The Washington Post reported Thursday that conservative media pundits and politicians are exploiting the tragedy of the Nashville Covenant School shooting as a means to escalate hatred and violence against transgender people in general.
Six children – all of them nine years of age – and three adults were murdered by an alleged transgender individual at the Covenant Christian School in Greenville, Nashville, Tennessee on Monday.
The Post points out that the overwhelming majority of mass shooters have been cisgender males, according to statistics and facts. However conservative commentators like Tucker Carlson have politicized and exploited this particular shooting as “trans terrorism” while accusing the liberals of exploiting every shooting by blaming guns and conservatives.
“Yesterday’s massacre did not happen because of lax gun laws,” Carlson said on the March 28 edition of Carlson Tonight. “Yesterday’s massacre happened because of a deranged and demonic ideology that is infecting this country with the encouragement of people like Joe Biden. Let’s start with being honest about that.”
From The Post:
The Data Is Clear: There Is No ‘Clear Epidemic’ Of Transgender Mass Shooters.
“This has fit into their existing narrative presenting trans people as dangerous criminals, presenting gender affirming care as inherently dangerous, and it’s very alarming to see them turn this up to 11,” says Ari Drenen, a trans woman who monitors anti-trans rhetoric in conservative media as LGBTQ program director for Media Matters.
“I didn’t really think it was possible to escalate from implying we are pedophiles, but we are seeing this escalate into people calling trans people violent terrorists.”
“This is a cisgender male phenomenon, by and large,” says Eric Madfis, associate professor of criminal justice at University of Washington at Tacoma, who studies the gender dynamics of school shootings.
“You can’t use it to stigmatize and punish a whole community,” he said. “This is not a good faith effort at trying to address school shootings and mass shootings. This is a cynical, bigoted attack.”
“We know that the onslaught of rhetoric against our community is directly harming the mental and emotional health of our community,” says Ash Orr, spokesperson for the National Center for Transgender Equality, via a statement. “There is a vocal minority of people who try to stoke fear of what they don’t understand, who label trans people as ‘other’ and tell us we don’t belong. Because of this, trans people, especially trans women of color, face very teal threats and violence.”
Sources: Washington Post; Media Matters.
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