OAN Geraldyn Berry
UPDATED 11:22 AM PT – Thursday, March 9, 2023
First lady Jill Biden and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken are receiving backlash for giving an award to a biological male from Argentina on International Women’s Day.
At the ceremony, Argentinian Alba Rueda was introduced as a “transgender woman who was kicked out of classrooms, barred for sitting for exams, refused job opportunities, subjected to violence, and rejected by her family. But in the face of these challenges, she worked to end violence and discrimination against the LGBTQ plus community in Argentina.”
Chaos ensued on Twitter as Twitter users commented their objection and disbelief that an individual who was born man, being given a woman’s award.
Townhall columnist and radio personality Derek Hunter joked that “men are a lot better at being women than women are.” Advising women to “step up [their] game.”
This comes as “11 extraordinary women from around the world who are working to build a brighter future for all,” were bestowed the annual International Women of Courage Awards at the White House on Wednesday.
According to a State Department news release, the International Woman of Courage Awards ceremony is in its 17th year and recognizes those “who have demonstrated exceptional courage, strength, and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equity and equality, and the empowerment of women and girls, in all their diversity – often at great personal risk and sacrifice.”
Other honorees included a Ukrainian medic who last year spent three months in pro-Russian captivity after her capture near the Russian-occupied city of Mariupol in south Ukraine, an indigenous rights leader from Costa Rica, an Ethiopian journalist covering gender-based violence in the country, a doctor who grew up under Taliban rule in Afghanistan and now advocates for Afghan refugees in Turkey and the women of Iran who have led uprisings against the government’s repressive laws against women.