UNC College Republicans expose inept hoax attempting to defame them

An anonymous University of North Carolina (UNC) student slandered her school’s College Republicans (CR) with a series of apparently fake posts on Reddit, later denounced by members of the organization.

The anonymous user, who goes by the moniker of “Tarheel Transgender,” posted a screenshot to Reddit of a separate conversation she allegedly participated in, claiming that she was mocked and ridiculed after reaching out over Facebook to UNC’s CR chapter.

“As a NC resident, I’ve been trying to contact my school’s College Republicans to help repeal HB-2, but their reply was disgusting,” she posted to Reddit, confirming that she is a UNC student.

HB-2 refers to “ House Bill 2,” which is a new law passed in North Carolina that prohibits transgender individuals from using multiple occupancy bathrooms of the sex they identify with.

In the alleged conversation, “Tarheel Transgender” appears to be attacked after responding to a post on the CR Facebook page.

“We support House Bill 2 in its fullest as we believe that it is big government infringing in [sic] the rights of businesses. We also believe that the bathroom portion is the most important aspect as it prevents men from raping women in their restrooms,” the post stated, to which “Tarheel Transgender” replied the exact same minute.

“The bill doesn’t protect women. It’s a blatant attack on the transgender community,” she wrote. “It’s pure bigotry, simple as that.”

The CR Facebook account then allegedly called “Tarheel Transgender” several derogatory slurs, including “mentally-ill man,” “sick,” “disgusting,” and “freak of nature.”

The entire conversation, though, was over and done with in less than four minutes, suggesting that the posts were copied and pasted to the Reddit thread rather typed out.

In one instance, the alleged CR account replied to a comment from “Tarheel Transgender” made at 7:15 p.m. with a 62-word response—and did so just one minute after “Tarheel Transgender” wrote her initial comment, meaning the admin for the CR Facebook page would have had to type at a rate of at least 62 words per minute.

The CR chapter quickly denied the accusations, pointing out several factors that suggest the post was fake, and even offering to grant the student newspaper “or any credible organization” access to their Facebook account to verify that fact.

“The screenshots featured in the article are patently false and fabricated,” the group wrote in a statement. “We have no record of any private messages being sent from our account to that user, and would be happy to let an independent observer from the Daily Tar Heel or another credible organization examine our account and see for themselves.”

Further, the screenshot of the exchange lacks both “Like” and “Share” buttons, both of which are routine features on Facebook.

In another case, “Tarheel Transgender” replies to her own post on Reddit but with a statement that is undeniably conservative in its content, which one user suggested is evidence that “Tarheel Transgender” was alternating between accounts to build up a fake narrative.

“That is the MO of the left, they enforce political correctness and then once society complies to their anti-racist view they quickly began deeming anything that goes against their policy as racist, forcing everyone to conform to it otherwise they are called bigots,” “Tarheel Transgender” wrote in response to her very own post.

The comment was quickly deleted, suggesting “Tarheel Transgender” had inadvertently neglected to switch accounts when making that post.

Towlerroad, a liberal news organization that initially ran the story, later updated the article, saying it reached out to “Tarheel Transgender” to verify the exchange but received no response, causing Towlerroad to “question the claim’s legitimacy.”

The damage, though, seems to already be done as the CR chapter continues to defend itself from criticism as a result of the apparent hoax.

“This type of rhetoric is offensive and divisive and does not reflect the values of UNC College Republicans or our membership, which includes LGBTQA+ students,” the group wrote on its Facebook page. “This attack is an attempt to shame, defame and silence our organization.”

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @AGockowski