The woke left never ceases to amaze us. It seems that everything good, positive, and worthwhile they are intent on tearing down and destroying. Most of the time, we snicker and giggle at their ridiculous ideas and practices, but other times, the things they do are cruel and demeaning, all in the name of their insane idealogy, and should make all of us hopping mad. The story of Fran Itkoff is one of those woke stories that should have every American seeing red and saying enough to the religion of wokeism.

UNREAL. National MS Society (@mssociety) forced a 90-year-old volunteer to step down because she wasn’t “inclusive” enough after she asked what pronouns are.

Fran volunteered for 60 years and her late husband had MS.

The @mssociety still hasn’t said a word about this. Don’t… pic.twitter.com/OlXrT2kClQ

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 14, 2024

Fran Itkoff is 90 years old. She lives in California, and much of her life has been devoted to volunteering — remember that word, volunteering — for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. It is a cause that hits close to home for Fran. She lost her husband to MS 20 years ago and took over his position as head of the Long Beach Lakewood MS support group, as well as volunteering for the National MS Society. Over those decades of caring for others who suffer from the disease that took her husband, she has won countless awards, including a Volunteer Lifetime Achievement award in 2008. In the late 70s, her husband won the National MS Father of the Year and flew to Washington D.C. to meet with then-President Jimmy Carter. But apparently, all that is meaningless to the MS Society unless you know your pronouns. 

This latest example of woke insanity began when a group representative asked that she use pronouns in her email signature. The whole "pronoun" thing makes little sense to many who are much younger, much less a senior citizen. Fran said as much, “I was confused. I didn’t know what it was and what it meant. I had seen it on a couple of letters that had come in after the person’s name. But I didn’t know what it meant." The only explanation Fran received from the Representative was, "That meant they were all-inclusive, which didn’t make sense to me.” Join the club, Fran, it doesn't make sense to a lot of people. 

But because the good people at the MS Society are so tolerant, instead of maybe sitting down with Fran and explaining a bit further about transgender folks and pronouns, they found it much easier just to force her to step down, and within days, that is exactly what happened. Fran was summarily dismissed from her decades of service, not to her face, but ironically in a cowardly email from National MS Society Community Engagement Manager Kali Kulor, who told Fran she had violated the MS Society's "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" (DEI) guidelines. Kulor also separated the partnership between the Long Beach Lakewood MS group and the national organization.

“Recently, a volunteer, Fran Itkoff, was asked to step away from her role because of statements that were viewed as not aligning with our policy of inclusion.”

Translation: “We’re all about diversity and inclusion except when we’re not. You have to think exactly like us or we’ll… https://t.co/juMV51GM5a

— Chris Hohnholz (@ChrisHohnholz) February 16, 2024

Fran stated she was "completely shocked" and added, “I can’t believe… I had to read it a couple of times to see if I’m getting what she said." Fran's daughter, Elle Hamilton, was understandably angry about this. She found still more irony in her mom's firing, pointing out that the MS Society is so focused on DEI, yet Fran, a senior citizen and disabled herself, did not meet the DEI criteria. She stated, “And literally the sole purpose was to help the MS patients and find a cure. That’s literally all she does." Hamilton went on to say:

“It’s sad that they’re discriminating against her. MS doesn’t discriminate, it can happen to anybody, and yet they’re discriminating against her trying to help just because she asked a question to explain what pronouns were. I don’t know what’s worse if the MS society is focusing on these words and these pronouns and they’ve lost their focus on finding a cure for MS and helping the patients. It’s a sad day."

The MS Society wasn't done yet. In an internal email to other volunteers, the executive vice president of the MS Society's general counsel implied that Fran's dismissal was because "others shouldn’t have to feel 'unsafe' at work." Fran Itkoff is 90 years old. Unless she is packin' an Uzi, how on earth is she making anyone feel unsafe?  As this whole debacle has gone viral, thanks to "Libs of TikTok," the MS Society's President and CEO Cyndi Zagieboylo quietly resigned. Numerous heated replies on the MS Society's X page stated they would no longer donate to the organization.

But when you are motivated by ideology and nothing more, sacrificing 90-year-old volunteers is nothing more than collateral damage. The MS Society's crowning achievement in this story was the statement they issued on Thursday that read in part,

Recently, a volunteer, Fran Itkoff, was asked to step away from her role because of statements that were viewed as not aligning with our policy of inclusion. Fran has been a valued member of our volunteer team for more than 60 years. We believe that our staff acted with the best of intentions and did their best to navigate a challenging issue. As an organization, we are in a continued conversation about assuring that our diversity, equity and inclusion policies evolve in service of our mission, and will reach out to Fran in service of this goal.

As we continue to discover daily, the inclusion part of DEI doesn't mean the inclusion of everyone.

Fran Itkoff served the mission longer than most of you have been alive. If you really cared for MS, I'd say "good luck" because this is going to lose you donors and volunteers. The problem is you all now really serve a cult, not MS. https://t.co/XZbKzo9ikC

— Eddie Stage (@_Xalthe_) February 16, 2024