An emergency room nurse in Ohio has been placed on administrative leave after a series of homophobic and transphobic remarks she’d allegedly made on Facebook came to light.
Cincinnati City Councilman Chris Seelbach posted screenshots of the posts, attributed to Cindy Carter, to Twitter on Sunday. The images are said to show Carter ― a nurse who works at the Bethesda Butler Hospital in Hamilton, Ohio, about 35 miles north of Cincinnati ― responding to a news story about Always’ removal of the Venus symbol from its sanitary products packaging.
Earlier this month, company officials at the company that makes products for menstrual periods announced plans to redesign the packaging to be inclusive of transgender and gender-nonconforming customers who menstruate.
“Women have periods, men don’t,” Carter wrote, according to Seelbach’s images. “Grab a mirror, it’s easy. You either have a dick, or you don’t.”
“These fucking cock sucking homos think that they deserve everything,” she adds, in response to another reader’s comment. “Men need to be men. Women need to be women.”
In his tweet, Seelbach, who is gay, called on hospital network TriHealth, which operates Bethesda Butler, to fire Carter.
According to The Cincinnati Enquirer, Carter’s post became public after Sabrina Sells, who is gay, noticed the comments via a mutual friend of Carter’s and tagged TriHealth on a subsequent post. She told WKRC-TV in Cincinnati that she didn’t think Carter should work in nursing “because she doesn’t see all humans as equal.”
“People can have their negative thoughts about us and feel things about us all they want,” she added, “but we need to be protected under a law as well.”
Thus far, Carter has not responded publicly to the allegations, but Sells said the nurse reached out to her over Facebook and claimed her account had been hacked.
TriHealth released a statement Monday saying they’d begun an internal investigation into the claims.
“We must reiterate that we are dedicated to fair and equitable access to healthcare by all individuals without regard to gender, culture, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, race and physical abilities, as well as other classes protected by law,” company officials said in the statement. “The nurse has been placed on administrative leave for her safety and the safety of our patients while the investigation continues.
“We are committed to bringing this issue to a swift close and will provide an update when the investigation is complete,” they added.
The Cincinnati Enquirer report also includes excerpts of an email TriHealth CEO Mark C. Clement sent to company employees regarding the investigation.
“When we say everyone, we mean EVERYONE is entitled to safe, reliable and compassionate care and access to healthcare,” the email read in part. “No exceptions!”
Though Seelbach praised TriHealth for putting Carter on leave, he said he won’t be satisfied until she is no longer employed by the company.
“Corporate policies are important,” he wrote on Twitter. “And most corporations have inclusive LGBTQ+ policies. But what’s more important is when those values are tested. Are they just words on a paper? Or do they actually mean something? We’ll see.”