The Shooter Was What?!

I spend a lot of time tuned in to conservative media. I listen to the local AM stations, I scroll through Twitter, and I check in on the right-wing corners of the internet, and ever since it came out that the shooter was a trans woman, that’s all they want to talk about. “Trans this, trans that.” It’s wall-to-wall coverage, and it’s all a distraction.

The reality is that this shooter was a neo-Nazi. That’s the fact. But instead of confronting the threat of violent fascists, we get another scapegoat. I even heard RFK say he’s going to “look into” trans medical services as if that had anything to do with it. It didn’t. Their gender identity had nothing to do with what happened in that school. This kind of demonizing and scapegoating is what will lead to people having to wear an upside-down pink triangle.

The truth is obvious if you’re willing to see it: the problem isn’t trans people, the problem is dangerous far-right extremists. The problem is white supremacy. And every time someone tries to pin this violence on anyone else, it’s just another attempt to dodge accountability for the hate and fascism growing in their own backyard.