The Making of a MAGA Maiden: Samantha Fulnecky & the MAGA Media Machine by Rachel Wagner
In the past two weeks we have watched Oklahoma University junior Samantha Fulnecky go from nobody to influencer at dizzying speed. A grade dispute spiraled out of control with Fulnecky and her transgender T.A. at the center of it. And while the intense interest in Fulnecky’s case seems a product of the polarizing zeitgeist, it is more accurate to say Samantha is a MAGA maiden being made. In a recent podcast interview, Samantha’s mother Kristi Fulnecky claims that guileless, quiet Samantha got caught up in forces beyond her control. She did: her mother’s media spin machine and the MAGA apparatus to which her mother was already connected.
Samantha Fulnecky wants to go to medical school to become a neonatologist. That career seems unlikely if she insists the Bible is all she needs to know. Sooner or later, she will encounter an intersex baby. Will she claim as she did in a recent interview that “the Bible says that God created male and female and anything that's not from God…is glorifying to the enemy”? I can’t imagine meeting with the parents of an infant who needs kidney surgery and telling them that Jesus, not science, will be guiding the operation—particularly if the parents happen to be Jewish or Buddhist.
Samantha and her classmates were asked to respond to an academic article based on a study about children and gender norms. Samantha’s response is not well-written. But why should it be? Undergraduate students are learning how to articulate themselves within the parameters of specific disciplines. The whole point is to learn the methods of fields with which you will engage in your career. Your instructors agree to help you learn.
The authors of the article use the term “stereotype” to describe gender norms. But Samantha takes their usage as a personal offense. Instead of addressing the issues presented in the paper, Samantha pivots and offers a Bible lesson:
God made male and female and made us differently from each other…for a purpose. God is very intentional with what He makes, and I believe trying to change that would only do more harm. Gender roles and tendencies should not be considered “stereotypes”.
Whether male and female should be considered “stereotypes” is beside the point. In the research article, “stereotype” is simply a term for what people do. The irony is that the authors of the article could theoretically believe (like Fulnecky) that gender norms are set by God. They don’t tell us, because an academic paper is not the appropriate place for theological speculation.
The authors note that “existing research indicates that many children feel that they do not fit the typical image of a boy or girl.” The authors do not challenge the prevailing gender binary. They also do not mention transgender people at all. But Samantha does:
It is frustrating to me when I read articles like this…of so many people trying to conform to the same mundane opinion, so they do not step on people’s toes. I think that is a cowardly and insincere way to live. It is important to use the freedom of speech we have been given in this country, and I personally believe that eliminating gender in our society would be detrimental, as it pulls us farther from God’s original plan for humans. It is perfectly normal for kids to follow gender “stereotypes” because that is how God made us.
A pivot toward the Bible becomes a pivot toward hate when Samantha adds that “the lies being spread from Satan” invite people (presumably like her transgender T.A.) to live “as another gender than what God made them.”
Like many students learning how to read academic materials, Samantha has misunderstood the argument. The article was not calling for the elimination of gender but observing the effects of existing gender expectations. The article focuses on children who don’t or can’t adhere to gender expectations, and Samantha responds that they should. She bemoans “the lie that there are multiple genders and everyone should be whatever they want to be” and calls this belief “demonic.” Not surprisingly, Samantha failed the assignment. On November 16, her T.A. refused her request for a grade change.
I can readily forgive Samantha’s academic mistakes, because this is what undergraduate learning looks like. But what I find harder to forgive is Samantha’s attack on transgender people and the MAGA pile-ons that use Samantha’s naïveté as a springboard for their own hate. This situation could have turned out so differently. Samantha could have apologized to her T.A. and to her classmates for posting transphobic trash in public view. She could have asked for help understanding why her response was not appropriate for a psychology class. Instead Samantha, her mother, and her mother’s MAGA cronies amplify the hostility. Samantha’s mother, Kristi Fulnecky, is a public media figure and one of the attorneys who defended the January 6 rioters. Samantha is being used, but I doubt she knows that yet.
Within hours of being denied a grade change, Samantha and her mother emailed the dean of the College; the president of OU; and the governor of Oklahoma. Because Kristi “had some experience doing this,” they also notified the editor of The Oklahoman, a local paper. They emailed Ryan Walters, an associate of Kristi and head of the Teacher Freedom Alliance (Ryan Walters made the news a few months ago as part of even more salacious rumors). Kristi explains why they chose Walters: “He's been on Fox a lot and is involved with the Trump administration [and] he's a former Superintendent of Oklahoma who wanted to put the Bibles and the Ten Commandments on the walls in all the schools. So he's…really popular in the conservative movement.” Her kids knew Kristi was skilled with handling the media because “they saw when I went through [press about] City Council [scandals] and January 6. I had Antifa [and]…the Satanists that were against me…but it’s never happened to [Samantha] before.” Samantha filed a claim of religious discrimination at the university, and began the process of grade complaint procedures on campus. She also immediately sought the support of the Turning Point USA chapter on her campus.
