Why the Right Keeps Claiming That Mass Shooters Are Trans

This blog originally appeared at THEM.

Experts elucidate the potential benefits for right-wing actors in emphasizing the perceived threat posed by transgender individuals.

On February 11, an incident unfolded at a Houston megachurch where a 36-year-old woman named Gennesse Moreno opened fire, causing injuries to two individuals. As news outlets rushed to cover the event, another investigation brewed on social media: far-right influencers honing in on any information to support the assertion that Moreno was transgender.

Among them was Chaya Raichik, a far-right activist known for her sizable following of almost four million across various social media platforms under the moniker “Libs of TikTok.” Within less than 24 hours of the incident, Raichik began disseminating false claims that the shooter was transgender, insinuating that transgender individuals were becoming violent extremists.

“Another act of trans terrorism,” Raichik posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “We need to have a national conversation about the LGBTQ movement turning youth into violent extremists.”

Public figures such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene, Sen. Ted Cruz, and Elon Musk also weighed in, with Musk suggesting a correlation between “hormone injections” and violence. Fox News initially ran a story asserting that Moreno had “lived as a man,” although it later revised the article. Despite police clarifications at a press briefing stating no evidence suggesting Moreno was transgender, anti-trans pundits persisted in their claims.

This incident isn’t an isolated one. Far-right influencers frequently seize upon unconfirmed details about perpetrators of mass shootings to fabricate narratives demonizing transgender individuals. Following a shooting by Dylan Butler in an Iowa school in January, Raichik, Musk, and Donald Trump Jr. propagated unverified theories suggesting Butler was transgender. Reports indicate that far-right figures fixated on Butler’s social media content containing Pride flags, multiple pronouns, and pro-LGBTQ+ messaging, using these as supposed evidence that transgender individuals are prone to senseless violence.

Donald Trump Jr. questioned whether any group worldwide could rival radicalized trans activists in terms of violence per capita. In a separate post, Raichik suggested that the media would suppress a story involving a genderfluid individual who perpetrated a school shooting.

These extremist narratives, fueled by far-right ideologies, emerge amidst a surge of anti-LGBTQ+ disinformation. Politicians and influencers propagate debunked falsehoods about LGBTQ+ individuals grooming children, endangering women in restrooms, and introducing explicit content into school libraries. Experts observe that such rhetoric is a deliberate component of coordinated efforts to portray trans individuals as a menace to public safety. Despite attempts to debunk these conspiracies, they persist and influence public opinion.

Ari Drennen, LGBTQ program director at Media Matters, condemns this fearmongering tactic employed by right-wing media outlets. She asserts that there is no empirical basis to suggest that trans individuals are more prone to committing mass shootings. Instead, it serves as clickbait to manipulate audiences.

Statistics reveal that the overwhelming majority of mass shootings are perpetrated by cisgender men. Even conservative estimates, like those provided by The Violence Project, underscore this fact, with only a negligible percentage attributed to trans individuals. Mark Bryant, Executive Director of the Gun Violence Archive, corroborates this, stating that the involvement of trans or LGBTQ+ individuals in mass shootings is minimal.

Yotam Ophir, an assistant professor specializing in gun violence, dismisses claims of a surge in LGBTQ or trans-related violence as baseless. He argues that such assertions are propagated by the far right to divert attention from their own culpability, emphasizing the systemic dissemination of misinformation by these groups.

Ari Drennen notes that such misinformation has historically circulated within fringe online communities like 4chan, notorious for its offensive content. However, it’s only recently that these unfounded “theories” have gained traction in mainstream discourse, notably following the tragic shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville last year. During this incident, a 28-year-old individual took the lives of three adults and three children.

In the aftermath of the shooting, both far-right personalities and mainstream media outlets eagerly seized upon unverified speculation that the shooter might identify as transgender. Conservative pundits used the incident to cast doubt on the mental stability of transgender individuals, while many news organizations grappled with how, or even whether, to address the shooter’s potential transgender identity in their coverage.

