This essay takes long-time transphobe Bad Empanada to task; i.e., in light of a recent crashout on Twitter actually embodying a larger, longstanding issue of transphobia with him. Made in collaboration with a variety of trans, intersex and enby sex workers (who appear mostly at the end, unless you include me), let's smite his bollocks!

Note: "Chickens Come Home to Roost" is part of my Sex Positivity book series, which continues after its June 2025 finale in small-form content; e.g., essays on and interviews with other sex workers; i.e., I've worked with muses and models beyond those on my Acknowledgments page, whose featured models worked with me while I produced Sex Positivity. To see everyone I've drawn before, during and after said series, refer to my Sex Work page. 

Also, this is the SFW version of this essay, which features censored nudity. The NSFW version can be found on my 18+ website (which features uncensored nudity). —Perse

For the Visually Impaired: I'll be reading the SFW version of this essay on my YouTube channel.

Disclaimer Regarding Essay Contents: All opinions are my own; i.e., as part of my research, conducted alongside my book series, Gothic Communism (2023). The material within is written/speaks about public figures and popular media for purposes of education, satire, transformation and critique, hence falls under Fair Use regarding copyright and free speech regarding defamation. 

CW: sexism, racism, transphobia, whorephobia, genocide, tokenism

The Chickens Come Home to Roost: Transphobe Bad Empanada Goes Mask-Off

"People who talk about sex constantly and openly like it’s their main interest must be dealt with. Make it taboo again." / "'BDSM doctor.' That's not a real thing, Jesus-fucking-Christ." —Bad Empanada, in a (now-deleted) 2024 community post

Today's piece—which I've written in response to Bad Empanada's recent mask-off moment, on Twitter (a "crashout," as the kids say)—will be short and to the point: Empanada is exhibiting reactionary antics comparable to fascism, thus genocide. In other words, if you scratch a reactionary, a fascist bleeds, and genocide isn't activism.

In light of the Palestinian genocide's continuation—including the failure of several affluent trans women to say anything preventing it—he's chosen to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Acting like he does, Empanada would have you believe that all trans people are "first worlders"; i.e., those on the receiving end of total privilege, ergo the deserving end of revenge against, the "haves" vs the "have-nots." Per Empanada's false equivalency, a single trans person (especially a trans woman, let's be frank) embodies the larger whole of collective punishment; i.e., a privileged and treacherous mass of imperial beneficiaries enjoying the perks of citizenship, a mendacious crew if—not equipped with giant YouTube channels and corporate shares, themselves—still bear an essential untrustworthiness comparable to Hitler's Backstabbing Jew (or any other fascist scapegoat). Empanada's narrative depicts the trans person as a scapegoat of the fascist sort, one to drum up support (and funds) for the lynching thereof; i.e., by Arabs who, in Empanada's mind, are somehow never trans from a praxial standpoint; re: Empanada is fascist for blaming trans women for the sins of empire, and I will handle him accordingly.

The rest of this piece will compile the most egregious of Empanada's recently threatening (and deeply reactionary) behaviors; the show of solidarity with Palestinians—specifically GNC sex workers (as those are the people I predominantly work with)—will appear at the end of the essay.

First, slurs aren't activism—re: as I have written regarding Empanada, in the past—and accusing trans people of somehow being "false" (below) is an old TERF strategy (the "man-in-a-dress argument, "invading women's spaces"):

(source tweet, Bad Empanada [now deleted]: August 27th, 2025)

The same applies to Empanada's treating trans people as false because they're partially or fully anonymous; i.e., him, a man of relative privilege, requiring trans people to entirely de-mask while scapegoating us for the American government's genocide of Arabs. This extends to us allegedly "faking it (our trans status)" for social advantage; e.g., including the exclusive "ability" to be racist and hide behind our "privilege"; i.e., in a time of unrest when the state wants us dead, trans emasculation alive and well. Empanada is blaming the victim, here, while failing to understand how being trans works. Trans people are trans, period, and some can be racist (above) just as any workers can be bigoted or dishonest in a variety of ways[1]; but treating us like automatic suspects is witch hunter behavior on his part.

