A volunteer host at the closing ceremony of the National LGBTQ Journalists Association (NLGJA) convention in Palm Springs, California, hosted by Fox News, shocked attendees with an anti-transgender remark.

Marshall McPeek, a meteorologist with an ABC affiliate station out of Columbus, Ohio, referred to those gathered as, “Ladies and gentlemen, things and its.” Journalist Mary Emily O’Hara tweeted her upset at the moment from the event, and shared that fellow journalist Monica Roberts, who is herself transgender and who publishes the TransGriot blog, shouted down the remarks.

And shout out to @TransGriot, who immediately yelled “oh no he did not” and “there are no Things or Its here” at the stage — Mary Emily O’Hara (@MaryEmilyOHara) September 9, 2018

McPeek returned to the stage to apologize, and has resigned his membership to NLGJA, which has released a statement apologizing as well, calling his words an “inappropriate, unscripted remark.”

“We’ve worked hard for many years to make NLGJA an inclusive organization for transgender and nonbinary journalists,” the statement reads. “People were understandably hurt and offended by last night’s remarks. As journalists, we understand uniquely that words matter. We apologize and are committed to working to make NLGJA more inclusive and diverse.”

Yet for many, including Roberts, “the damage was still done,” as she explained on TransGriot:

Far too often, that derogatory ’things and its’ comment has been hurled at us by gay men and our detractors. It definitely shouldn’t have happened during a journalism organization convention dedicated to ensuring accurate and respectful coverage of the TBLGQ community, and problematically hosted by a ’news’ organization that routinely demonizes trans, NB [non-binary] and GNC [gender non-conforming] people. NLGJA has been handed a moment in which it can be a leader in addressing and helping to solve the dearth of trans journalists problem. The question is will we see progress on increasing the abysmal numbers of trans, NB and GNC journalists before we gather again a year from now in New Orleans?