The Right Wants to Exterminate Trans People. Liberals Are Helping.

"Saying that the right wants to exterminate trans people is not hyperbole. Republican bigotry has fueled an array of initiatives designed to drive trans people out of public life. But conservatives aren't content with turning trans people into fourth-class citizens. They want the public to see them as enemies of the state-as mentally ill savages pulling the country into the moral abyss. America's never-ending gun violence has become a useful tool in this effort."

"Right-wing commentators are pushing the idea that trans people are " prone to violence" and responsible for a huge proportion of mass shootings. Kirk, who once called trans people "a throbbing middle finger to God," flirted with this idea himself; at the moment of his murder, he had just finished telling someone that "too many" mass shooters were trans. Robinson's cis identity-and his roommate's full cooperation with the government-has done nothing to curb this narrative."

"No matter. In the past week, Laura Loomer, one of the most influential members of the far right, declared, "Trans people are a national security threat. Their movement needs to be classified as a terrorist organization IMMEDIATELY!" Ronny Jackson, the Republican congressman and former White House physician, went on Newsmax to label trans people "domestic terrorists" who have been"

Tyler Robinson, the alleged killer of Charlie Kirk, is a cis man, yet early misinformation and reports of a relationship with a trans roommate were used to escalate anti-trans extermination rhetoric. Republican and far-right actors have pushed narratives portraying trans people as violent and a national security threat, linking them to mass shootings. Statistical reporting from the Minnesota Star Tribune, using the Gun Violence Archive and Violence Prevention Project, showed less than 0.1% of mass-shooting suspects identified as transgender and 98% of shooters were cisgender men. High-profile figures called for classifying the trans movement as terrorist despite contrary evidence.

Read at The Nation