Empanada likes to LARP as the Taliban, for example (re: "Addressing ‪@BadEmpanadaLive's Relative Transphobia," 2025); i.e., acting tough online while consciously separating his main channel from his more odious habits. In other words, he wears a mask. While mask-wearing is dualistic (therefore anisotropic), his doing so is to conceal—if only partially—his worst habits: those of punching down against a minority far smaller than his Arab brethren. In his eyes, they're worthy victims to rescue; we are not, the usual conquerors (the elite, from city-states onwards) dividing labor by having labor conquer itself:

(source tweet, Bad Empanada: September 1st, 2025)

In doing so, Empanada is partaking in genocide and genocide isn't activism; i.e., with Empanada saying our 1% minority is somehow worth less than billions of others outside the Imperial Core. He's making an exception, mid-crisis—not simply overlooking oppression, in America (e.g., homelessness, rape, murder and stochastic terrorism married to police violence) but designating our existence as reprobate. Working through an imperial model of oppression, he's picking an Omelas child while erasing trans people everywhere; i.e., overwriting our human status with "inhuman," instead, ergo deserving of violence, mid-apocalypse—not worthy of preservation but tolerable destruction by lumping us all together.

Such betrayals always happen in steps, the frog boiled by those holding the pot. As the Imperial Boomerang sails home, Empanada kettles state victims to enrich himself: killing zombies despite surrendering his own humanity in cop-like ways (re: "Police States, Foreign Atrocities and the Imperial Boomerang," 2024). Genocide is the domain of traitors, including unscrupulous prospectors selling out. Through his own success in light of genocide (read: growing his channels), Empanada shows the perils of activism under capital. Exploitation and liberation occupy a shared space, one where a social activist—no matter how venerated—can sell out as much as anyone; i.e., by enacting "genocide for some," sparing others from the flames to enact capital as usual. From a dialectical-material standpoint, betrayal is betrayal, and everything adds up, in the end; assimilation will always be poor stewardship, the Judas silver merely coins for the ferryman.

The fact remains, trans people don't exist exclusively in the first world, and those who do can still be homeless or hunted to extinction. By treating trans people as expendable, Empanada is ranking rape; i.e., forgetting or overlooking how genocide is genocide, regardless of where it occurs. Two wrongs don't make a right, Empanada, and killing us won't save the Palestinians or bring them (or other Global Southerners) back.

(artist: Persephone van der Waard; source: "Straight Dog Water," 2025)

Furthermore, nor will framing trans activists as the exception you're willing to make, ergo the sacrifice; e.g., myself, a trans sex worker, being out in the open and fighting nakedly for Palestinian liberation (re: "Justice for Palestine," 2023), yet always falling short in your eyes; i.e., you've denied every attempt for me to contact you, treating me like I don't exist or like my work is worth less than yours (sex work is work, fuckface); re: "People who talk about sex like it's their main interest must be dealt with. Make it taboo again." You left that message up for over a year, only to recently take it down. Luckily I have receipts:

(source, reupload: "Understanding Vampires," footnote 1)

Of course, while I'm addressing Empanada, here, he's a bad actor who's repeatedly outed himself—his latest doing so being something of a grand unveiling. So while I'm addressing his hateful antics, I'm not really appealing for him to change; i.e., because I think he's a transphobic cunt, one who's poisoned his emancipatory corpus with genocidal counterweights for years.

Instead, the message of this appeal is to his audience (regular or otherwise): his antics harm not just his own scholarship (the death of goodwill, eroding community trust), but the very Palestinians (and other Arabs) being accused of transphobia. In punching down at trans people, Empanada not only frames us in bad faith; he feeds however inadvertently into Orientalism through fascist in-roads (all roads lead to Rome): profiting off its worst aspects (tokenism and false activism) by attacking us directly and Arabs, if only indirectly or by accident.

