Viral video shows California mom accosting drag queens. UC Davis, her employer, responded
UC Davis published a statement Tuesday about “offensive comments” made by employee Beth Bourne while she was on a family vacation in Hawaii.
Bourne, the local chapter president for parents rights group Moms for Liberty, posted a video of herself confronting a group of drag queens who were filming a video at the hotel Bourne was staying in, the Alohilani Resort in Waikiki, on Sunday.
“We reject all manifestations of discrimination, including those based on gender and gender expression,” the university’s statement said.
The video shows Bourne verbally accosting the people dressed in drag, including drag queen Marina Del Rey.
“This woman saw us filming and came to a slow burn and then she popped off,” Del Ray said in a Facebook post. “Her rant went on and on — possibly with the attempt to get a riled angered response. She didn’t get one.”
Bourne also verbally accosted hotel staff, and demanded a refund from the hotel, which she received after briefly being detained by Honolulu police.
Bourne shared a video on X, formerly known as Twitter, which went viral after content creator Michael McWhorter’s own version went up on TikTok, X, and Instagram.
Bourne posted a follow-up video of an interaction she had with law enforcement officers at the Honolulu Police Department, who briefly detained her before the hotel refunded her for her stay and encouraged her to stay elsewhere.
“This type of behavior is unacceptable,” Hawaii Democratic Governor Josh Green said in a statement Monday. “It is not aloha and we will not tolerate it from anyone.”
As the videos continued to garner views, social media users began tagging UC Davis, Bourne’s employer, demanding she be fired. Bourne works at the university’s Institute for Transportation Studies.
“I’m used to my colleagues thinking I’m a terrible person,” Bourne told The Bee in an April story about Bourne and her estranged trans child.
The university said that Bourne’s comments “are protected by the First Amendment,” but that the school condemns them nonetheless.
“We are aware of a widely circulated video in which a university employee makes a number of offensive statements,” the statement reads.
“We condemn these statements as deeply hurtful. While the employee’s comments are protected by the First Amendment, they do not reflect the values of respect and belonging that form the foundation of our campus community.”
“To the LGBTQ community, UC Davis is a place where you should feel seen and supported. June is when the nation celebrates Pride Month, and at UC Davis we’re committed to making sure this community has every opportunity to thrive and flourish on our campus,” the Tuesday statement read.
“We reject all manifestations of discrimination, including those based on gender and gender expression,” the statement read, before directing community members to the the university’s LGBTQIA Resource Center and its Trans Student Rights Toolkit.
In a tweet Tuesday morning, Bourne said she is not afraid of “cancel culture.”
“I am not afraid of cancel culture or being doxxed,” Bourne said. “This is how you know you are on the target.”
