'Didn't you used to be a girl?': Chaz Bono faces deluge of online hate after Hannity Twitter spat

On Saturday, Fox News anchor and stalwart supporter of Pres. Donald Trump Sean Hannity jumped into a Twitter war with trans rights pioneer Chaz Bono, the son of LGBT icon Cher. While Bono appeared to get the upper hand in the confrontation, he was left to mop up messages from hundreds of angry conservative trolls, most of whom seemed to feel that Bono's trans status makes him ineligible to speak on political matters or to speak at all.

"'It' should just keep quiet," fumed one of the many angry messages aimed at Bono by Hannity's supporters.

Mediaite.com reported that Hannity called Bono "dumber than dirt" after Bono asked in a tweet whether Hannity and other knee-jerk Trump boosters are "all Putin loving, reality denying, traitors to the principals our country was founded on, Fascists, Just Like #Trump?"

Mediaite's Justin Baragona wrote, "That tweet was mostly ignored, considering it came from the verified account of a celebrity, gathering up a little more than two dozen retweets. However, almost two days later, Hannity noticed, and he wasn’t happy."

"Chaz clearly you are just ignorant. Read the @wikileaks info released this week. Try and educate yourself before tweeting inane lib tlk pts!" Hannity angrily replied before falling back on the right-wing canard that liberals should never criticize racists, authoritarians and bigots because the left is supposed to be "tolerant."

"Also Chaz I thought you liberals were supposed to be 'tolerant', & 'inclusive'. You r just the typical phony Hollywood hypocrite," Hannity complained. "I have said many times we should NOT trust Putin. I embrace truth everyday. I love my country and am not a fascist. You r ignorant and dull."

He concluded, "Chaz come on my TV show so I can expose to all what a hypocrite you are and that you're dumber than dirt."

Bono replied, "Oh Sean, while that's tempting, I don't play with stupid. But have fun denigrating the CIA and propping up Putin. Reagan would be so proud."

This was apparently the cue for every anti-trans, Trump-supporting, LGBT-hating troll on the web to invade Bono's Twitter mentions.