Transgender ideologues are increasingly using aggressive and violent imagery to defend their beliefs against what they perceive as an existential threat.
“Our hearts go out to the trans community, as they are under attack right now,” said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday, three days after a 28-year-old who identified as transgender gunned down three children and three adults at a Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee.
Jean-Pierre’s remark came in response to a question about the Kentucky legislature recently overriding the governor’s veto of legislation curbing sex-change surgery for minors and other transgender-related issues. But her comments reflect a widespread belief among LGBT activists and their allies that people who identify as transgender are “under attack” in American society. Some have gone as far as describing the current climate as “genocidal.”
That belief prompted some demonstrators to excuse the actions of the 28-year-old mass shooter, treating her as a victim alongside the six she shot to death at The Covenant School on March 27. At a protest for gun control at the Tennessee State Capitol on Thursday, protesters held up seven fingers in honor of the shooting’s “seven victims.”
"Seven Fingers, Seven Victims" — TN Capitol Protesters Appear to Include Trans Shooter Among the Victims pic.twitter.com/vCd1tAYwWb
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) March 31, 2023
Advocates in the transgender movement often claim that the danger faced by transgender-identifying individuals has increased recently, evidenced by a rise in hate crimes.
Crime data fails to support the claim, however. FBI data on hate crimes in 2021 shows that people who identify as transgender suffered 271 targeted incidents. Of those 271 crimes, two were slayings and two were rapes. Another 135 were either aggravated assault or assault; 59 were robbery, theft, or vandalism; and 70 incidents were acts of “intimidation.”
Jews were targeted far more than transgender-identifying people in 2021. According to FBI data, Jews were the victim of 869 anti-Jewish acts.
Despite the lack of data to support the feeling of being “under attack,” the “genocidal” perception has fueled increasingly aggressive rhetoric and behavior in the transgender movement that’s become evident in its protesting, its propaganda, and its fledgling embrace of firearms.
Trans Day Of Vengeance
The Trans Radical Activist Network (TRAN), a coalition of activist LGBT groups, planned to host a “Trans Day of Vengeance” protest in Washington, D.C., on Friday. The protest, planned long before the tragedy at The Covenant School, was to be a demonstration to “stop trans genocide,” as a poster for the event described it.
The event, canceled a day before it was set to take place, received heaps of contempt online for its use of “vengeance,” implying punishment or retribution against those who criticize transgenderism. The wording was especially evocative in the wake of The Covenant School shooting.
The protest was canceled due to “a credible threat to life and safety,” TRAN announced, denying any suggestion that the “vengeance” of the protest meant violence.
A poster for the protest that featured the “Trans Day of Vengeance” moniker was targeted in a mass ban on Twitter that caught up thousands of accounts, even those of whom denounced the protest as threatening. A version of the poster can be found online under the account of Our Rights DC, one of TRAN’s partners. The poster appears behind a message that the event is canceled with the word “Vengeance” redacted.
Full statement in thread: pic.twitter.com/Y4xPOzl4tb
— Our Rights DC (@OurRightsDC) March 30, 2023
In defending the sweeping Twitter ban, the company’s trust and safety head, Ella Irwin, called the poster an incitement to violence.
“We do not support tweets that incite violence irrespective of who posts them. ‘Vengeance’ does not imply peaceful protest. Organizing or support for peaceful protests is ok,” Irwin said.
“Protect Trans Kids”
Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (D) said last month during remarks over an executive order on “gender-affirming care” that parents must believe their children when children “tell us who they are.
“When our children tell us who they are, it is our job as grown-ups to listen and to believe them,” Flanagan said. “That’s what it means to be a good parent,” she continued to applause from the audience.
As much as Flanagan’s remarks roused criticism, her attire was possibly more threatening. Flanagan wore a shirt emblazoned with the slogan “Protect Trans Kids” and images of a knife and a rose.
Minnesota Democrat Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan on an executive order "protecting" access to "gender affirming care," such as sex changes and puberty blockers:
"When our children tell us who they are, it is our job as grown-ups to listen and to believe them." pic.twitter.com/sMHDzHpk1C
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 16, 2023
Numerous other examples of LGBT merchandise and propaganda with overtly threatening messaging can be found in a quick search of online stores. One popular symbol features the pride or trans flag overlaid with a rifle and the slogan “Defend Equality.”
Other designs of LGBT merchandise embrace revolution with the black power fist or Satan incorporated into the design. Numerous other images feature knives, firearms, or other weapons alongside some message associated with defending transgender ideology.
Pink Pistols
Somewhat rare in Left-wing groups, gun clubs have started popping up for LGBT people. But more than practicing their Second Amendment rights or learning self-defense, people who participate in such groups are motivated by an idea that society is targeting them. The motivation is similar to the idea expressed by Jean-Pierre on Thursday, that people who identify as transgender are “under attack.”
One such group in New Hampshire is called Rainbow Reload. The group is part of a movement of so-called pink pistol groups of LGBT people who own firearms and train together.
“I went from concealed carry every once in a while when I was feeling it to every single day,” a Navy vet and biological male who began identifying as female last year told NPR. “Because reading the news, having a few experiences, realizing that I’ve gone from: old cis-male, white, upper middle class, really no real fears about anything, to: there are people that just looking at me will want to hurt me.”
Another person in Rainbow Reload cited the perception of rampant hate as their reason for learning how to handle a gun.
“There’s been an uptick in hate crimes, there’s been an uptick in groups that have been protesting drag story times and drag shows, and it felt like I needed to learn how to protect myself,” a person identified only as Jamie said.
A person named Guardian, who spoke to NPR under a pseudonym, touted a patch saying “Make Racists Afraid Again.”
“I want people to feel safe to be who they are,” he said. “It’s not a matter of politics. It’s a matter of whether or not you think certain people should get to live, and be their genuine selves.”