Q Toon: The First Rule of Book Club

As Buzz and Killer explain in this week's cartoon, a transgender activist named Andi Dier disrupted a book-signing event of Rose McGowan, an actress who has accused Harvey Weinstein of raping her. McGowan had been on the talk show circuit to promote her autobiography, Brave.

One thing I've learned in life is that if someone says they've been raped, you should try to show some respect and sympathy. One thing you should not do is start telling her "Oh, you think that's bad?"

Ms. Dier thought this was a good opportunity to go on the attack.

The video begins as McGowan is challenged by the activist, Andi Dier, about remarks she made on a RuPaul podcast last year: “I have a suggestion. Talk about what you said on RuPaul. Trans women are dying and you said that we, as trans women, are not like regular women. We get raped more often. We go through domestic violence more often. There was a trans woman killed here a few blocks… I have been followed home.”
McGowan then cut her off: “Hold on. So am I. We are the same. My point was, we are the same. There’s an entire show called ID channel, a network, dedicated to women getting abused, murdered, sexualized, violated, and you’re a part of that, too, sister. It’s the same.”
Dier then asked what McGowan had done for transgender women, and McGowan asked Dier what she had done for women, and then all hell broke loose.

Nobody came out of the incident, shall we say, smelling like a rose.

Dier was ejected from the event. McGowan accused Dier of being a paid stooge of unnamed nefarious forces, and, after meeting an obligation to appear on Late Night with Stephen Colbert later that night, McGowan abruptly canceled her book tour, complaining that nobody had stepped up to defend her at the Barnes & Noble.

So, in case you're still wondering what the hell this was all about, here's what McGowan said on RuPaul's podcast:

She said they think they know what it’s like to grow up female because they "felt like a woman on the inside" but concluded this was false. McGowan said: "That’s not growing as a woman, that’s not living in this world as a woman and a lot of the stuff I hear trans [women] complaining about, yeah, welcome to the world."

As for Diers, there are internet accusations that pre-transition, he was a sex offender himself. (She denies this, and there doesn't appear to be any criminal record involved.)

Her life now seems to be devoted to punishing people who are slated to appear on a certain television program. Although claiming to have supported Bernie Sanders's run for the presidency, Diers wrote about badgering the Socialist-Democrat on the campaign trail:

After confronting Senator Sanders on stage, he walked away in a hurry and kind of ignored what I was saying. I was regretting not shutting it down but focused my efforts on making sure he wouldn’t leave this city without knowing my name. So we drilled him 3 more times that day.
By the time we got [to] the Late Night with Colbert, he was practically running away from us.

So now you know what this week's cartoon is all about. Don't you feel better?