Anti-transgender rhetoric and disinformation in the days following the shooting at a Nashville Christian school that killed six people have heightened the fears of a community already on edge amid a historic push for more restrictions on trans people’s rights this year.
Authorities haven’t shared any evidence linking Audrey Hale’s gender identity to the motive for the attack, which killed three children and three adults at The Covenant School last week.
Yet right-wing commentators, politicians and other figures have cited the shooting as they’ve shared false claims of a rise in transgender mass shooters and suggested that the fight for trans rights is radicalizing people.
Advocates worry the comments are further jeopardizing transgender people by turning them into scapegoats, at a time when they’re speaking out against a wave of bills focused on trans people in statehouses across the country.
“We’ve certainly seen the uptick in transphobic rhetoric in the past week, even directed towards our own public platforms, and there have absolutely been community members that are wearier of being in the public eye,” the Trans Empowerment Project, an advocacy and support group based in Tennessee, said in a statement.