Again, genocide is genocide, regardless of intent; i.e., intent doesn't matter, outcomes do; e.g., the Holodomor feminine—even if resulting from incompetency—still killed hundreds of thousands. All states are bad, as are state defenders of different kinds; i.e., Bad Empanada is a state apologist through function, a false rebel whose demonstrable Marxist-Leninism I've written about extensively (re: "Understanding Vampires," 2024).

I've studied Bad Empanada for a long time, and always thought his transphobia was present-but-concealed. And up until now, I secretly hoped his antics were somehow discreet; i.e., a tasteless joke from someone I could appeal to the humanity of because his worst antics, like Marx, were relegated to alternate, even private spheres. But bigotry is bigotry regardless of where it occurs, and no one is beyond reproach (re: "Making Marx Gay," 2024). Holistic problems require holistic solutions; developing Communism is holistic, targeting the etiology of genocide (not the symptoms) by imagining a world that embraces the existence of queer people:

(source: Pluto Press)

In Empanada's case, I called his attempts at "humor" a dogwhistle the moment I saw them—i.e., in 2024, when I wrote my book chapter on him (re: "Concerning Vampires") and spoke out on his bigotry elsewhere (re: "I, Sex Doctor"). To it, I've done my best to call him out, but fear I have fallen seriously short. I certainly never apologized for his reactionary antics, but also thought there was some buffer between him and them, thus limit to his capacity for harm: the academic from the man, ergo the racism; i.e., like the bigotry couldn't poison his work, tarnishing its effect.

Did I ignore the signs by not blowing the whistle hard enough? I'm not sure, anymore. All I know is that anyone can regress—with Empanada acting like he somehow can't being a damning testimony to his own first-world privilege. To err is human, and I overlooked his human potential to put his foot squarely in his mouth; i.e., academics are arrogant, even failed or de facto academics. I frankly wasn't expecting my spiritual nemesis to show his ass quite so hard, all at once. But in hindsight, I'm not the slight bit surprised (nor other people, it would seem: "I did expect it at some point, but I'm still sad," writes the author of the thread "Bad Empanada coming out as reactionary" on r/TheDeprogram, below).

(source: r/TheDeprogram, "Bad Empanada coming out as reactionary?" 2025)

I might have "failed," insofar as I never "got anywhere" in fiscal terms, but I still seek to prevent harm. Likewise, I never took reactionary funds to punch down at tiny minorities while acting like I'm not the Destroyer. By comparison, Empanada is increasing the odds that harm will persist; i.e., among those academics who punch down only divide their legacy in ways that cause harm; e.g., Noam Chomsky being a genocide apologist with Cambodia (re: "Police States," 2024), and Norm Finkelstein and Howard Zinn being two-state solutionists (and Finkelstein allegedly having other bigotries, below), etc. Manufactured consent takes many forms, both from the academic and those apologizing for them; e.g., Bad Empanada (an independent researcher) arguing against Jewish exceptionalism, yet shielding Finkelstein—a Jewish academic—from criticism to a knee-jerk, reactionary degree:

(source: r/TheDeprogram, " Thoughts on this take?" 2023)

i.e., the death of goodwill is one of a thousand cuts, smaller betrayals leading to bigger ones. In turn, state apologia extends to apologizing for tokenism to a silencing degree of criticism; i.e., silence takes many forms, including giving someone a measure of doubt if not the full benefit thereof.

In Empanada's case, he's a two-faced hypocrite. In my case, I feel as though I held out hope that Empanada's secret bigotry was smaller than it was, versus having spread throughout his entire existence; i.e., that his microaggressions were somehow "one-offs" or not somehow reflective of a double standard tied to systemic abuse corrupting his work. In other words, I tried to separate the art from the artist, if only to a degree. Sadly his actions over the past week are part of a larger pattern, one demonstrating how Empanada—like other essayists before him—is not an infallible god; he's a man whose flaws have been there the whole time, for all the world to see. To that, I respect his past work, but not his present abuses, while recognizing either category as not being wholly separate.

