. I had to think about my family. And my 75-year-old mother was in tears and was like, I don't want you to go there and they hurt you. It's not worth it. So I made a decision to err with caution. It doesn't mean I won't talk to students at some point. But what I know right now is that they're not interested in dialogue or respect or listening.

What they want me to do, Rob has come to campus so they can yell at me some more. Tell me how bad I am. Tell me how wrong I am. And that really bothers me because free thought is the essence of America. Free faith, free thought, free thought, free soul. speech, free assembly. Freedom is who we are in this country. And we are losing that because of progressivism and all these other woke things.

And yeah, I'm saying it out loud because I just don't care. It has to stop because it's wrecking the United States of America as we know it. And we're not setting our kids up for success. If what we're teaching them is when your feelings get hurt, you say things like, I'm unsafe. I'm triggered. I'm traumatized. From a tweet, from a tweeted question about a fictional comic book character, you are traumatized by this? Sophia, before, as we wrap up here, if people want to follow your work, what's the best way for them to be able to do it?

I know you're the author of three books. You've got a new book coming out, I think, next year. So what's the best way that they can stay in touch with you? They can go to I am sophia nelson.com, which is my website. But, you know, if you want to have fun in your day from the moment you wake up until you go to bed, get on my Twitter feed. I am Sophia Nelson. And look, Rob, I really enjoy talking to you. You're such a great host, by the way.

And I appreciate the work that you do. But it's all about engaging and having fun and being respectful and being provocative. And that's how we learn from each other. So folks, engage, get engaged. Ask the hard questions. Ask the provocative questions. And then wait respectfully for a response and engage. So, Rob, I just appreciate you.

you. I appreciate heritage. I appreciate all you're doing. And I know that we're going to have more to talk about soon on all of this front. So I'm looking forward to it. Well, that's great advice for all our citizens. I think we need more particularly parents engaged in their own kids' lives, but every citizen should get engaged and encourage them to follow you and your work. And we'll keep tabs on this story, Sophia. We welcome you back in the future as things develop and wish you all the best and hopefully no more incidents of cancel culture at Christopher Newport. No, but I do know it's going to be addressed and I do know that this is not going to go away and I do know that my constitutional rights are at stake as well as yours. So if God has put me in this moment, and I've said this on

Twitter, if God has put me in this moment, I will stand in this moment and I will be a freedom fighter for this new, what I call this new America that is developing because of our racial and demographic changes, et cetera. And I'm going to fight for those founding principles that I believe in And free thought, not free speech, but free thought is at the essence core of who we are. And I am not going to let this moment pass without me making sure that they know that they should never, ever do this to anybody again, and that I was the wrong one for them to do this to. Sophia Nelson, thanks so much for being with the Daily Signal podcast. Thank you.

Americans use firearms to defend themselves between 500,000 and 2 million times every year. But God forbid that my mother is. ever faced with a scenario where she has to stop a threat to her life. But if she is, I hope politicians protected by professional armed security didn't strip her of the right to use the firearm she can handle most competently. To watch the rest of heritage expert Amy Swearer's testimony on assault weapons before the House Judiciary Committee head to the Heritage Foundation YouTube channel. There you'll find talks, events, and documentaries backed with the reputation of the nation's most broadly supported public policy research institute.

Start watching now at heritage.org slash YouTube. And don't forget to subscribe and share. Thanks for sending us your letters to the editor. Each Monday we feature our favorites on this show. Virginia, who's up first? In response to Sarah Partial Perry's commentary piece, Texas Heartbeat Act again before Supreme Court, here's what you need to know. Harold Harmon of Georgia writes, I read your article today about the Texas Heartbeat Act with great interest. Being pro-life, I was encouraged and pray that abortion is eliminated. I'm impressed and thankful for all the Heritage Foundation does. I follow the daily signal every day and love it. Thank you and keep up the good work. And we received this five-star review

on Apple Podcast from Kelly, who writes, I learned a lot from your interview with investigative journalist James Simpson. Near the end, he mentions that the goal of these communist groups is to establish their communist vision for America. I'd love to hear more about what exactly that vision is, so we know simply how it compares to the founding principles of this great nation. Thanks again for these important podcasts. Your letter could be featured on next week's show, so send us an email at Letters at DailySignal.com.

