MrBeast defends BFF Ava Kris Tyson against far-right transphobic attacks

YouTube impresario and philanthropist MrBeast, aka Jimmy Donaldson, isn't known for being outspoken about his political views. But when it comes to his best friend and collaborator Ava Kris Tyson, Donaldson has made it clear he won't tolerate right-wing transphobes going after his friend.

On June 22, streamer Nickmercs responded to a since-deleted tweet by Tyson, a longtime friend of Donaldson and a wildly popular content creator in his own right who came out as transgender in April 2023. “You should be ashamed of yourself. Leaving your wife and child behind, playing pretend. One day you'll wake up and realize what you've done,” the streamer wrote. (Tyson has a four-year-old son, Tucker, whom he shares with ex-wife Katie, from whom he split in 2022.)

Responding to Nickmercs' tweet, Tyson criticized Nickmercs for using her son as “click bait,” writing, “Trans people can be great parents, they and their ex-partners can have warm and healthy relationships together with their parents and anyone who makes a The child engages in online drama, gives cause to “save the children.” Her tweet has since been deleted, as have other posts on her account.

Donaldson too he answered in Nickmercs' tweet, defending Tyson against criticism of her upbringing. “Ava is literally always with her child and doesn't even go on set to spend more time with him,” she wrote. “Tuck Man is always smiling, not sure why this rumor is a thing.” Tyson's ex-wife Katie also issued a statement to X defending her ex-partner, writing that Tucker is “loved and cared for by both parents” and that their lives are “both better than ever.”

“Tucker's life is being kept relatively private, as much as it can, only because of people like you trying to make headlines with a 4-year-old's life being torn apart as a headline,” he wrote. (A representative for Donaldson and Tyson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.)

This is not the first time that Donaldson has publicly defended his friend against bullying and harassment by transphobes. In April 2023, YouTuber sunnyv2 made a video titled, “Why [Ava Kris] He's going to be a nightmare for MrBeast soon,” considering that Tyson's transition may cause Donaldson to lose fans. “This is getting ridiculous,” Donaldson wrote on X in response to a tweet criticizing sunnyv2's video. “[Ava Kris] he's not my “nightmare” he's my fucking friend and things are fine. All this transphobia is starting to piss me off.”

Unfortunately, despite Tyson and his ex's pleas to keep their family out of the public conversation, Nickmercs' post appears to have led to an onslaught of far-right hate from professional transphobes like Daily Wire host Matt Walsh and Chaya Raichik's Libs TikTok. “It shouldn't be legal for a parent to 'switch'. All parents who do this are abusers,” Walsh wrote on June 24, tweeting a photo of Tyson and her ex-wife and child before her transition. Raichik referred to Tyson's gender identity as a “mental illness [celebrated by] leftists,” accusing Tyson of “throwing [her] life away.”

The backlash against Tyson's transition, however, appears to have had little impact on either Donaldson's or Tyson's platforms. Donaldson, who has an impressive 289 million subscribers, has amassed 27 million new followers in the past 30 days alone, according to data from SocialBlade. Tyson's channel, though much smaller, has seen a similar boost, garnering more than 660,000 views in the past month. Many MrBeast fans have rallied behind Donaldson and Tyson in their responses to X, with many praising Donaldson for continuing to stand by his friends.

“Sir. Beast's defense of Ava in the face of massive transphobia in his responses is a win for Pride Month in my books,” one follower wrote. “I don't care if it's the least, the biggest YouTuber in the world says 'Trans Rights” and that's amazing.” Despite the far right's best efforts to discredit Tyson, it seems that MrBeast's impact far exceeds any of theirs — and to paraphrase a colloquialism from this area of ​​the Internet, they can go ahead and cope harder.