this is a repost from brenton awa's account, who is a conservative republican lawmaker.
he makes a living off of presenting himself as a native hawaiian speaking for the community despite telling a native hawaiian community elder that she should've been killed for criticizing him and that he didn't regret saying it (she was criticizing him for showing up to vote against banning aquarium fishing on her native land, to be clear)
he also insulted our one transgender state rep (who is, you guessed it, mixed and from hawaii) by calling her a slur immediately after she was elected, mocking the rep she unseated for losing to someone like her. [no, 'mahu' is not just 'the normal term for trans women in hawaii': while it can be used as as a term for self-identity, if you call someone else a mahu, it is not being used that way. don't believe me? go call a hawaiian a mahu unprompted and see how they take it]
he has also been the one to introduce legislation that bans talking about sexuality and gender identity in hawaii schools, giving the parents the option to sue if the schools do not comply
as well as introducing bills mandating 'sex-specific' sports teams
every time i see people posting content from his account that's directly playing into his grift where he portrays himself as a defender of hawaiian rights in order to get votes and attention i kind of want to scream
