Claims have begun circulating within anti-trans circles that attempt to suggest the murderer of multiple children in a recent attack at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas was transgender. There is no truth to these claims.
A recent and horrific mass shooting event took place in Uvalde, Texas at an elementary school leaving at least 21 murdered and another 15 injured. It is reported 19 students and two adults were amongst the casualties The shooter was reportedly killed on site by Border Patrol officers.
Researchers from Trans Safety Network have found claims have already begun circulating amongst anti-trans conspiracy theorists that the shooter was transgender. Including using the photos of multiple transgender people and falsely asserting that they were the shooter.
One such example comes via Alex Jones on Infowars who showed images of two different transgender people alongside images of the killer whilst asserting they were all the same person.
As Trans Safety Network note in their tweet thread; this isn’t the first time we have seen anti-trans activists immediately jump to accusing transgender people of being responsible for acts of violence. With previous examples including Jess Phillips MP platforming the conspiracy theory which attempted to say that a woman who murdered another woman at a women’s refuge was a transgender woman.
Politicians in the US also appear to be keen to platform anti-trans conspiracy theories such as this, with Paul Gosar, a US Congressman for Airzona’s 4th District, breifly posting the name of a transgender woman falsely accused of having been the shooter.
One of the transgender women whose images have been misused in this way has been posting to Reddit, horrified at what’s happened, but also resigned to the fact it has. Stating “just another day being transgender” in one post.
Our thoughts are with the survivors, families of those who were killed and the small town of Uvalde during this horrific event. But thoughts aren’t going undo what happened here, nor will they prevent the next mass shooter either. If you’d like to join in action to support gun control in the US you can look into groups such as those cited here.
