Advocate NL 7/28/27

Hello and Happy Tuesday folks! Audience Editor Edgar Ramirez here, back in your inbox with an exclusive from The Advocate's Christopher Wiggins.

Before Twitter became X, before Elon Musk stripped away protections for transgender users and before the platform earned the lowest LGBTQ+ safety score among major social networks, there was Adm. Rachel Levine, the trailblazing doctor and public health official from the Biden administration.

Or, more precisely, there was a deliberate act of humiliation aimed at her, Christopher writes.

Speaking at the 2026 Alliance Defending Freedom Summit earlier this month, Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon said Musk contacted the Bee after Twitter locked its account over a post naming Levine, a transgender woman, its “Man of the Year.” Musk then called Bee editor-in-chief Kyle Mann, Dillon said.

“Maybe I just need to buy Twitter,” Musk said, according to Dillon. “We thought he was totally kidding,” Dillon told the audience in a video on the ADF’s YouTube page.

Musk had already begun quietly buying Twitter shares before the Bee targeted Levine. The episode, therefore, did not create Musk’s initial interest in Twitter, Christopher writes. But it appears to have become part of the ideological case for taking control of it.

Don't miss Christopher's full reporting here, including comments from Levine, GLAAD, and the Human Rights Campaign.

Until next time,
Edgar

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