October 17, 2019

Elizabeth Warren Trans Rights Activist Surrogate Called Out for Racist, Homophobic Tweets

Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.

Trans rights advocate Ashlee Marie Preston was showcased in an Elizabeth Warren campaign video recently, declaring herself "not afraid of the fight." Now she's got one. Preston has been called out for past tweets expressing racist and homophobic sentiments, report media sources.

In the Warren campaign video, Preston describes herself as having felt "failed" and "abandoned" by the political process, "as many Americans have," and said that the Warren campaign offers a chance for Americans to look away from "Democracy on its death bed" during the Trump era and toward a new sense of "hope."

Though Preston was reportedly scheduled to appear at a CNN town hall, it was decided that she would not speak at the event. Preston opted not to attend at all, media sources said, rather than to be there and not be allowed to offer her comments.

The Washington Examiner took note of the story, reporting on how Preston had tweeted out a message in 2010 in which she complained about "Latin and Asian businessmen" being "rude" and telling them to "speak fukn English."

The following year, reports , Preston send out a tweet in which she took a county clerk to task, calling him a "mahfakkan faggot" for his appearance, which she described as including "rockn jewels, acrylic nails, and silk scarves #andshit".

Those tweets were deleted, reported Business Insider, but screenshots were preserved and circulated by others.

This week, Preston followed up with an Oct. 14 tweet in which she referenced a period in her life when she was in the throes of "meth addiction" and "made a series of racially insensitive and homophobic tweets."

Preston titled the tweet "Taking accountability for the past, staying rooted in the present, and absorbing lessons for the future."

"I wasn't out yet, and was dealing with internalized transphobia," Preston explained, "while homeless in a neighborhood where I felt culturally inferior."

Preston went on to say that at that time she was "tweeting from an impaired conscious [sic]" and added that, "Although those tweets were resurfaced as a political play; [sic] I take full responsibility for my actions and deeply apologize to those I've offended or hurt."

The Los Angeles Blade questioned whether such sentiments were firmly behind Preston, citing a 2018 tweet in which she called an unnamed person a "furry slipper wearing ass fuck boy" and a "dick rider".

by Kilian Melloy

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