First, as her mother had hoped, The Oklahoman ran a story on Samantha and “things really picked up.” Dusty Deevers, an Oklahoma State Senator, took up Samantha’s cause. In a post on X, he suggested in the same situation Muslim or transgender students would have received preferential treatment. Following his lead, Samantha said something similar to the newspaper: "If this situation was regarding any other religion, I'm sure [OU] President Harroz would apologize to them personally on behalf of the university and would assure them they wouldn't let this happen again. But when it comes to Christianity, they'll only act apologetic when they're faced with social media backlash." The narrative of Christian persecution was in place, and Samantha was feeling bolder.
The OU Turning Point chapter publicly stated Samantha was being attacked for being Christian. Oklahoma Representative Gabe Woolley began hurling scorn at the T.A. for being transgender, linking her gender identity with a presumed intellectual deficit:
This individual is a man presenting himself as a woman. I don’t know what he has gone through that led him down this path, and my heart genuinely breaks for him. But personal trauma and personal decisions do not grant anyone the authority to misuse their position or to demand that others affirm arguments that are completely unscientific… he is ignoring foundational principles of human psychology and biology: that men and women are two distinct sexes created in a purposeful, binary design according to God’s order…To use academic power to punish or pressure a student simply because she stood firm in her faith and cited real science in her essay is not leadership. It is inappropriate, unacceptable, and should be investigated for discrimination.
The University of Oklahoma posted about the incident, announcing the assignment would be deleted from Fulnecky’s grade and asserting their commitment to “First Amendment rights, certainly including religious freedoms.” Then Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt claimed Fulnecky’s freedom of speech had been compromised.
Other organizations became involved. The Oklahoma Freedom Caucus demanded the University apologize, even before full academic review of the situation: “OU could say today, without compromising any investigation, that students may not be penalized for sincerely held religious beliefs, that professors cannot grade on ideology, and that biblical reasoning is not disqualifying in a reaction paper.” The next day the Caucus issued a press release accusing the university of supporting “radical woke ideology” and asking the Legislature to cut funding if “corrective action” was not taken. This is manufactured claptrap. But it links claims of religious persecution with anti-trans sentiment and attacks on higher education, so works in lockstep with national MAGA priorities.
Oklahoma Senator Shane Jett says in the press release that taxpayers “should not continue bankrolling indoctrination mills that violate the First Amendment.” The release calls Samantha’s failing grade “harassment” and sees Fulnecky’s treatment as “echoing the tragic assassination of TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk.” The MAGA maiden has now become a Christian martyr.
Michael Knowles complains on his show that the Bible should be cited in scientific papers. He agrees with Samantha’s suggestion that children who don’t conform to gender expectations should be teased, saying it’s “not [exactly] cruelty, but just a little bit.” Then he giggles. Knowles tells OU officials: “This girl should be totally vindicated. The professor should be punished and fired. And the girl should be given full credit” (Knowles, Dec. 2). The dream, apparently, is to have MAGA men grading college assignments because woke professors cannot be trusted.
The Fulneckys then reached national recognition when Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida posted on X about the controversy, referring to “intellectual rot in higher education.” On December 3 Samantha was invited to speak before the Oklahoma Constitutional Principles Affecting Culture Foundation (OCPAC), a conservative think tank. They plopped Fulnecky at the front of the room, stared at adoringly by legislators. Oklahoma Representative Gabe Wooley and Oklahoma Senator Shane Jett pose afterward in a photo with Samantha receiving a “citation of recognition.”
This kind of manufactured event positions Samantha as a vibrant new symbol for young Christians victimized by evil academic institutions. She looks just miserable.
Ryan Walters, at Mar-a-Lago with President Trump, zooms in to the OCPAC luncheon to comment on the controversy. His looming visage, Oz-like, declares he and Trump are busy “fighting these Marxist teachers’ unions, working on getting America back on track where we actually protect freedom of religion, we actually protect Christianity.” He says the people responsible for Samantha’s abuse “should all be fired and we should be looking into…taxpayer dollars at OU.” The president of OCPAC calls Samantha “anointed to start a national fire throughout America.” Walters calls her an “American hero.” The same day, Walters spoke for the Teacher Freedom Alliance attacking “inclusion” efforts on university campuses as “word games” by “the left” that promote “victimology in the classroom.” If it weren’t so sordid, the irony would be delicious.
