Tiffany Pollard Defends Transphobia With More Transphobia

After going full-on transphobic attack mode against one of the contestants on the reality TV show One Mo’ Chance, Tiffany Pollard has once again returned to the anti-trans well in a statement she released on social media.

In a December 13 episode of the show, which sees women competing to win the heart of rapper Kamal "Chance" Givens, Pollard was seen confronting one of the women, Tiffany Walker. It was Pollard's job to make sure the contestants were a good fit for Givens.

"You weren’t very forthcoming with me," Pollard started their conversation. "You didn’t shed any light on the questions that I had and I feel like you have a situation, and I do believe that you are a man."

Walker, who is cisgender, looked as shocked as I did watching it. "Um...I know I am not," she replied. Pollard asked about Walker’s genitals and then sent her home because she felt that Walker wasn’t bothered by the questions or defending her gender enough.

After fans and viewers started calling out Pollard for her nonsensical transphobia, she made a statement on Instagram trying to defend herself.

"I don’t have a transphobic bone in my body," Pollard said in the video. "I love and respect everyone in the community. You guys always show up and show out for me. And the love is real."

She went on to explain that the woman in the clip was not trans, and therefore it was not transphobia (not how it works). She also defended herself saying she gets called a man when out in public regularly (not an excuse).

"Me calling her a man, it wasn’t really, like, anything disrespectful. It was just me enduring and actually, you know, going through what I go through on a regular basis and just putting that on her to see how she can handle it," she said. 

While most would argue that Walker handled it very well, she was still kicked off the show.

Pollard wrapped up her statement saying that she was not trying to diss trans women when she called a "heterosexual hereditary woman" a man.

I may be neither heterosexual nor hereditary, but this apology doesn’t quite work for me. Nowhere in it is an actual apology or any kind of understanding or acknowledgment that what she said was hurtful.

Trans activist Munroe Bergdorf replied to the apology video, saying, "Referring to trans women as men and interrogating them about their genitalia is transphobic. Whether it was your intention or not." She went on to say, "It's a shame to see that you don't understand the harm your actions have caused. You have so many queer fans, you owe it to them to do better. Hold yourself accountable and educate yourself."

LGBTQ+ celebrities, like Drag Race alum Bob the Drag Queen and nonbinary musician Shamir, also took to Twitter to comment.

"Tiffany Pollard I’m DONE," Bob tweeted. "I really thought you were an ally. I’m fully gagged right now."

Shamir added, "Not Tiffany Pollard’s apology being more transphobic than the actual offense." 

Pollard still needs to apologize.