Madonna isn’t alone in capitalizing on the dreadful news out of Nashville. I’ve discussed this impulse in the press, as have Rich and Becket. But it’s still going on. Indeed, from a casual survey of the media landscape just over a week after that mass shooting, you could be forgiven for assuming the victims of this attack were trans rather than the perpetrator.
As Tennessee mourned, the CBC’s Nick Logan chronicled what one gender-studies professor called the “incredible escalation of the fear factor” allegedly experienced by trans-identifying Americans because “speculation about the killer’s gender identity was quickly weaponized in an ongoing battle against transgender and LGBTQ rights.” The Associated Press echoed concerns about “anti-transgender rhetoric and disinformation,” which have “heightened the fears of a community already on edge amid a historic push for more restrictions on trans people’s rights this year.” Citing some genuinely provocative commentary on the right, the Washington Post’s Fenit Nirappil warned that the “attacks against transgender people and gender-affirming care come at a precarious time for trans rights in America.” After all, “Studies show transgender people are disproportionately likely to be victims of violence.”
Okay, but not in this case. In this case — the case that prompted all this reporting — it was the other way around. What these reporters and countless trans-advocacy groups across North America are doing is little distinct from what Madonna is doing: Using this senseless act of bloodshed to advance their own narrow objectives.
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