‘I Think He’s Scared’: Latina Teen Body-Shamed by Rep. Matt Gaetz Raised Over $1.4M for Abortion Rights
Olivia Julianna is a 19-year-old Latina political activist and strategist that decided to take Rep. Matt Gaetz’s insults about her and turn them into gold.
Days later, the Latina teen has already raised more than $1,400,000 for abortion rights.
Houston-based Julianna first found herself smack-dab in the middle of the public eye when she took to Twitter to respond to Gaetz’s horrible comments about abortion rights activists at a Tampa Turning Point USA Student Action Summit.
Per PEOPLE, Gaetz stated, “Women with the least likelihood of getting pregnant are the ones most worried about having abortions… Nobody wants to impregnate you if you look like a thumb.”
The right-wing representative went on to say, “These people are odious from the inside out. They’re like 5′2″, 350 pounds.'” Of course, that was too much to take for many — including Julianna, who went full-force with her amazing rebuttal.
Referencing Gaetz’s comments, the teenager wrote on Twitter, “I’m actually 5’11. 6’4 in heels. I wear them so the small men like you are reminded of your place.” Yes.
She continued in another tweet, stating, “The narrative Republican men are putting forward saying that ‘nobody’ wants to sleep with us is not only a lie — but I can confirm from PERSONAL experience that it’s the Republican men who grovel for attention the most.”
At that point, Gaetz caught wind of her reply and posted a photo of Julianna on Twitter, captioning it with “Dander raised,” a reference to a comment he once made about “raising the dander of his opponents.”
Gaetz’s tweet led to a boatload of backlash for the young political activist, who told Teen Vogue it led to “body-shaming comments,” “really nasty” emails and “hateful comments” about her body like “nobody would ever want to sleep with you, you would never need an abortion.”
That said, Julianna remained unfazed: “They don’t really bother me. I know that the people out there who hate me are trying their hardest to get me to be insecure about myself and it’s not working.”
Instead, the political activist for Gen-Z For Change decided to bank on the bullying, turning the situation into a golden opportunity. Deciding to “flip the script,” Julianna set up a fundraiser for abortion rights, and has already raised more than a million.
Well upwards of a $1.4 million abortion fund, Julianna is the definition of “goals” and a true guerrera in every way.
Telling Teen Vogue that she bases much of her comebacks and inner strength in her love for WWE matches (we love to see it), Julianna realized her best revenge was in seizing the opportunity to make real change.
She explained, “Matt had put a spotlight on me; he had given me a chance to rebut publicly and I think what he was expecting was for me to fall into an outrage cycle.” As she continues to raise money for abortions, she also talked about Gaetz himself: “He can claim he’s pro-life, pro-family, pro-child but the reality is this is a sitting congressman who voted against increased funding for baby formula during a shortage.”
As for Gaetz? He finally responded with, “It’s always disappointing when people fund murder,” to which Julianna replied: “We’re turning hatred into health care, thanks Matt Gaetz.” Así mismo!
All donations to the abortion fund can be made through ActBlue.
