An LA-based YouTuber said she was asked to leave a Team 10 house party early Saturday along with a friend, who’s also trans, because they were told houseguests were expecting “real girls” to show up.
Lilah Gibney, 21, told BuzzFeed News a Team 10 video editor named Blane O’Roark approached her and another YouTuber, who goes by Kendall Raindrop, and asked them to leave the party soon after they arrived. They were invited to come several times by Team 10 housemates around 1:30 a.m., she added.
“He was asking us to leave and we were like, ‘What do you mean? We just got here,’” said Gibney. “He was like, ‘I just thought real girls were coming.’”
When reached, O’Roark told BuzzFeed News he had no comment on the incident.
Gibney said when O’Roark first uttered those words, she instinctively “though to record and vlog it.” So she pulled out her phone, and to her surprise, he repeated himself, and it was recorded.
She then shared the footage in a vlog on YouTube.
In the video, and cell footage, O’Roark is heard defending himself against accusations that he’s being anti-trans and for calling the women “not girls” and that he was “told that girls were coming.”
“I’m not trying to be disrespectful — I’m just being real,” O’Roark then tells the women.
Gibney said the remarks felt “so insane and shocking” to hear, especially at a famous YouTube flagship like the Team 10 house.
“We’re getting asked to leave somewhere I was so comfortable — just for being ourselves,” she said. “When I woke up the next morning, I was expecting it to all be fake.”
Gibney said she and Raindrop proceeded to Uber home. During the ride, she filmed herself crying over the incident.
“It was all so much to take in,” she said.
Gibney also said she heard from a Team 10 manager immediately following the incident, who initially sounded empathetic. However, after she shared what had happened on YouTube and to her Instagram stories, she said his tone drastically changed.
“Right after we got kicked out, he had DMed me on Instagram and called me and said, ‘If I knew this was happening we would have stopped it,’” she said of the manager.
“[Then] he got mad and made me feel bad for posting.”
Gibney shared with BuzzFeed News screenshots of texts she said she received from the manager the following day, threatening her with legal action.
She said she was then pulled into a conference call with another Team 10 staffer, where she said she felt she was “guilt-tripped” to remain quiet about it all.
“They were like, ‘You’re going to ruin Team 10’s reputation in general,’” she said she was told during the conversation.
“Why are you guys defending someone who literally kicked me out of the house?” Gibney said she responded. “If you stand for trans rights and LGBT rights, this could have been easily stopped by making an apology and getting rid of the person who caused the problem.”
She said they then threatened to “terminate [their] relationship” with her publicly and privately if she kept publicizing the ordeal. On Monday, she claims the manager had blocked her on Instagram altogether.
Neither of the Team 10 staffers mentioned, nor Team 10’s reps immediately responded to, multiple requests for comment.
Under Gibney’s vlog, which has been viewed over 84,000 times since Saturday, a flood of comments have recently shown up accusing she and Raindrop of mislabeling O’Roark’s remarks as anti-trans...all while also posting anti-trans remarks.
Gibney said she wants to make others “realize transphobic people are so relevant.”
“The [transgender] community needs to be more normalized and talked about,” she said. “Trans people are people, trans women are women, trans men are men. It’s not up for debate — it’s fact.”
Beyond O’Roark’s comments, she added, she’s also disappointed by other YouTubers and Team 10.
“They could have not tried to silence what happened and fully admitted to what happened in their house, and that they don’t stand for that,” said Gibney. “Instead, they’re trying to make it a fight. We were never asked what happened, or if we were OK. It was always about money and their reputation.”