Out of the hundreds and hundreds of mass killers… one just one by a trans person has brought out the conservatives to gloat.
The Far Right Is Exploiting the Nashville Tragedy to Promote Transphobia
As soon as it became known that the shooter may have identified as trans, the right-wing media outrage ecosystem went to work.
The Advocate
By Christopher Wiggins
March 28 2023Even before police officials in Tennessee identified the person responsible for murdering three children and three adults in the latest mass school shooting in the U.S., far-right extremists and transphobic people began spreading misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation focused on transgender people and not guns.After Nashville police officials announced that the shooter, 28-year-old Audrey E. Hale — a former student at the Covenant School — identified as transgender, right-wing circles wasted no time and immediately began exploiting the tragedy for political opportunities to attack transgender people.
Officials initially identified the shooter as a female and experts remarked on the rarity with which mass shooters are female; however, Hale's LinkedIn profile reportedly indicated that Hale used he and him pronouns. Hale died in the shootout with police.
The usual drum beaters are leading the parade…
Georgia Republican firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is proudly and vocally transphobic, implied that because the shooter was trans, they were mentally ill and suffering from side effects of their gender-affirming care.
“How much hormones like testosterone and medications for mental illness was the transgender Nashville school shooter taking? Everyone can stop blaming guns now,” she tweeted.
And there is pushback…
Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, an organization calling for better gun laws, also called out Greene's posts.
"The shooter had access to two AR-style rifles, an AR-style handgun, and a handgun, but a Congresswoman is blaming the trans community for gun violence. People who are trans are much more likely to be the victims of violent crime than the perpetrators. It’s the guns," Watts wrote.
The Daily Beast wrote,
“Why are some trans people so angry, and why do they seem to be mad specifically at traditional Christians?” Carlson asked Tuesday, echoing a similar line to that of other conservative commentators in the wake of Monday’s shooting.
To make his point, the Fox News host cited three examples of gender-nonconforming people who were responsible for threats or violence in recent years—largely without context. There have been more than 300 mass shootings in the United States since 2009, according to Everytown For Gun Safety, a pro-gun control nonprofit.
Here is my prediction.
The Second Amendment group will by calling for laws banning gun ownership by trans people because we are “mentally ill.” You watch, the usual suspect Republican states will propose laws banning gun ownership by us.
The Insider said;
Following a deadly shooting at an elementary school in Tennessee, some prominent Republicans are highlighting evidence that the perpetrator was transgender — and suggesting that gender identity played a role in causing the violence.
Details continue to emerge about the shooting, but there is no evidence to suggest that identifying as transgender leads to a propensity for inflicting violence.
By contrast, several studies have found that transgender people face disproportionate levels of violence by virtue of their identity.
Nashville television station WION said;
In the aftermath of the deadly Nashville shooting where six people were killed including three nine-year-olds, a section of the US media is trying to conjure a connection to transgender activism. As per claims made in these reports, the shooting carried out by 28-year-old Audrey Elizabeth Hale, a transgender person, took place days ahead of the so-called 'Trans Day of Vengeance', which was purported to be held on March 31-April 1.
The reports are referring to websites and Twitter posts of a so-called Trans Radical Activist Network (TRAN), which appears to have made a call-to-action to 'end trans genocide'.
Anyone ever heard of this organization? I haven’t. What about 'Trans Day of Vengeance'? I thinks these are figments of the right-wing imagination.
Some reports also claimed that the group was raising money for firearms training for the group members. The Twitter handle of the account has been locked with tweets only visible to the followers.
The right-wing propaganda machine has been cranked up on Maximum.
Much of this reporting is coming from right-wing media outlets in the US. It is not clear if Hale was in any way associated with the movement or inspired by the call-to-action.
Yeah, sadly we saw the right-wing conservative media blitz coming as soon as the media said the shooter was trans.
Violence is never the answer, we must respond with our voice and the voting box.