I believe Finkelstein said something similar to Benny Morris (source: "Benny Morris: They Had It Coming," 2024)—that someone, academic or otherwise, is not shielded in perpetuity for having done good work before. Those who do good work, under capital, often see themselves entering pacts with those they swore to challenge. By going mask-off, Bad Empanada has done so through the incremental apologies that I (and others) have supplied; e.g., "he's a dick but his essays are good." If doing so leads to genocide apologia (which it does), then we're well past the point where picking-and-choosing is even remotely acceptable. Abjection furthers genocide.

To it, bigotry is bigotry and nothing should excuse or apologize for that; i.e., pretending like someone (and their work) isn't corruptible, as time goes on. Radicalism needs to fight for all oppressed peoples, or it's just fascism; re: Parenti's false rebellion tied to unscrupulous bandits who, in some shape or form, take state pay and do state work; i.e., including by proxy or through Marxist-Leninists who promote men like Empanada: debating bigots is always a mistake, and one made by those who—to some degree or another—turn a blind eye.

(source, thumbnail: The Deprogram's "The Fire Will Cease (Ft. Bad Empanada) - Episode 166")

So while hardly a "darling" in my eyes, the phrase "kill your darlings" applies just as well to Empanada. From him to Che to Stalin, a rebel can have a bigoted (therefore fascist) character to their work that—when left unchecked—leads to future harm, en masse. Empanada's currently deleting evidence, yet simultaneously signaling his bigotry to others: DARVO and obscurantism, his own cryptonymy subjugated, regressive, and ultimately resigned to a lack of struggle towards universal liberation (re: me vis-à-vis Frederick Douglass). He's cooked, in other words—lacking tactical unity and calling his deeds "necessary" ipso facto while giving into the cowardly temptation of revenge. He will soon learn that's one bell you can't unring, and you don't defeat the enemy by becoming them (therefore playing into their hands):

(source, thumbnail: Bad Empanada's "Be Ruthless," 2025)

It brings me no pleasure to announce this. One, I'm saying what I and others have already known, albeit in ways that confirm my worst fears. Two, I didn't want another asshole to deal with; i.e., he's just another obstacle to overcome, on top of everything else! But despite how people of privilege betray out of convenience, and those without betray out of desperation (with Empanada, a white straight male Ozzie, having the luxury of privilege to betray others with), abusers are often broken clocks; every exchange goes both ways, the most insufferable able to give something useful even as they harm us in different ways. Empanada, for example, has fought hard for the Palestinians, but sadly has convinced himself the deaths of trans people can liberate his chosen victims to rescue. The state will kill us both, and then hang him with his own rope.

To conclude, "free Palestine" and "trans rights" are not mutually exclusive, and you can oppose the state without pinkwashing its atrocities. Acting otherwise and calling it "triage" is merely a continuation of genocide; i.e., the moment you choose a victim to die is precisely when you become what you fear. Extermination relies on ruthless selection, its pimp-like arbitration the same old refrain. No Omelas children can stop genocide, only intersectional solidarity punching up; i.e., the whores, fags and Arabs fighting the elite as comrades, ergo preventing genocide by not taking part. Capital rapes by design, and Empanada is raping his fellow oppressed by using his privilege to play the victim for others; re: showing other workers his ass.

(artist, top-left: Bay Ryan; mid-left: Rhxbynn; mid-right: Darling; rightmost: Victoria Saix)

And when the Man comes around (Ozzie or not), show him your Aegis (workers included on a paid voluntary basis specifically for this piece; more to be added, as shoots are completed, above)! Justice for all peoples harmed by capital, including Palestinian Arabs and trans people around the world; i.e., for whom Empanada's reactionary antics are ultimately a disservice. An attack on trans women is an attack on enbies, trans men, and intersex people, whereupon our nudity becomes a weapon for our foes to gawk awkwardly at. "Stare and tremble!"

