TLC Expels Derick Dillard Over Transphobic Comments Against Jazz Jennings
"Counting On" star Jill Duggar-Dillard's husband Derick Dillard has been fired from TLC. He will no longer appear in future episodes of the series after he decided to verbally assault "I am Jazz" star Jazz Jennings.
Through Twitter, Derick implied that TLC has been taking advantage of Jazz by promoting her lifestyle on her series. He also called out her parents for allowing her to make such a decision to transition. He said that it does not make sense that Jazz was allowed to make such a life-altering decision when children at her age are incapable of doing so, especially when brains reach full development at 25 years of age, he emphasized.
Apart from the aforementioned, what irked many netizens, as well as his fans, were his continued usage of the pronoun "him" to refer to Jazz.
In light of Derick's recent preaching, TLC has decided to kick him out of "Counting On" for the rest of its run. They made the announcement also on Twitter.
— TLC Network (@TLC) November 11, 2017
TLC has made themselves clear that they believe Jazz deserves to promote her lifestyle through her series as much as they have allowed the ever-growing Duggar family to promote their own agenda, which all started with "19 Kids and Counting."
Following the backlash, Derick sent out tweets to clarify his position on this situation which, according to him, was not from a bully's point of view. He wrote, "Never bullied anyone, just said I didn't agree with what is being propagated on tv. I'm expressing my view of what should be treated as reality; if I say I feel like I am Nepali, that doesn't make me so."
Though Derick has been booted out of the TLC series, his wife, Jill, is still expected to appear on it.
"Counting On" airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on TLC.