Virginia Allen here, I want to tell you all about one of my favorite podcasts. Heritage Explains is a weekly podcast that breaks down all the policy issues we hear about in the news at a 101 level. Hosts Michelle Cordero and Tim Desher mix in news clips and music to tell a story, but also bring in heritage experts to help break down complex issues. Heritage Explains offers quick 10 to 50 minute explainers that bring you up to speed in an entertaining way. You can find them on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or more. wherever you listen to your podcast. We even put the full episode on YouTube. Virginia, over to you for today's good news story. Thank you so much, Rob. A group of dads in Tree Point, Louisiana, have taken it upon themselves to stop the violence at the local high school.

After 23 students were arrested for fighting at Southwood High School in a matter of three days, many students were scared to go to school. Father Michael Lafitte says his 16-year-old daughter, was visibly shaken over the violence. So on a Sunday night in September, he and four other dads formed a plan for how they could step in and keep students safe at school. Lafitte recently told the story

of how dads on duty was formed during an interview on the Drew Barrymore show. So opposed to other people stepping in, this group of fathers here, we just decided to say, you know what, let us be the first ones to take back our campus. who other than to step in the gap and to parent our kids than the actual parents. With permission from the school, they formed Dads on Duty to act as a patrol at the school.

And on Monday morning, the five dads showed up on campus. Dads on Duty has now grown into a group of fathers who take shifts at the school every day. Michael Morgan is one of the original five fathers who formed Dads on Duty. He says the kids were a little resistant. to the dad being on campus at first, but that changed quickly, he told Barrymore. When we first got there, we kind of received a little rebellion, but it was because of the fact that they hadn't seen love. Now the kids are, the students are more so responding to us. We learned that some of the children come to school with issues at the home. So when we talk to

them, we try to fresh open them up and we try to let them know that we love them. And now we're starting to get students. I went to a game the other night and I had probably 50 students walk up to me. Just saying how much that they appreciated you know, that we were there. After CBS News did a story on Dad's on Duty, the video went

viral. Now other schools and districts are asking how they can create a similar program. Dad's on Duty father, David Telsi, says they are excited to watch the program continue to grow. We are planning to expand and moved to other parishes and other districts.

And we have, I think it's like, I think about 40 dads at this time. There has not been an incident of violence at Louisiana's Southwood High School since the fathers arrived on campus. Students told CBS News that having the dads there has changed everything. I immediately felt a form of safety. We stopped fighting. People started going to class. The dads have no plans of stopping their work.

They have launched a go-fund meet. to help keep the program going. You can contribute to that program by searching for Dads on Duty USA GoFundMe. Virginia, it's so good to hear about the work that these fathers are doing. I'm a big supporter of having parents involved in their kids' education, and this is literally taking it right to the schools to make sure that they're safe and they're getting what they need at school. Absolutely.

I love what one of the dads said, Michael Lafitte, he said, you know, this is really the role. Who better to take care of our kids? than us, the parents. And gosh, that is so true. Yeah. Well, let's hope other fathers and mothers step up and do the same. Absolutely. But we're going to leave it there for today. You can find the Daily Signal podcast and the Rikishie Audio Network.

All of our shows can be found at daily signal.com slash podcasts. You can also subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app. And be sure to listen every weekday by adding the Daily Signal podcast as part of your Alexa Flash briefing. If you like what you hear, please leave us a review at a five-star rating. It means a lot to us and helps us spread the word to other listeners. And be sure to follow us on Twitter at DailySignal and Facebook.com slash the DailySignal News. We hope you have a great week. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation.

It is executive produced by Rob Blewey and Virginia Allen. Sound design by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. For more information, visit DailySignal.com.