Of 130 US mass shootings this year the one involving a gender questioning person (less than 1%) brings the vultures out. On the good news front recent polling shows that most regular Americans are either indifferent or approving. The reason for the ramped up vitriol is that right knows they are already on the wrong side of history
ReplyDeleteI do not condone violence from any corner. Victims deserve our attention before perpetrators. But, it's important for all to acknowledge that threats of violence originate from all sides. And worse, they've been amplified by all corners of the media. What effect does media sensationalism have on the reader's mental health stability?
ReplyDeleteRecently, a professor at Wayne State University was suspended after posting social media statements suggesting that people would be justified in killing speakers who hold opposing views on issues like transgender policies. What effect did that professor's social media posts have on the reader's mental health stability? In what world would such actions be justified?
I've seen media promoting professors advocating “detonating white people,” denouncing police, celebrating the death of conservatives, calling for the killing of Trump supporters, supporting the murder of conservative protesters and other outrageous statements. Infamously, University of Rhode Island professor Erik Loomis, defended the murder of a conservative protester and said that he saw “nothing wrong” with such acts of violence. In what world would such actions be justified?
I cite the above NOT to advocate one side or the other, but to give evidence that both sides speak to inflame without regard to potential consequences. No one gains from inflammatory rhetoric regardless of source or position. And ALL media promote inflammatory language. None of it is good. If we want to stop what we perceive as inflammatory gamesmanship, then we must honestly be prepared to do so as well.
Yes there are some liberals who condone violence, you picked a few examples of liberals who expressed violence as the answer. But it is offset by thousands and thousands conservatives that have expressed violence including legislators. At the Conservative Political Action Conference speaker after speaker called laws against us and one even called for our eradication! Politicians on the floor of Congress have called for violence against us.
DeleteAccording the FBI, Anti-Defamation League, the ACLU hate crimes have skyrocketed in last 5 or 6 years. The murder of trans people have reached an all time high, along with the murders of Jews, and Asians.
Yes, there have been a few LGBTQ+ who called for violence but I think the scales are pegged by right-wing conservatives who call for violence and act out that violence… the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida... 49 dead, Club Q, Colorado Springs… 5 killed, 25 injured, Pittsburgh synagogue shooting… 11 killed, and just look at the Transgender Day of Remembrance list of names.
Well, I tried.... It isn't about degrees or comparisons. It's about stopping exhortations to violence from all corners. No such exhortations are justifiable in any world.
DeleteThe right overwhelmingly generates more violence and one need look no further than the Nazis for example. Right wing ideology tends to lean towards violence because it is always about disdain for the "other" who doesn't fit in to their social ideal. So long as you don't fit their model you are a potential target
ReplyDeleteWhen people are in a fight for their lives then the slogan By Any Means Necessary comes into play. All means to gain freedom are on the table. Most of us myself included are still in the Gandhi, King, turn the other cheek mode of nonviolence taught to us by people of the 1960ties or some of the religious folks who teach us to be good and you will get pie in the sky. I swing back and forth. I wonder what do we do if the right really gets rolling and they start after us? Go with them even though we know where they are leading us? Or do we fight back? How long and what needs to happen before we get to that point? Should we follow folks who tell us to give up our guns and then what? I do not think that any of us will ever be able to solve the problem of violence as that is what mankind has always been noted for. Check out ourselves, we clamor to be in the military, why, to kill those who the government tells us are our enemies? (everything else is just excuses) We jump at the chance to support war against the big bad monster Russia. Very few liberals made a peep when Obama was president, and this country was conducting 7 different wars. Now we have a war going on against the Transgender, the LGB community, the Black community a real war in its early stages. War is declared on some of my friends and comrades, on the very people who taught me so much. I think of you Diana, of Jerimarie, of Sylvia, Clinton, Aaron, Leslie, Marsha. I have to admit that at 75 I have no answers to what we are facing today even if I sound like I do. Be well and safe.
ReplyDelete