---

Footnotes

[1] Including sex workers—with Luna Sapphire agreeing to take part in my series, only to act like a token cis lesbian, afterward! To it, she took money for the shoot I proposed, while agreeing to my terms, ahead of time. Doing so included my being "able to feature the reference material in/alongside my work or [sic] promotional purposes"

…only to get seriously squirrelly after the shoot was done; i.e., when I asked her if I could promote her work in my series, more or less how we agreed; re: for promotional purposes:

When asking if I could, she said yes, then no; and when I said that was fine, but also tried to correct something uncharitable she had said, she didn't want to hear it. Instead, she chewed me out pretty gruffly before blocking me:

Me: I'd like to make some of your shoot photos into posters like these, if that's ok.

Luna: Actually sorry I just noticed those photos have your watermark with a copyright symbol on them and I'm not comfortable with my images being used that way. You can post them side by side with your art but I don't want your watermark on my images because they are my photos and I own the copyright to them.

Me: Ok, that's fine. Thank you for clarifying. / Though, I wish to add, the symbol isn't a watermark (a transparent symbol placed over something to indicate ownership), but a logo, or solid symbol being used to indicate affiliation; i.e., one tied to my work, where you images would hypothetically appear through a collaboration. The copyright is for the posters themselves, not your original images. Of course, I obviously respect your desire not to appear in the posters (which are designed to promote our work, side-by-side), but did want to clarify their purpose. I'll just be featuring your shoot images in my writing and with the drawing I'll be producing for you while plugging your page in either case […]

Luna: It really doesn't matter if you call it a watermark or a logo lmao. You're still putting a copyright symbol with your website on content that you don't own the copyright to. Slapping some edits and a logo on someone else’s work doesn't make it yours, whether you call it a "poster" or whatever. Use my photos as a reference for whatever art you want to make, I don’t care. But definitely do not put your "logo" on any of my content. You paid $30 for custom content, you did not purchase the rights to the photos in any way.

Basically, she made a strawman—one that boils down to me "calling her work mine"; re: by putting a copyright on a poster featuring images from a shoot we agreed to, and which would appear in my book series for promotional reasons; i.e., that, for all intents and purposes, utilize the same-old promo posters I've made (and featured on my socials) for ages! Having her act this way after the fact felt very strange, as did her arbitrary and quick-to-boil hostility towards me when trying to explain my point of view. To it, I've done dozens upon dozens of these posters, but she's one of the very few who tried to claim I was stealing her work while asking for permission (see: "Transmisia Experience: 5/26/2023" for more examples)!

Cis lesbians be like that, sometimes. Maybe it's a Vegas thing? In any event, she agreed to my featuring the material she produced in my book series. So consider this something of a bad review. Here's her stuff that I'm reviewing

…and here's me saying she's a dick: you're a dick, Luna, and you make lesbians look bad.

The point, here, is workers can disappoint you, mid-struggle, including ones who should know better but still play the fool. All we can do is call it out, make a note of it, and try to learn before moving on! The same idea applies to any workers, including straight guys like Bad Empanada.

About the Author

Persephone van der Waard is the author of the multi-volume, non-profit book series, Sex Positivity—its art director, sole invigilator, illustrator and primary editor (the other co-writer/co-editor being Bay Ryan). Persephone has her independent PhD in Gothic poetics and ludo-Gothic BDSM (focusing partially on Metroidvania), and is a MtF trans woman, Tolkien and Amazon enthusiast, anti-fascist, atheist/Satanist, poly/pan kinkster, erotic artist/pornographer and anarcho-Communist with multiple partners. Including multiple playmates/friends and collaborators, Persephone and her many muses work/play together on Sex Positivity and on her artwork at large as a sex-positive force. That being said, she still occasionally writes reviews, Gothic analyses, and interviews for fun on her old blog (and makes YouTube videos talking about politics). To learn more about Persephone's academic/activist work and larger portfolio, go to her About the Author page. Any money Persephone earns through commissions or donations goes towards helping sex workers through the Sex Positivity project; i.e., by paying costs and funding shoots, therefore raising awareness. She takes payment on PayPal, Patreon, and CashApp, etc; all links are available on her Linktr.ee. Every bit helps!