This is Dexter, the 2-year old son of Katie Vyktoriah Reed, who runs the blog A Mother Thing.
You can't actually visit her site right now, because her recent blog post brought so much traffic that the site went down.
In addition to dressing like Superman, Spiderman, and Batman, Dexter also likes pink.
Last week, Katie says she took Dexter to a Davenport, Florida, Walmart with her while she did some shopping. He wore his mom's headband there. Cute, right?
But one man apparently didn't think it was so cute. From Katie's blog:
Out of nowhere a big booming voice rang out. "THAT'S a BOY?!"
[...]
"Yes," I said simply, still smiling.
With no notice, the man stepped forward, grabbed the headband off of Dexter's head and threw it to the bottom of our shopping cart. He then cuffed Dexter around the side of his head (not hard, but that is not the point) and said with a big laugh, "You'll thank me later, little man!"
At the same time as I stepped forward, Dexter grabbed his head where the man had smacked him and threw his other hand forward, stomping his foot and shouting, "NO!" I got between my son and this man and said very firmly, "If you touch my son again, I will cut your damn hands off."
The guy snarled at me, looked at Dexter with disgust and said, "Your son is a f*cking fa***t." He then started sauntering out, but not before he threw over his shoulder, "He'll get shot for it one day."
OK, here are some things you should never do to 2-year-olds:
1. Rip off their super-cool headbands.
2. Hit them on the head.
3. Tell them they will thank you later for abusing them and teaching them about homophobia.
4. Call them a faggot.
5. Say they will get shot one day.
There have been messages of support for Katie on the Facebook page:
But there have also been negative comments. Katie wrote on her Facebook:
There are a lot of people who have stood up for us and been kind, and to you all I thank you so much. But I am now receiving emails telling me that people are posting our personal information online. Our HOME is being targeted. We are being bullied in the worst way. We are on the phone with the sheriff and waiting for them to show up. I've had emails that are disgusting and nasty. I've been told that all the trolling will go away "if I castrate my son." I am furious and terrified. To all those who are making our lives miserable, thanks so much. You are the scum of the earth. You are far worse than the man at WalMart. You are disgusting. I have deleted everything I can find online. Photos, videos, websites, profiles, everything. I will do whatever I have to to protect my children. Thank you for making us feel unsafe.
The police are dealing with the situation, however.
The Polk County Sheriff's Deputy has just left our home, and all information about the original Wal Mart incident and the ongoing harassment has been documented and is being dealt with. I have been advised NOT to say any more about the situation, as the investigation is ongoing, so thank you all for your support, but I am going to be offline for the next while until all of this is resolved.
The adorable family.
UPDATE — Tuesday, Aug. 6, 6:50 p.m. EDT:
The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that Katie Vyktoriah (real name Kathleen Carpenter) has been hospitalized for mental evaluation after police were concerned about suicidal statements.
Amid growing doubts over the veracity of Vyktoriah/Carpenter's story, the Huffington Post has removed her original blog post.