Kyle Kashuv is going to prom. With a girl he doesn’t know. Who lives in another state. Kashuv is one of the few survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting who publicly supports the Second Amendment. He has gained a substantial Twitter following based largely on his refusal to toe the party line on gun control, or engage in the negative rhetoric of his classmates on the left. But now Twitter has gained him something else: a date.
Last week a girl from Nebraska, who goes by Fidan on Twitter, sent Kyle a direct message asking, “How many retweets for prom?!!” Kyle responded, “5K,” adding “Also I don’t have a tux.” Fidan tweeted out this exchange with the caption, “PLEASE HELP ME OUT. A DREAM COME TRUE.” And Twitter leapt to the challenge.
https://twitter.com/ibrahimovafidan/status/981684703974567936
Within a day Fidan had her 5,000 retweets. To tackle Kyle’s other dilemma — the lack of a tux — Fidan set up a GoFundMe page with a goal of raising $1,700 to cover the cost of the tuxedo and Kyle’s plane travel to and from Nebraska. She met her goal within six days. But what about Kyle? Would he actually go?
Kyle’s answer came as a result of an unfortunate plot twist in this little romance. In amongst all the well-wishers and retweeters came Planned Parenthood senior advisor Elizabeth Thorp, like some kind of anti-fairy godmother, telling Fidan: “Hard pass, sweet girl. You can do better.”
Hard pass, sweet girl. You can do better.
— Elizabeth Thorp (@ElizabethEThorp) April 5, 2018
Why, one wonders, would a grown woman, who doesn’t know Kashuv or Fidan, weigh in on Fidan’s choice of prom date? Fidan asked Kashuv, not the other way around, and her grand gesture implies her ardent interest in him. Why would Thorp pass judgment? The answer is simple: politics. That’s why.
Thorp doesn’t like Kashuv’s politics. But, instead of engaging with him on the issues, she made a personal attack. It wasn’t the first time. Last month, Thorp responded to another Twitter user’s speculation that the media was trying to shut down Kashuv’s side of the gun control argument by saying, “Maybe they just think Kyle’s a douche.”
Why does @ElizabethEThorp feel bullying a Parkland survivor is okay? More importantly, why is she bullying my date? pic.twitter.com/BF3hnsMf0m
— Kyle Kashuv (@KyleKashuv) April 5, 2018
So, like a knight in shining armor riding to his lady’s defense, Kyle tweeted, “Why does @ElizabethEThorp feel bullying a Parkland survivor is okay? More importantly, why is she bullying my date?” Which, presumably, means Kyle’s in the market for a tux.
Why does @ElizabethEThorp feel bullying a Parkland survivor is okay? More importantly, why is she bullying my date? pic.twitter.com/BF3hnsMf0m
— Kyle Kashuv (@KyleKashuv) April 5, 2018
But the saga continues. Thorp responded to Kyle’s tweet with: “Not bullying, Kyle. Giving her some motherly advice after she publicly asked for help scoring a prom date.” Fidan, presumably, has a mother of her own and doesn’t need “motherly advice” from a random woman who hates her date. Not to mention the fact that she asked for help “scoring a prom date” not deciding which prom date she should score. Bully or no, Thorp does seem creepily preoccupied with a teenage boy.
Not bullying, Kyle.
Giving her some motherly advice after she publicly asked for help scoring a prom date. https://t.co/UxlpysOI2R
— Elizabeth Thorp (@ElizabethEThorp) April 5, 2018
Kyle’s tender years have never been more on display than in this little episode. His response to Fidan’s initial message has the signature awkwardness of a boy who doesn’t know what to say to a pretty girl who obviously likes him. It’s the insane public stage that Twitter has allowed them that makes this anybody’s business but Fidan and Kyle’s.
Will Kyle really take her to prom? Will he get the tux? Take the plane? Will his parents even let him make this crazy trip? We all want to know, of course. But maybe it would be better, just this once, if we didn’t. We, after all, are grown-ups too. What’s it to us what happens between a boy and a girl on a warm spring evening in Nebraska? That’s not politics. It’s personal.
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