tw for the nashville shooting & related transphobia

sorry i'm really fucking mad rn seeing how quickly transphobes are jumping on the "testosterone makes trans men violent killers"

because no fucking shit they're doing this. i'm so pissed at the people who act like there's no way transphobes would ever see transmascs as anything but helpless little girls, as if that narrative itself isn't something relatively new & only got popular because it was useful. of fucking course the minute they have an excuse they are going to switch from "T mutilates women's bodies" to "T makes women into psycho killers", especially non-radfems who don't give a damn about women's rights in the first place. the only reason that the pity narrative got big is because radfems changed their tune from "women betraying women to get male privilege" to "poor little girls swindled into betraying womanhood" which was useful to non-feminist conservatives & their desire to control women. now they have the perfect opportunity to change up their transphobia to make transmascs into dangerous murderers & even more justification to ban HRT & criminalize testosterone specifically.

transmascs have already had to deal with people assuming we will get more violent and aggressive after starting T before this, & i'm very worried that is going to become a mainstream transphobic narrative. just watch how quickly transphobes are gonna use this to demonize testosterone and people who take it. its already happening:

trans people, especially transmascs in the US, if you are triggered by violence and transphobia... do yourself a favor now and blacklist the terms "audrey hale," "aiden hale," "nashville," and "shooting" on every platform you can. do not look at the posts or articles. don't. it's okay to not know. there are others who can know about this without harming/endangering their health.

to those who already know and aren't okay. i know you're scared; i am too, and the feeling will pass. you're not alone. you deserve a happy, safe, joyous life, and there will always be people fighting for you, even when you can't see them or hear them or know them. please be gentle with yourself, and know your wellbeing comes first. do something comforting, talk to a friend, eat something yummy. breathe. sleep. you got this.

man. i’ve been in a constant state of dread since learning the shooter was ftm. things have been getting bad and this just made it all 100x worse. i’m traveling alone in a red state soon and i’m terrified. i’m terrified to even leave my house. everybody across america is going to see this and hear about this and hear the debate about the shooter’s gender and fuck.

i just don’t understand- why would he choose to “prove his point” like this? protesting the declining acceptance of transgender people by murdering kids. what the fuck. what good was that supposed to do for anyone on any side. what are we supposed to do anymore. i feel hopeless for the community at this point. how dangerous is it going to be to exist as a trans person because of this.

It’s very interesting to me that a lot of news outlets are trying to pretend the Nashville shooter was a trans woman and more people are complaining about the fact that they’re erasing the fact the shooter is (?*) a trans man than they’re realizing that that’s transmisogyny ACTIVELY at work and they should be paying attention to it!

Transmisogynists paint any trans person as a trans woman as long as it fits their narrative: In this scenario, it’s because that immediately allows them to demonize the shooter and feed their hysteria over trans women being predators. Most of them are erasing trans (men? mascs?) from the story because they have to keep up the narrative that while trans women are predators, trans men (and trans AFAB people in general) are just part of the demographic they “prey” upon. Even those that admit the shooter WASN’T a trans woman are still pushing the transmisogynistic angle that it was “testosterone poisoning” and “extremist trans women” that caused it to happen!

YES, it endangers all of us. But y’all have GOT to pay attention to this shit and call it what it is. We can’t keep each other safe otherwise. 

conservatives are already trans people as a scapegoat for the nashville shooting im exhausted

another day another fucking shooting fuck anyone who doesn’t believe this is an epidemic

grieving for the lives lost today, but terrified how the media is going to spin the fact that the shooter was trans. with the current climate in the US around trans people, this will definitely embolden those who want to eradicate us and call us predators

i ate chocolate and ice cream and i stopped crying but chocolate and ice cream cant stop gun violence and the persecution of trans people

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Resources for Victims and Survivors of Gun Violence

99% of mass shooters are cisgender, white and straight. But the one time a trans person is the murderer of course the fascist right wing loses their minds. This is bad. As if trans people in the US weren’t already in danger. They’ll assume every queer person is violent now too.

blaming “trans people” who aren’t actually trans to create a bunch of mini reichstag fires across the United States, like wow get some new material you absolute bozos

Is the Nashville shooter even a trans man? (genuine question, people are saying lots of different things and I don't trust mainstream media)

Yes, it's been confirmed in multiple places that he was transgender, used he/him pronouns online and asked to be addressed as Aiden & male in a Facebook post (screenshot from CNN, Maria Colomy taught him at college):

For some. fucking. reason. Even though virtually ever news article I've seen says he was transgender and used he/him pronouns. They KEEP using she/her and calling him a "woman" because they. don't know enough about his gender identity??? It's so infuriating and obviously he's not the biggest victim here but like. if the police said he was trans, his Facebook clearly showed he used he/him pronouns, and an old teacher confirmed he wanted to be called Aiden and male, then why the FUCK are we continuing to use she/her and Audrey and "woman" and saying shit like "ohhh we know SHE was trans but we can't be sure what SHE identified as so we'll just continue to call HER AUDREY" I think I've seen exactly ONE article use they/them pronouns. Literally in the SAME ARTICLE as that screenshot a few paragraphs up they said this:

UNCLEAR??? ARE YOU FUCKING SURE?????? DO YOU WANT HIS GHOST TO PERSONALLY WHISPER HIS PRONOUNS IN YOUR EAR???????

Basically don't blame yourself for being confused because for some reason the media has decided to be extremely fucking confusing. It doesn't help people thinking he was a trans woman when people keep acknowledging he was trans but misgendering him. I would understand this from conservative media but I don't get why suddenly everyone forgot how trans people work the minute this happened.

cw Nashville Shooting discussion

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To my transgender siblings in Tennessee, please be careful. The new evidence of the shooter seems like it's going to be an uphill battle for us. Stay vigilant, stay safe, advocate for yourself, ignore the prying eyes and whispers as best as you can. You're still amazing, you're still loved and valid. Your existence is not a warning sign, I promise.

Hey given the % of mass shooters that are male (absurdedly high %, given a 49-51 split of male-female population), either Hale was truly “male in spirit” (i don’t believe that because souls aren’t real) OR testosterone levels really do cause aggression and amorality in humans and Hale was on a lot of T, OR perhaps Hale saw himself in mass shooters (very male dominated area) and saw this as ultimate masc gender euphoria to be like them, when so few female people ever do this. Obviously wrong and horrible but you can see how the psychology make sense. Masculinity and femininity concepts are shitty drugs we’d do better to forget.

(this is really hard to read but i’ll do my best to respond)

or maybe he was just deeply fucking mentally ill and his gender has nothing to do with this situation. people were finding ways to make this about his transness before they even knew if he was mtf or ftm. we still don’t know if he was on T. we don’t even have his manifesto. his actions need to be addressed and condemned but what if we don’t do this armchair psychologist theorizing shit before the investigation is even complete?

So, I rarely talk about myself on here. Mostly cuz I feel awkward. But I need to vent.

I'm a teacher in Nashville, TN. And while it was not the school I work at that was involved in a shooting, it was still hard. We never technically went in to a lockdown, but we did keep a tighter hold on the kids then usual. No going to get water or wonder the halls. And while the kids didn't really know what was going on (no phones are allowed in elementary school), they knew something was up.

And all we have gotten from our politicians are thoughts and prayers.

It's still my first year in this profession and I love my job. But what are thoughts and prayers going to do when someone comes into our school with an assault rifle? Not jack shit.

I'm so tired. I'm going to bed early. My kids start dividing decimals tomorrow. But I might just have them watch videos on YouTube. Give them an easy day.

finding out about the shooter is gonna ruin my fucking week