After opening a new social profile on Bluesky, the network that has welcomed millions of users fleeing Elon Musk’s X–including large numbers of individuals from the LGBTQ community–Vice President JD Vance quickly made headlines with a series of posts against trans people.
Before long, his account became the most blocked account on the platform. Following a Supreme Court ruling upholding the constitutionality of a Tennessee law banning gender affirming medical treatment for transgender minors, Vance began to poke at users of the social media platform, which during the 2024 election campaign became a rallying point for voters of the Democratic faith and those opposed to the Trump-Musk partnership.
“I’ve been told this app has become the place to go for common sense political discussion and analysis,” Vance wryly wrote Wednesday in his first post on Bluesky, soon after the Supreme Court ruling. “So I am thrilled to be here to engage with all of you.”
The vice president went on to express his support for the justices’ decision, arguing, with a generous dose of conspiratorial thinking and inaccurate information, that “many of those scientists [in favor of gender affirmative care for minors] are receiving substantial resources from big pharmaceutical companies to promote these drugs on children.”
As expected, Vance received thousands more hostile comments than likes for these provocations: however, by Thursday afternoon his profile had reached 9,000 followers on the platform. His account was also verified by Bluesky, which had temporarily suspended him on Wednesday due to a false alarm about his authenticity.
After his reinstatement, Vance quickly broke a record for the website: in fact, he now runs the most blocked profile on Bluesky. This was noticed by journalist Jesse Singal, who previously held this particular “record,” for his articles on the LGBTQ community.
According to initial estimates, the vice president’s account has already been blocked by nearly 100,000 people. At the moment, Vance is not following anyone on social, and it is unclear whether he will return to posting new content to troll users of the platform.
