Houston Transgender Activist’s News Site Taken Down, Restored by Google
Monica Roberts believes her Transgriot blog was attacked by anti-trans Internet trolls.
Hours after The Daily Beast published an article highlighting Houston transgender journalist Monica Roberts, her GLAAD-award-winning blog Transgriot disappeared from Blogspot.
“Inside Monica Roberts’ Mission to Identify Transgender Murder Victims,” a profile of Roberts and her work to identify murder victims who are trans, was published by The Daily Beast on Tuesday morning, Feb. 19. Later that afternoon, Roberts took to Facebook to share that Transgriot had been suspended without warning by the Google-owned blogging platform Blogspot.
“WTF Blogger? Where’s my blog?” Roberts posted to Facebook, along with a screenshot of a removal notice that stated “Sorry, the blog at transgriot.blogspot.com has been removed. This address is not available for new blogs.”
Many of Roberts’ supporters urged Blogspot to revive Transgriot. The website was restored, and on Tuesday night the official Twitter account for Google Communications tweeted a statement to Roberts saying that the blog’s removal was an error.
“The blog was taken down in error earlier today. It has been fully restored and we apologize for any inconvenience to you or your readers,” Google Communications tweeted.
Roberts again made national news Tuesday night when Out magazine reported that “Transgriot’s Takedown Hasn’t Shaken Monica Roberts.” In the article, Roberts stated that she did not believe that her site’s suspension was an error, but instead was an attack by anti-trans folks.
“It was the [transgender-exclusionary radical feminists],” Roberts told Out. “We have seen a ramp-up of anti-TERF rhetoric and activity lately.”
After her Transgriot was restored, Roberts published a statement thanking her supporters for contacting Blogspot and helping her get her site back.
“I do want to thank everyone who went to bat for me and offered to help get it restored and back in operation [if] the worst-case scenario had occurred,” Roberts wrote. “I’m quite aware of what TransGriot means to this community, its place in chronicling trans history, and being a news source for my fellow journalists and members of all the communities I interact with.”
For more information about Transgriot, visit transgriot.blogspot.com.
Read Roberts’ monthly Unapologetically Trans column in OutSmart magazine.