Journalists, in particular, faced challenges in accurately identifying the shooter without verified information. This case underscored the difficulty in confirming personal details about transgender individuals, especially in the absence of official sources and considering the common misgendering and deadnaming by law enforcement. In the Nashville shooting, reports regarding the shooter’s gender identity relied on accounts from former teachers and, eventually, the police, who asserted the shooter was transgender but declined to disclose the basis for their conclusion.

Following the media frenzy surrounding the shooting, the Trans Journalists Association (TJA), of which the writer is the board secretary, issued guidance advising caution in sharing unverified information, especially from law enforcement, particularly in rapidly unfolding news events.

“We urge newsrooms to refrain from speculation without corroborating facts,” stated TJA in a released statement. “It’s crucial to recognize that disseminating incomplete, unverified, or contextually lacking information and public records during breaking news events can disproportionately harm marginalized communities.”

This guidance was put to the test a few months later when outlets such as Vice and Teen Vogue denounced efforts to spread anti-trans misinformation following a July 2023 shooting in Philadelphia. Police arrested Kimbrady Carriker after he carried out seemingly random shootings, resulting in the deaths of four individuals and injuries to two others. Far-right figures exploited photos of Carriker wearing long hair and stereotypically feminine attire to advance similarly unfounded claims about his gender identity.

Media outlets such as the Associated Press and Reuters have begun to confront and refute such misinformation. However, experts like Jon Lewis, a research fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, caution that debunking alone may not fully mitigate the harm initially caused. Lewis explains that while debunking can establish a factual record and dispel falsehoods within the general populace, it often fails to halt the dissemination of misinformation within online communities sympathetic to its narrative. This challenge is particularly pronounced within far-right circles, where there is a deep-seated distrust of mainstream media.

Lewis emphasizes the ineffectiveness of fact-checking in countering conspiracy theories, noting that by the time debunking articles are published, the damage may already be done. He illustrates this point by highlighting instances where violent threats have been made against institutions before corrective information can be disseminated.

This persistent dissemination of anti-trans narratives by the far right has prompted some extremism experts to employ terms like “stochastic terrorism” to describe this particular form of campaign.

Ophir, Lewis, and other experts assert that the spread of anti-trans misinformation about mass shooters serves two primary purposes that align with conservative agendas, especially during contentious election cycles where trans rights are a focal point. Firstly, scapegoating trans individuals provides ammunition for far-right figures in their campaign against the legitimacy of trans identities. Secondly, it enables them to divert attention from issues such as gun control while sidestepping accountability for their own role in fostering extremist ideologies.

Numerous mass shootings, including those in El Paso, Texas; Buffalo, New York; Charleston, South Carolina; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, have involved perpetrators who espoused racist, anti-Semitic, and homophobic ideologies often associated with the far right. In the case of the Philadelphia shooting, Carriker expressed support for Donald Trump online. However, right-wing activists seldom acknowledge the ideological commonalities between these shooters and their own rhetoric.

Ophir underscores the dangerous implications of portraying LGBTQ+ individuals as inherently violent or threatening to society, arguing that such narratives serve to justify discriminatory legislation and even acts of violence against them.

Although this strain of rhetoric may appear distinct from other anti-trans arguments, such as those opposing gender-affirming care or trans participation in sports, Ari Drennen asserts that it is all interconnected within a broader conservative agenda to eradicate queer and trans individuals from public life, whether through legislative means or through tactics like stochastic terrorism. Drennen underscores a historical continuum, tracing back to the conservative activism epitomized by Anita Bryant’s “Save Our Children” campaign in the 1970s, which finds echoes in contemporary right-wing discourse.

“Throughout this ongoing anti-trans hysteria, we witness a gradual escalation of stakes,” Drennen explains. “Initially, it’s framed as trans individuals posing a threat to your daughter’s chances of securing a college scholarship. Subsequently, it morphs into the notion that trans individuals are actively attempting to ‘turn’ your child trans. And now, having failed to achieve their desired impact, the narrative has shifted to portraying trans individuals as a threat to personal safety in any setting.”

This progression underscores a deliberate strategy aimed at heightening fear and animosity toward trans individuals, perpetuated by conservative forces seeking to stoke societal anxieties and marginalize LGBTQ+ communities.