SACRAMENTO, CA–Sighing with a sublime sense of exhaustion that permeates every waking moment, Stacy Steele comes to the defense of someone who loathes her: An Oath Keeper arrested after her involvement in the January 6th uprising. Steele is defending Jessica Watkins and her basic dignity as both a human being and as a transgender woman.

“This is fucking ridiculous,” Steele says, pointing at her phone. A Twitter user with the display name of “LoveIsLove #BidenHarris!” had a thread using Watkin’s old name and misgendering her. “Watkins is a trans woman, so she is a woman and does not deserve to be sent to a men’s prison.” A puff on a cigarette and she adjusts her wheelchair. “Jesus fuck. How many times do I have to say please stop calling trans women ‘he’? Even if she’s a fucking shitty human being.”

This isn’t the first time Steele has had to call for trans people she hasn’t cared for to be treated with basic human dignity. “Yeah, Caitlyn Jenner and Buck Angel and even that actual white supremacist I won’t name. But they are who they are.”

But Watkins is in the news, and so her gender is apparently up for debate. “I hate that I have to defend her from fucking liberals who should know better. Like, she’s a terrible person. But she is in danger in jail due to her status as a trans woman. She doesn’t deserve to have her identity erased and to be threatened with rape. I mean nobody does. That’s just not right.”

Steele, who started her activism in the early 2000s, is not happy. When asked about her goals around being transgender, she said, “She’d probably want someone like me dead. She probably is a Nazi sympathizer. She’s trans, sure. But why bring that up? My goal is to let trans people be piles of human garbage like any cisgender person.”