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There Is No Epidemic Of Trans Murders

Despite gaslighting media and activists, 'national epidemic' turns out to be 11 victims -- and only two seem likely to have been bias-related
Screen Shot 2021-03-17 at 12.13.43 AM

It is remarkable to see how the news media gaslights around the transgender issue. You cannot believe a thing you see, hear, or read, because it is all shaped not by facts, but by Narrative.

On Sunday, I was driving and listening to Sunday All Things Considered on NPR. They touted an upcoming story in which Dr. Eric Vilain, an expert in transgender participation in sports, was going to separate fact from fiction in the debate, but asking what the science says. I thought, this expert is going to say that people who insist that this is unfair to biological female athletes are worried about nothing, and that we should celebrate diversity. There is no way NPR would have on an expert who would reach any other conclusion.

Sure enough, that’s what happened. From the report:

MARTIN: As we said, these – there are a number of these bills making their way through state legislatures. Moving forward, how would you like people to think about this debate? Is there something you would encourage people to think about? Or…

VILAIN: I would encourage parents and people interested in sports to look at all the sides of the issue and not being fixated on the sole issue of gender. There are so many different attributes for an athlete that make them so diverse, so interesting, so different. Some will be good at one sport. Some will be good at other sports. And we should just celebrate this diversity.

Of course! Celebrate diversity! Diversity is our strength! Never mind that female athletes are at a tremendous disadvantage against male-to-female transgenders. NPR called Science to ask, and now Science has spoken.

Or take the Washington Post‘s profile of Chloe Clark, a male-to-female transgendered 15 year old who, according to the Post, is bearing up as “lawmakers attack her right to exist.” Oh? Republican state legislators are trying to have Clark killed? No. Lawmakers are debating whether or not to outlaw prescribing cross-sex hormones to juveniles, and whether or not to ban transgendered females (“females”) from competing against biological females. But the Washington Post wants people to believe that these Republicans would just as soon see Chloe die:

Fourteen was the exact age at which Chloe, her doctors and her parents made the decision for her to begin taking estrogen, following the medical guidelines for young people diagnosed with gender dysphoria and understanding the high rates of suicide for transgender youth who don’t receive the care they need. But that private choice in Chloe’s doctor’s office was now the subject of legislation across the country, with 17 states weighing bills that would bar or criminalize gender-affirming care for kids. Two of these bills are in Chloe’s own state of Missouri.

The 10th-grader knew the country was debating her right to play sports, to get medical care — debating her right to exist —but she couldn’t bring herself to read the news coverage or to speak out against the legislation.

“Debating her right to exist” — this is straight-up propaganda. If you disagree with the pro-trans narrative on hormones and surgeries for minors, or on MtF athletes, then you want to see trans people eliminated, and murdered by their own hand.

Now comes a new NBC News piece about transgender murders that is straight-up gaslighting:

Two hundred and sixty-six percent?! Wow, that’s horrible. A national epidemic! But you know what that really means? There have been eleven trans murder victims this year, over three in the same period last year. From the story:

Braxton is one of at least 11 transgender people murdered so far in 2021 — a 266 percent increase from this point last year, when three trans people had been murdered. More than half of the victims so far in 2021, including Braxton, are Black trans women. According to a Thursday news release from the National Black Justice Coalition, an LGBTQ civil rights organization, the most recent known victim was Diamond “Kyree” Sanders, who was shot and killed March 3.

The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group, has called violence against transgender people “a national epidemic” and requested in a list of policy recommendations released in November that the Biden administration form an interagency working group to address anti-transgender violence.

Advocates say preventing anti-trans violence requires a comprehensive approach that spans many sectors, but it also requires governments and law enforcement to better understand the trans community.

According to police, Braxton was murdered inside their apartment.  NBC reports that Braxton used to be involved in prostitution, and was planning to create an account online with OnlyFans, where Braxton could share nude images of himself with paying customers. Police have given no further details on this killing — such as, if it had to do with prostitution, as so many transgender murders do. There is no reason at all to believe at this point that Braxton’s murder was a hate crime. But of course the LGBT activist organizations pump it up, and the media go along with it.

Let’s see who the eleven dead transpeople are so far this year.

