Fear In Trans Community As Nashville Shooter’s Gender Identity In News
Prominent Republicans are suggesting gender identity played a role in the gun violence, despite research showing trans people are more likely to be victims of crimes rather than perpetrators, Insider reported.
NBC News:
Fear Pervades Trans Community Amid Focus On Nashville Shooter's Gender Identity
Shortly after news broke Monday of a fatal shooting at a private Christian Nashville elementary school, police said the suspect was transgender. This detail, according to trans people in the state, has poured fuel on an already combustive environment that has led many of them to fear for their safety. (Lavietes and Yurcaba, 3/29)
Insider:
Republicans Blame Nashville Shooting On Shooter's Suggested Trans Identity
Following a deadly shooting at an elementary school in Tennessee, some prominent Republicans are highlighting evidence that the perpetrator was transgender — and suggesting that gender identity played a role in causing the violence. Details continue to emerge about the shooting, but there is no evidence to suggest that identifying as transgender leads to a propensity for inflicting violence. By contrast, several studies have found that transgender people face disproportionate levels of violence by virtue of their identity. (Metzger, 3/28)
ABC News:
Anti-Transgender Sentiment Follows Nashville Shooting
“Every study available shows that transgender and non-binary people are much more likely to be victims of violence, rather than the perpetrator of it,” the Human Rights Campaign said in a statement following the shooting. “Regardless of the reason for this shooting, the use of violence is reprehensible and we renew our call for common-sense gun safety.” (Alfonseca, 3/28)
The Guardian:
Nashville School Shooter’s Identity May Make Them An Exceptionally Rare Perpetrator
One of the rock-solid truths about the US epidemic of mass shootings is that these catastrophic events, which tear families and communities apart, are committed overwhelmingly by cis males. According to the Violence Project (TVP), men are responsible for carrying out more than 97% of all public mass shootings. ... The number of shooters who are trans or gender nonconforming is even rarer, placing Hale in an almost unique class. The only other member of this category known in recent years is the 22-year-old shooter who killed five people in a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs last November who, according to defense lawyers, is non-binary. (Pilkington, 3/28)
In other news about transgender health —
Stat:
GOP Presses Becerra On Gender-Affirming Care, Reproductive Rights
Republicans hammered the health secretary in hearings Tuesday, previewing a line of health- and science-related political attacks likely to dominate the 2024 elections. GOP members of the House Appropriations Committee repeatedly interrogated Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra about issues like gender-affirming care, reproductive rights, and migrant children at the border, continuing a theme laid out by two Senate committees last week as Becerra embarks on a committee tour to sell President Biden’s proposed 2024 budget. (Owermohle, 3/28)
AP:
Arkansas Bathroom Bill Condemned As Too Extreme Is Revamped
An Arkansas bathroom bill that went further than a 2016 North Carolina law that was repealed after widespread boycotts was revamped Tuesday following complaints from members of the transgender community and their families that it would criminalize trans people simply for using public restrooms. The House Judiciary Committee endorsed the proposal to allow someone to be charged with misdemeanor sexual indecency with a child if they use a public restroom or changing room of the opposite sex when a minor is present. The majority-GOP panel advanced the measure after it was amended to make it a crime only if the person enters the restroom “for the purpose of arousing or gratifying a sexual desire.” The proposal now heads to the full House for a vote as early as Wednesday. (DeMillo, 3/29)
The Texas Tribune:
Texas Senators Hope To Ban Youth From Changing Sex On Birth Certificate
A bill seeking to block transgender and nonbinary Texas youth from updating their birth certificate with their gender identity has received its first approval from the Texas Senate. Senate Bill 162, filed by Republican state Sen. Charles Perry of Lubbock, proposes requiring an individual’s sex assigned at birth to be included on their birth certificate and limiting the circumstances in which this information could be changed for minors. The proposal lists very few exceptions. (Nguyen and Melhado, 3/28)