At the event, Samantha expresses pity for non-Christians: “They don’t know the truth; they don’t have the Holy Spirit…[I]t’s unfortunate that people think that Christianity is stupid, that the Bible is stupid and that it’s all just some made-up story…[I]t’s comforting to know that the God of the universe…[is] ultimately the one defending us.” Jesus, it seems, is Lord of the university too—and that makes Samantha’s authority higher than her professors’. Here we are at the crux of the thing. Jesus’s authority is higher than science, higher than professors, higher than institutions of higher education. His “truth” wins in the battle of expertise by default. As ridiculous as this claim is when you must apply it to the knowledge and skills needed for actual careers, it serves the purpose of riling up the rabble against elitist universities who don’t respect Christians enough—especially attractive young white Christian MAGA students.
Franklin Graham uses the incident to boost the narrative of Christian persecution, posting on X that Samantha failed the assignment only because she “wrote about her Christian beliefs related to gender norms.” In refusing to accept a failing grade, Samantha was “standing up” for Jesus!
That same day, Samantha appeared on CBN where she complained the president of OU had not yet apologized to her. Embracing her martyr role, she advises listeners: “Be bold in your faith…We will be hated for our beliefs and for saying that we're Christians and so…don't back down…even if we don't see that reward here on earth we will [in heaven].” The next day Samantha, who her mother had called “apolitical” and “sweet,” was calling for her T.A. to be terminated. In an interview for the OU Daily, she says: “If you can’t do your job right in any setting, you get fired.” Samantha then misgenders the T.A. and says that despite their disagreements, “God loves him.”
The thing is, they don’t even believe this garbage themselves. In her initial podcast about the incident, Kristi Fulnecky mostly uses the right pronouns for T.A. Mel Curth, though at one point she chuckles and calls Curth a “man-woman-they.” At the OCPAC meeting, Samantha claims she didn’t know at first that her T.A. was transgender and adds: “And I also didn’t care because it was an online class…I never had to interact with him or anything…I had no idea.” But she almost certainly did know. The pronoun identifiers “she/they” appear in the email signature Curth uses, and Fulnecky had several email exchanges with Curth. This indifference is bizarrely hopeful since it reveals the charade of “evil” is only skin deep—despite the very real damage such views do to trans people. In another interview Samantha says she actually doesn’t mind having a transgender teacher “if they’re able to separate their kind of beliefs and things from grading then I don’t really care who my professors are.” What an odd thing to say if you truly believe your professor is driven by Satan.
In the past few weeks, there have been similar disputes across the country. The University of Alabama shut down two student magazines, one focusing on women and the other on Black culture. The decision is based on a July memo from Attorney General Pam Bondi, part of the Trump administration’s attempts to redefine discrimination as its opposite—that is, to remove protections from women and people of color to “protect” whiteness and maleness.
A legal dispute between Moody Bible Institute and Chicago Public Schools pivots on the issue of “discrimination.” Moody claims its student teachers are being discriminated against; Chicago Public Schools have refused to hire these students until Moody ends its own discriminatory practice of hiring only people who ascribe to their beliefs.
A Colorado State University student is complaining he was spat upon while writing Bible verses in chalk on the sidewalk during a protest to protect immigrant rights against ICE offenses. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier recently accused the American Bar Association and Microsoft of anti-Christian discrimination. He called on the Pensacola City Council to cancel “A Drag Queen Christmas,” calling it “demonic” (to be fair, one of the performers is called the “Demon Queen of Seattle”).
The misdirection is the point. In the 1980s, abortion became the cover issue for right wing reluctance to give up segregated schools. In the 1990s, gay people became the conservative punching bag for dwindling control. Christians have long objected to the teaching of evolution in classrooms, using this as a proxy for the dangers of liberal education in their quest for power. Now trans people are the target, though as Samantha’s story shows, this is as much a vile media concoction as the others. The real thing being protected is white supremacy. Samantha’s mother says Samantha has been invited to participate in Turning Point USA’s annual “AmericaFest” on December 18-21, where she may rub shoulders with Erica Kirk, Michael Knowles, and Riley Gaines, among other conservative folks famous for being famous.
I feel sorry for Samantha Fulnecky. I think it unlikely she will achieve her dream of becoming a doctor without a willingness to question sloppy religious assumptions. But I feel worse for Mel Curth, who is being publicly ridiculed by the right-wing machine. Fulnecky’s essay refers to “the lie that there are multiple genders” as “demonic.” Turning Point USA calls Curth “mentally ill” for being transgender. Oklahoma State Representative Gabe Wooley says, with Fulnecky, that transgender people have succumbed to “demonic forces.” What nonsense. Not to worry, though. Fulnecky says to The Oklahoman: “I didn’t mean the demonic part in an offensive way.”
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