After being kicked out of her home by her family last year for being a lesbian, 18-year-old Helena Duke outed her Trump-supporting family members, who were spotted in a violent exchange in Washington D.C., last week.
"Hi mom," she tweeted. "Remember the time you told me I shouldn’t go to BLM protests bc they could get violent...this you?"
According to Buzzfeed News, Helena noticed that her mother had turned off her phone location and wondered if she went to the nation's capital for the "Stop the Steal" rally, which devolved into a violent mom at the U.S. Capitol.
Her suspicions were confirmed when Helena's cousin sent her a video of a physical encounter from last Tuesday, the day before the riot. In the clip, Helena's mom, aunt, and uncle are part of a mob harassing a Black woman. And her mother, Therese, appears to swipe at the woman's phone. She's promptly punched in the face and begins to bleed.
“Before President Trump was elected, she was a Democrat for the majority of her life,” said Helena. “And then, I don’t know what happened. Something switched in her brain, and she went through a very dramatic change to very far right.” The mother falsely believes Black Lives Matter to be a “violent organization and they would be inciting violence,” according to her daughter. And eventually, Helena was kicked out of the house for attending a BLM protest.
In the now massively viral tweet, Helena publically identified and called out her family members for their hypocrisy.
“Hi this is the liberal lesbian of the family who has been kicked out multiple times for her views and for going to BLM protests,” Duke tweeted Thursday as she identified her mom, aunt, and uncle in the photos.
“I always felt almost heartbroken over how they viewed the world and how skewed it was and how they wouldn't allow me to express my views,” Helena explained. “But showing that they can act in such a horrible way is just really appalling to me.”
“I am honestly very disappointed to have to be part of this family that is so...just, very not welcoming or supportive. I don’t feel safe being part of this family.”
