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CBS News Dragged For Story On Lack Of Transgender Rights In Ukraine As Country Is Invaded

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Dylan Housman Deputy News Editor
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CBS News was caught in the Twitter crossfire Tuesday for running a story about a lack of transgender rights in Ukraine as the country is laid to waste by Russian invaders.

The story, published Tuesday, describes the plight of transgender Ukrainians as “a war within a war” that only makes matters worse as shells fly from Russian weapons systems into civilian population centers across the country. It profiles 31-year-old transgender woman Zi Faámelu, who says they can’t flee due to the threat of transphobic violence in Kyiv and surrounding countries.

Faámelu said that people outside with guns may use the war as a pretext for transphobic attacks, and that border guards may not let them leave the country because their passport identifies them as male. “This is not a very rainbow-friendly place… Lives for trans people are very bleak here. If you have a male gender in your passport, they will not let you go abroad. They will not let you through.”

Faámelu did not get their passport updated after legislation was passed in 2017 loosening requirements for changing gender on government documentation. The law requires that the patient goes through psychiatric examinations before the documents can be updated. “I don’t want to go through that. This is like, humiliating for the world,” Faámelu said. “…I decided to keep my passport, keep male in my passport, and now I cannot leave this country.”

Users on social media were quick to argue that there are perhaps bigger issues in Ukraine that CBS should be devoting resources to covering.

“As Ukraine’s cities are bombarded and invaded, we should take a moment to think about how anti-trans the country is,” tweeted conservative media critic Stephen Miller. “Ukraine is cancelled.”

“World to end, transgendered hit hardest,” said National Review’s David Harsanyi. “One cannot parody the hierarchy of priorities of the American national political press,” added the site’s Dan McLaughlin. (RELATED: Putin Told To ‘Kill Himself’ Like Hitler By Ukraine’s UN Ambassador)

Commentator Brian Sack mocked the headline with a parody of his own: “Relentless shelling is a threat to Kyiv’s vegan restaurants.” The Telegraph’s Steven Edginton posited that the western media may have supported Putin’s invasion had he promised to liberate Ukraine from transphobia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has killed an unknown number of civilians in nearly a week, as major cities including Kyiv and Kharkiv have been subjected to nearly-constant Russian attack. Both sides have suffered significant casualties, according to reports from both countries, and the international community has heavily sanctioned the Russian economy in response, causing the collapse of the Ruble.