NBC Contributor Ties ‘Anti-Trans’ Conservatives To School Shooting
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In the wake of a deadly mass shooting on Monday, details soon emerged about the transgender individuals allegedly responsible for carrying out the carefully planned attack on young children and adult staff at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee.
Given the reported transgender status of the biologically female shooter, leftist commentators and LGBT activists were quick to shift the focus from gun control to the perceived scourge of anti-transgender hate espoused by conservatives.
One such remark came from a contributor to The New York Times and NBC in a now-deleted tweet.
“NBC has ID’d the Nashville school shooter as Audrey Hale, 28, who identifies as transgender and had no previous criminal record,” Benjamin Ryan wrote, as evidenced by screenshots of his tweet.
He went on to assert that “Nashville is home to the Daily Wire, a hub of anti-trans activity,” calling out conservative writers Matt Walsh, Ben Shapiro, and Michael Knowles specifically.
Some other activists have gone a step further by seemingly casting Hale as a victim in the shooting. The Trans Resistance Network, which does not allow the public to view its tweets, appears to have issued a statement portraying the mass shooting as the only “effective way” for Hale to “be seen.”
Despite transgender individuals receiving representation in every facet of modern culture, such statements nevertheless portray Hale as a hopelessly oppressed minority rather than a hate-fueled violent extremist as most mass shooters are rightfully portrayed in the media.
The TRN statement concludes by calling on news outlets to “respect” the killer’s “self-identified pronouns.”
For his part, Ryan has railed against conservative commentators repeatedly in the past, including in a tweet late last year aimed at Walsh.
Pointing out that the Human Rights Campaign claimed use of the word “groomer” in connection to certain radical LGBT activists could lead to violence, he asked Walsh for a response.
“Hi Ben,” the Daily Wire columnist replied. “My official statement in response is that the Human Rights Campaign is a far left extremist organization full of hacks and frauds, and I couldn’t give less of a damn what they say. Anyone who takes them seriously is dumber than a pile of bricks, yourself included. Thanks.”