This blog originally appeared at LGBTQ Nation.
She rushed to blame the shooting entirely on the shooter’s identity… and then got that identity wrong.
Following a shooting incident involving an AR-15 at a Texas megachurch, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) used social media to shift the narrative solely towards the identity of the shooter.
However, it was later revealed that Greene had inaccurately identified the individual involved.
“Not only was the shooter a trans from El Salvador,” Greene posted on X, “she also had a gun engraved with ‘Free Palestine’ but investigators can’t say if she was politically motivated or not.”
“When this country starts being truthful, regardless of who’s feelings get hurt, we will solve many problems.”
The shooter, identified as 36-year-old Genesse Moreno, entered Lakewood Church in Houston accompanied by her seven-year-old son and carrying multiple weapons. Notably, Lakewood Church is associated with anti-LGBTQ+ televangelist Joel Osteen.
Moreno proceeded to shoot a 57-year-old man in the hip before being fatally shot by two off-duty officers. Tragically, her son sustained critical injuries during the exchange of gunfire. Fortunately, the 57-year-old victim has since been discharged from the hospital.
While the motive behind Moreno’s actions remains unclear, it’s important to note that she was not transgender. Initially, Fox News reported her as transgender, but later amended their article without issuing a retraction or correction.
“She utilized both male and female names but, through all of our investigation to this point — talking with individuals, interviews, documents — Houston Police Department reports she has been identified this entire time as female: she/her,” a Houston police officer said.
Conservatives swiftly seized upon the report to portray transgender individuals as inherently violent and hazardous, disregarding the statistical reality that mass shootings are predominantly carried out by cisgender men. Over the span of a decade, from 2013 to 2023, the Gun Violence Archive documented approximately 4,400 mass shootings in the United States. Of these incidents, fewer than ten were perpetrated by transgender individuals, accounting for a mere 0.11%—a figure lower than the estimated percentage of the population that identifies as transgender.
“Fox News is SO desperate to paint trans people in a negative light that today they ran with rumors that a shooter was a transgender woman before quietly admitting three hours later that they made that part up,” Media Matters’s Ari Drennen posted to social media.
Greene’s post incorrectly labeling Moreno as transgender remains visible online.
Unfortunately, Greene wasn’t the sole individual on the right to exploit the shooting to vilify transgender individuals, despite the overwhelming evidence that the vast majority of mass shootings are committed by cisgender men. Chaya Raichik, an anti-LGBTQ+ extremist known as Libs of TikTok, also referred to Moreno as a “trans terrorist” and questioned her medication regimen, insinuating a connection between transgender identity and mental illness.
Raichik further propagated misinformation by sharing a list of mass shootings purportedly carried out by transgender and nonbinary individuals. However, this list included the Club Q shooter, who identified as nonbinary only after being arrested for a mass shooting at an LGBTQ+ venue, indicating a deliberate misrepresentation of the facts.
Greene additionally emphasized Moreno’s birthplace in El Salvador, presumably reflecting her stance against immigration into the United States. However, it’s crucial to note that immigrants are statistically less likely to be incarcerated compared to individuals born in the U.S.
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