Conservatives Are Mad Hershey’s Featured a Trans Woman in an Ad

Once again, conservatives have nothing better to do than to hate on women.

In an era where the right gets triggered daily by everything from candy commercials, gay people existing at Christmas time, makeup ads, music videos, drag shows, and gay kisses on HBO, conservative pearl-clutchers have found another nonsensical reason to cry out that they are being oppressed: having to see a trans woman alive and happy.

This time, the right is furious over a new Hershey’s Chocolate PR campaign that features one trans woman among a group of other women, even calling for a boycott of the company.

The left has been calling for boycotts of Hershey’s, a multimillion-dollar capitalist corporation, for years for their alleged use of child slavery and destruction of the environment. Now, the right is joining the fight, albeit for a truly terrible reason.

The new "Her For She" campaign features five women who are also activists fighting for the rights of women and marginalized people, including Kélicia Massala, Rita Audi, Naila Moloo, Autumn Peltier, and nonprofit consultant Fae Johnstone, a transgender woman.

Everyone from Matt Walsh to The Daily Wire complained that they were being attacked by having to see a trans woman be accepted as the woman she is. The hashtag #BoycottHersheys was even trending on Twitter.

Sam Mandgold-Lenett, a man who writes poorly argued and researched articles for The Federalist, even wrote an entire post blaming trans women, specifically this Hershey’s commercial featuring a trans woman, on overall trends downward in women’s mental health.

Johnstone is the leader of Wisdom2Action Consulting Ltd., “a social enterprise and consulting firm offering ways for nonprofits and organizations to build more inclusive, just, healthy, and safe communities,” which is objectively good for women. And Hershey’s is donating money to Girl Up, an organization that promotes leadership among girls and women, also objectively good. This is what the right has a problem with.

Hershey’s Canada has put out a statement defending Johnstone and standing against transphobia.

“We value togetherness and recognize the strength created by diversity,” they posted on Instagram. “Over the past three years, our Women’s History Month programming has been an inclusive celebration of women and their impact.”