Diamond Kyree Sanders was killed in Cincinnati in a robbery the other day. Again, no reason to believe Sanders was killed for being transgender. It’s a robbery. But that does not stop the activist and sympathetic media from saying, See! See! A national epidemic of anti-trans violence!

On March 3, police in Jacksonville found the body of Jeremy “Jenna” Franks, a male-to-female transgender, in a ditch. Franks had been murdered. Once again, police have released no evidence that this murder had to do with Franks’s transgender status. NBC’s story says Franks was a homeless drug addict. But … you know. Never let a homeless trans drug addict’s killing go to waste when it can be spun as anti-trans violence.

Teenager J.J. Bright, a female-to-male transgender, was killed by their mother in Ambridge, Pa., recently. The mother also killed her 22-year-old nonbinary daughter, Jasmine Cannady (the Human Rights Campaign counts Cannady as part of its 11, because she was gender-nonconforming). Police have not released a motive for the shooting. The mother is said to have been struggling with mental health issues since her discharge from the military. A neighbor said she recently was hospitalized for psychiatric issues.  A family member said that the alleged killer has not committed a hate crime, as she supported equal rights.

There have been two murders of transgendered people in Puerto Rico this year. One, of a homeless MtF transgender, looks like a clear case of murder because the person was trans. The second, of a FtM trans, is unclear.

Chynaa Carrillo, a MtF transgender, was beaten to death in Pennsylvania earlier this year. Police shot and killed Carillo’s attacker, a former Marine and convicted murderer who was out on parole. No motive has yet been released by police for the killing. We have no reason to believe that it had anything to do with Carrillo’s gender identity. Maybe the two were dating, and the killer got violent in the same way he had with his murdered wife. Maybe the violence was triggered by the killer discovering that Carrillo was really a biological man. Or maybe it was just a robbery. We don’t know. But of course the Human Rights Campaign is waving the bloody flag.

Dominique Jackson was shot to death in Jackson, Miss., last month. Police have arrested a man in the case. They have said nothing about a hate-crime motive.

Tyianna “Davarea” Alexander was shot in the head, along with a male companion, on the street on Chicago’s South Side. No indication that this drive-by shooting was a hate crime. Might have been, might not have been. They were out on the street at 5 a.m. Was Alexander a prostitute, out on the street that early in the dead of winter? No more details have been made available yet.

Here in my own city, a MtF transgender called Fifty Bandz was shot to death by their male lover in a domestic dispute. 

In Atlanta, a MtF transgender who went by the name of Bianca Bankz was found shot to death in their apartment, alongside the body of their male killer. Police say it was a murder-suicide. No indication of a hate crime.

So, of the eleven US murders of trans or gender-nonconforming people this year, only two — the ones in Puerto Rico — appear to have been probably motivated by anti-trans hatred. They are still horrible — no one deserves to be murdered — but the killings do not have the meaning that are being attributed to them. NBC News puffs this as “anti-trans violence,” but has almost no evidence for that claim. Not all violence victimizing trans people is “anti-trans,” just as not all violence victimizing black people is “anti-black.” The LGBT lobby Human Rights Campaign says this about its list:

These victims were killed by acquaintances, partners or strangers, some of whom have been arrested and charged, while others have yet to be identified. Some of these cases involve clear anti-transgender bias. In others, the victim’s transgender status may have put them at risk in other ways, such as forcing them into unemployment, poverty, homelessness and/or survival sex work.

While the details of these cases differ, it is clear that fatal violence disproportionately affects transgender women of color — particularly Black transgender women — and that the intersections of racism, sexism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia and unchecked access to guns conspire to deprive them of employment, housing, healthcare and other necessities.

Incredible. Any time a trans person is involved in deadly violence, HRC assumes it has to do with bigotry. If they engaged in extremely risky behavior, such as street prostitution, well, that’s the fault of bigotry too.

NBC News is only repeating what activists say — this, to create a phony crisis demanding government intervention. It is surely no coincidence that these fake-news stories are appearing while the Equality Act is before Congress.

Again: whenever the national media report anything about trans issues, you’re safe to assume that they are lying or otherwise spinning advocacy journalism, unless you can verify otherwise.

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