Twitter suspended the account of a right-leaning parody site, The Babylon Bee, after it awarded Rachel Levine, the transgender Biden administration official, the title of "man of the year," the New York Post has reported.
The Babylon Bee had reacted to USA Today's naming of Levine, who is U.S. assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as one of its "women of the year" last week.
According to USA Today, Levine is the nation's highest-ranking openly transgender official.
Twitter says it will restore The Babylon Bee account, which has more than 1.3 million followers, if it deletes the tweet, but Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon says he has no intention of doing so.
The Babylon Bee is a conservative Christian news satirical website that publishes articles on religion, politics, current events, and public figures.
"We're not deleting anything," Dillon tweeted from his personal account. "Truth is not hate speech. If the cost of telling the truth is the loss of our Twitter account, then so be it."
The banned article notes that Levine "serves proudly as the first man in that position to dress like a Western cultural stereotype of a woman. He is also an admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. What a boss!"
"He often wears a dress, which some people think is weird — but he doesn't care one bit," the article continues. "Come on! Men in India wear dress-type garments, don't they?"
Dillon tweeted news of The Babylon Bee suspension from his own account, attaching a screenshot of the notice from Twitter, the Post reported.
Twitter cited its policy on "hateful conduct," which states: "You may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease."
The account owner has to delete the tweet that violates Twitter's standards to regain access to their account.
The Babylon Bee launched in 2016 and is based in Jupiter, Florida.
Twitter permanently banned former President Donald Trump last year.
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