New House Republican Caucus Facebook admin stays classy about American Sign Language

Update, March 21, 2020: New House Republican Caucus staffer has replied to this post in the comment section before. We examine her concerns about social distance in a new post, New House Republican Caucus legislative staffer really does worry about proper social distance. [end update]

Yesterday the Minnesota New House Republican Caucus Facebook page shared Governor Walz's streaming update on COVID-19 via KSTP -5.

In the comments section of the post, this exchange took place:

Alexander Thompson · 11:11 Why is that guy on the right throwing up gang signs

New House Republican Caucus · 11:55 The real question is why is he not socially distancing himself

Here's the screengrab of the rude banter:

The Haha emoji on Mr. Thompson's comment was planted by New House Republican Caucus staff member Margaret Martin:

 

 

The New House Republican Caucus announced its staff team for the 2020 session on January 31, 2020. Martin is credited for having "worked for the NHRC last session on constituent service, research, and writing)" while:

 

Rachel Gasterland has been hired as the Communications Specialist for the caucus. Gasterland graduated from the University of Northwestern – St. Paul, where she studied Public Relations. She previously worked for Media Minefield, a PR agency that specializes in media relations. 

 

We're not sure which staffer replied as the Caucus, but it's clear Martin thinks the crack was "Haha."

Bluestem suspects both Mr. Thompson and the NHRC staff need to get out more, since the joke is tasteless. "Alexander Thompson" is throwing shade on the person signing remarks by Walz and his administration members for members of the deaf community. Perhaps the New Republicans staff needs to review What is American Sign Language? at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders page on the National Institute of Health's website.

Having a person sign an important meeting is pretty mundane stuff.

Here's the post from the caucus's Facebook page:

Screengrab: From the NHRC Facebook page.

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Comments

[Margaret Martin]

I think it's great the Governor has an ASL translator. I took a class in ASL myself in HS and have cousins who are deaf and use ASL. But the comment about the translator standing so close is legit for discussion. Since you think you think you know what I meant by an emoji, I'll have to fill you in, the gang sign comment is something that one of my cousins have actually said to me, there is a style to ASL translation and deaf people make fun of certain translators. This translator's style has a lot of body movement to it, while others do not. I thought it was a comment on the style, not the activity itself.