Jill Duggar’s Husband, Derick Dillard, Accused Of Using CNN’s ‘Fake News’ Ad To Attack Transgender People

Jill Duggar’s husband, Derick Dillard, has been slammed for what many view as yet another attack on the transgender community. However, this time, the Counting On star did not single out a specific target, and his tweet was cryptic enough that some might misconstrue its intended meaning.

As reported by Pop Culture, one of Derick Dillard’s recent tweets “appears to be transphobic rhetoric.” On Wednesday, the Duggar husband shared an image of an apple along with a few words that many of his followers considered a thinly-veiled attack on transgender people.

“This is an Apple. You can dress it up like a banana, but it’s still an apple… #FactsFirst,” Dillard wrote.

One Twitter user suggested that his tweet is likely a play on the CNN “Facts First” ad that recently caused such a stir. As reported by the Huffington Post, the ad references a term that President Donald Trump is fond of, “Fake News.” It uses fruit to demonstrate that no amount of repeating a lie or tweeting it in all-caps can make it true, just as calling an apple a banana over and over again cannot turn the round red fruit into the curved yellow one.

This is an Apple. You can dress it up like a banana, but it’s still an apple… #FactsFirst pic.twitter.com/2ABddvBbn9

— Derick Dillard (@derickmdillard) October 25, 2017

Jill Duggar’s husband wasn’t the first to use CNN’s “Facts First” ad as a template for an attack on transgender people. According to Recode, the Daily Caller created a video that’s somewhat similar to Derick Dillard’s tweet. However, it features a men’s restroom symbol in place of an apple, and its anti-transgender message is more straightforward.

Most of the responses to Derick’s tweet were negative. Some angry netizens argued that using fruits as stand-ins for humans who have thoughts and feelings made his metaphor fall flat.

“U know how apples get really depressed and may try to kill themselves due to bullying? Yeah, me neither. #peoplearenotfruit,” wrote one of his followers.

Others created their own metaphors to fire back at the Duggar husband.

“This is a bigot, you can dress him up like a Christian, but he’s still a bigot,” read another popular response to his tweet.

https://www.facebook.com/duggarfamilyofficial/photos/a.518180528315601.1073741828.510067475793573/584893951644258/?type=3&theater

Derick was also called a bully, and there were a few references to his previous Twitter tirade aimed at Jazz Jennings. The teen girl is a popular LGBT activist who stars on the reality series I Am Jazz, but she caught Derick’s attention because she’s transgender. As reported by USA Today, Derick responded to a promotional tweet for I Am Jazz by calling the show a “non-reality” and writing that “‘transgender’ is a myth.” The conservative Christian also misgendered Jazz by referring to her as “him.”

Jazz Jennings’ show just so happens to air on TLC, the same network that canceled the Duggar family’s popular reality series, 19 Kids and Counting, and replaced it with Counting On. Rebooting the former show with a slightly different format and changing its title allowed the network to keep Jill Duggar and most of her siblings on TV, with the exception of her older brother Josh. He has never appeared on Counting On due to the controversy surrounding his sexual molestation scandal. As previously reported by the Inquisitr, some Duggar fans fear that Jill and Derick could also be kicked off TLC because of Derick’s controversial comments about an underage girl who is also a TLC star.

TLC has not yet announced whether there will be another season of Counting On. If the show does return without Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard on it, viewers will know that there were consequences for the latter’s Twitter behavior.

[Featured Image by Derick Dillard/Instagram]