Political violence has nothing to do with gender identityhttps://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/political-violence-has-nothing-to-do-with-gender-identity/ar-AA1NELai?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=3dee2ecd70324e14e19e05ac8b9b931d&ei=97 🔗 [Link: msn.com/en-us/news/us/political-violence-has-nothing-to-do-with-gender-identity/ar-AA1NELai/]Tatyana Tandanpolie (1 Oct 2025)
The Charlie Kirk assassination has driven a wedge into the United States' steep political divide as right-wing pundits take aim at the left. But after days of focus on the gender identity of the suspect's alleged partner, the far-right's response has also fueled a deluge of anti-trans rhetoric that could beget more violence.
"The U.S. is at an inflection point," a spokesperson for LGBTQ+ rights organization GLAAD, who declined to provide their name out of fear of harassment, told Salon. "There is a growing trend of right-wing politicians and influencers spreading unfounded accusations against transgender people, trying to cash in on harmful narratives particularly during high-profile events."
Those pundits — including Kirk himself in the moments preceding his killing — have falsely claimed that trans people are responsible for the majority of mass shootings... More than 95% of the perpetrators are cisgender men and more than 54% are white, according to the Rockefeller Institute of Government — a fact that goes ignored by right-wing commentators, politicians and social media users itching to tie transgender people to the crimes.
Trans or nonbinary people have only carried out five mass shootings since January 2013, amounting to less than 0.1% of all shootings from the last 12 years, the executive director of the Gun Violence Archive told FactCheck.org.
Instead, LGBTQ+ Americans — especially trans and gender nonconforming people — face a greater risk of violence and death from gun violence. Trans people, in particular, are four times more likely to be victims of violent crime than cisgender people.
