Right-Wingers Use Nashville School Shooting To Push Anti-Trans Rhetoric

Marjorie Taylor Greene, Donald Trump Jr. and others used the mass shooting to rail against health care for trans people.
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Right-wingers seized on the mass shooting at a private Christian school in Nashville on Monday to push anti-trans rhetoric after authorities said the shooter, who was shot dead by police after killing three students and three adults, was transgender.

Far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) attacked transgender health care, asking on her congressional Twitter account: “How much hormones like testosterone and medications for mental illness was the transgender Nashville school shooter taking?”

“Everyone can stop blaming guns now,” the extremist lawmaker added.

On her personal account, Greene — no stranger to pushing anti-trans talking points — wrote: “The female Nashville shooter identified as a man. So shouldn’t we just blame white men again?”

Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of former President Donald Trump, suggested that “rather than talking about guns we should be talking about lunatics pushing their gender affirming bullshit on our kids?”

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) said that “if early reports are accurate that a trans shooter targeted a Christian school, there needs to be a lot of soul searching on the extreme left.”

“Giving in to these ideas isn’t compassion, it’s dangerous,” the first-year lawmaker added.

In a second post, Vance pushed the “thoughts and prayers” line that is a favorite response of pro-gun conservatives to mass shootings.

Charlie Kirk, the founder of the right-wing youth group Turning Point USA, suggested that “instead of banning ‘assault rifles’ we should ban gender affirming care for kids.”

And Fox News commentator Tomi Lahren and former Trump White House aide Sebastian Gorka suggested the media would “bury” news about the shooting because of their gender identity.

All but four of the 172 shooters identified in mass shootings since 1996 are men, according to The Violence Project.

Trans people are four times more likely than cisgender people to experience violent crimes, including rape and assault, the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law found in a 2021 study.

The number of trans people slain in the U.S. more than doubled from 2017 to 2021, when 59 trans people were killed in homicides, advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety found in an analysis.

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