I don’t want to do this. I really don’t want to do this. But talking to the person has revealed a stubborn refusal to listen and @SVP_vertpaleo, the main society in our field, is unable to do anything about it. 1/too damn many

Sue Turner is defiantly misgendering me in a professional, public context and refuses to stop.

Yes, that Sue Turner. One of two authors of the upcoming book about women in vertebrate paleontology. That book many of you have been celebrating and promoting as something that’ll be a wonderful thing to address diversity issues in our field.

I don’t know if it’s going to be in the book, but Turner has been maintaining a publicly-available list of women as part of the project. I’m in it. I shouldn’t be. I’m #NonbinaryInSTEM. I am #NotAWoman. I told her as much. But she refuses to remove me.

I found out I was on the list was in Feb, when I saw news of the book shared on FB. I looked for myself on the list ‘cause that’s what you do when you aren’t cis. You worry that you’re mistakenly being included or excluded on all lists like this and you correct them if you can.

Which is understandable when it’s a mistake. It’s unfortunately our lot in life. Plus, databases inevitably accrue errors; you just fix them when you find them. And if it’s something liable to be repeated, you do what you can to minimize the chances.

So that’s what I did. I followed back to Turner’s own post and commented, letting her know I should be removed, explaining why, and even provided an option for how such mistakes could be mitigated in the future

‘Cause that’s something I’ve learned. Saying “this is wrong; change it” might get something fixed, but “here’s a possible way to address it” is more likely, and faster, to produce results.

Her response was…strange. I wasn’t sure if she was anti-nb, ignorant, confused, or some combination thereof. It certainly wasn’t friendly and I started to worry.

But I gave her the benefit of the doubt. I restated what I’d said before (clearly, imo) since she misunderstood, mentioned a missing person who did belong, then asked her to clarify and brought up the inaccuracy of including non-women.

This response seemed better. She admitted complete ignorance of the subject, stated an openness to learning, and tagged in her co-author. But it wasn’t perfect (repeating “history!” ad nauseum and never actually saying I would be removed).

Again, I gave her the benefit of the doubt. I really shouldn’t have. I should have called out the dancing around me and asked for a clear statement that she would remove me. Color me naïve.

I hinted that nbs have a history she’s not aware of, related us to more easy-to-conceptualize binary trans folk, and reiterated that my point was to take the simple action of removing me.

I’d like to point out that all the “likes” you see are Turner’s. Part of why I gave her the benefit of the doubt, but looking back, they’re deflective, not sincere. Guess they worked.

This conversation took place over the course of a week, and I had quickly turned notifications off because the dread of seeing her notification pop up when I just wanted to catch up with friends was causing my anxiety to skyrocket.

But I was manually navigating back once or twice a day after steeling myself for it. After some time with no further responses from either, I stopped checking and hoped for the best because life must go on and I’d already wasted a week being an unproductive, dysphoric sludgepile.

I found out after Turner’s next comment that Berta had responded. Given the timing, it must’ve been shortly after I stopped checking. Better than Turner’s responses, but still no clear indication of action for the current situation. (Irrelevant comment redacted)

Fast forward half a year to August. Friend shared the book trailer they released. I checked if there’d been a list update since the last time I’d looked was about a month and a half ago. There was. Ms. Camp was not me, but I was still there with no changes.

At this point, it seemed more likely that Turner was defying me and continuing to misgender me. There was a note to email her for corrections, so that’s what I did, hoping my retention was in error.

I wanted to alert others, so I dropped a warning on the friend’s post and retweeted his tweet w/comment because he has a much wider audience than me and I knew there was at least one person whose name I didn’t remember who might be on there (thankfully they weren’t).

Turner responded. She packed a whole lot of awful into just two sentences and topped it off with a disingenuous care emoji. Let’s break this down.

She continues to push her idea of “history” with no regard for objectivity or accuracy. Ironic given that their book is in part about uncovering work dismissed, buried, and overwritten by historians who didn’t care.

She makes assumptions instead of listening to a knowledgeable *primary source* on a subject she previously admitted she’d somehow managed to be completely oblivious to until I pointed it out in 20-freaking-20. Pretty shoddy practice for a historian and scientist.

And here’s a thing that wouldn’t ring an alarm bell to anyone but me—she never requested more information or a CV from me. I never did get a response to my email. She didn’t reach out any other way. I found out what she was referring to after my next comment.

This time I didn’t mince words. There was no question about it that she was refusing to adhere either to basic human decency or to good research practices. This time I did not ask politely, beg, or plead. I demanded.

Gender identity is a protected characteristic both in my US and Turner’s Australia. I have a right to be acknowledged for what I am.

Again with the insistence on a CV and still no commitment to remove me. As well as an excuse intended to induce sympathy and take the heat off her. Checking is irrelevant when information has been handfed to you multiple times.

So why was that sentence there? It was to make it look like *I’m* the one being uncooperative and at fault for errors. ‘Cause get this—she asked *women* to send her their CVs. She asked people who want to be *included* to send her their CVs.

She made another update to the list at some point during this exchange. In too poor health to simply remove me when informed, but not too poor to trawl my facebook, make laughable assumptions and major blunders, and add them. Highly illogical, Captain.

I apparently split the thread and people aren't seeing the others. Pick it up here. https://twitter.com/DeadGators/status/1296551913954172929