USA Today, owned by the Gannett Company, whose largest shareholder is BlackRock Inc., has sparked controversy for the second year in a row by choosing a transgender-identified male as its “woman of the year.”
Leigh Finke, the first transgender legislator to be appointed to the Minnesota House of Representatives in November 2022, has been selected as the “woman of the year” for Minnesota by the media outlet.
The state representative is “an activist for transgender and LGBTQ+ rights, as well as Black Lives Matter, almost her whole life,” the outlet explains.
Finke has been an advocate for gender-altering surgery for children and recently sponsored a bill to make Minnesota a “trans refuge state.”
Her appointment as “woman of the year” has provoked criticism from some, who argue that a biological male should not be awarded a prize intended for women.
USA Today claims the award honors “women who lift up people in their communities and across the country, making a difference in the lives of many. They show up and speak out for those who may not have a voice, advocating for issues from health to equality and justice to the environment and more.”
The BlackRock-tied news org has a history of selecting biological males as woman of the year, last year, the award goin to Rachel Levine, a transgender-identified male who was serving as assistant secretary of health and human services under President Joe Biden.
Responging to USA Today’s selection of a biological male for its woman of the year award, conservative thought leader Charlie Kirk rehtorically asked his Twitter followers, “Is the message supposed to be that men are better than women?”
“The secret to going from transitioning in 2017 to being named a USA Today State Woman of the Year in 2023? First, be a man,” another Twitter user commented.
