Trans Influencer Rose Montoya Banned from White House After Topless Incident

Rose Montoya, a transgender activist and social media influencer, will not be invited back to the White House after she posted a video of herself topless with two shirtless trans men at last weekend’s White House Pride Month celebration.

This week, Montoya posted a 58-second-long video on TikTok with the description, “I had the honor of attending White House Pride, the largest one in history where the pride flag flew for the first time. This is trans joy. We’re here at the white house unapologetically trans, queer, and brown.”

Toward the end of the video, a voice asks, “Are we topless at the White House?” It cuts to two transgender men flanking Montoya, shirtless, posing for the camera in front of the building. Montoya is also topless, revealing her breasts, though she covers her nipples with her hands. She is seen for less than three seconds.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Montoya’s “behavior was simply unacceptable.” Jean-Pierre was responding to a question during Tuesday’s White House press briefing.

On Saturday, the White House hosted what administration officials called the largest Pride Month celebration in White House history. More than 1,000 LGBTQ+ people, their families, and allies attended the outdoor soiree.

“It was unfair to the hundreds of attendees who were there to celebrate their families,” Jean-Pierre said. “It’s not appropriate. It’s disrespectful. And…it really does not reflect the event that we hosted to celebrate the LGBTQ+ …hundreds of families who were here to celebrate their community. “

She added that “individuals in the video certainly will not be invited to future events.”

Right-wing extremists and conservatives who already push a false narrative that LGBTQ+ people are sexualizing children and others by simply existing jumped on the video and amplified the outrage surrounding the brief moment.

Chaya Raichik, who runs the Twitter Libs of TikTok hate account, shared the clip with her 2.2 million followers.

“This is what happened at the White House pride event. A disgrace to our country,” she wrote.

Montoya responded to her critics in a TikTok post on Tuesday.

“It has recently come to my attention that conservatives are trying to use the video of me topless at the White House to try to call the community groomers, et cetera. And I would just like to say that first of all, going topless in Washington, D.C. is legal, and I fully support the movement in freeing the nipple,” she said.

She then asked those who don’t believe that transgender people exist to pick a side of their argument.

“Why is my chest now deemed inappropriate or illegal when I show it off? However, before coming out as trans, it was not?” she asked, adding, “All you’re doing is affirming that I am a woman.”

She explained that she hadn’t planned to bare her chest at the event but joined the moment spontaneously.

“My trans-masculine friends were showing off their top surgery scars and living in joy, and I wanted to join them,” she said. “Because it is perfectly within the law in Washington D.C., I decided to join them and cover my nipples, just to play it safe, because I wanted to be fully free and myself. I had zero intention of trying to be vulgar or be profane in any way. I was simply living in joy, living my truth, and existing in my body.”

She concluded her video by saying, “Happy pride, free the nipple.”