The recent crime of school shooting in Nashville that murdered six people is still a shock in the community as it left to despair and fear. The suspect, Audrey Hale, is still being investigated on what urged her to do such a crime, yet it is known she was receiving therapy for a mental problem and owned lawfully acquired weapons, such as assault rifles in the AR type.
The Transgender Community With the Current Situation
Identified as transgender, Hale has been using male pronouns, but the exact and specific nature of their gender identity remains unknown as to their motivation. According to The Nation, despite the confusion, right-wing media sources took advantage of the situation to stir up anti-trans fear, with some branding Hale, a "trans terrorist." Following this tragedy, demonstrations calling for gun reform have broken out, and the threat to transgender individuals in Tennessee and across the country has only grown.
The author had already planned to interview Roberto Ché Espinoza, a Nashville-based transqueer Christian scholar and activist, for a forthcoming feature about Christianity and politics. Espinoza, when asked about the perpectives of Christians on Transgender and the perspectives of Transgender Christians, believes that binary thinking inherited from enlightenment boosts supremacy culture, which harms the minority and fights the poor instead of creating abundance.
He believes that lousy theology kills and that ideologies of violence committed in the name of God are bad theology. Espinoza also believes that while the Bible is explicit on charitable giving and aiding the needy, it is not clear on LGBTQ-related issues. He stressed how related humans and the ecosystem are, and she urges small steps against destructiveness to stop violence against different individuals.
In the article in CBC, Tennessee's LGBTQ community and other states are facing a hard time as different laws are being enacted that are considered to attack their community, particularly the transgender people. These laws are one of the suspected reasons for the recent shooting in Nashville, for the suspect is transgender and is believed to may have feared losing his rights as a transgender person.
The Tennessee Equality Project's executive director, Chris Sanders, has been fighting against these laws. Still, he says the legislation targeting LGBTQ rights this year has been the worst he's ever seen. Drag shows in public or front of minors would be prohibited by one of the regulations that Tennessee is about to implement.
Over 400 pieces of anti-LGBTQ legislation, aimed at anything from access to gender-affirming healthcare to inclusive education and public access, have been introduced by dozens of states. The LGBTQ community in Nashville is mourning the gunshot deaths and worries that new legislation may worsen things.
A Call for Regulations Regarding Handgun Carry
A peaceful protest in Tennessee demanding sensible gun regulations, including parents and schoolchildren, happened. According to the article in Open Democracy, the author was impressed by these peaceful protests despite Tennessee's lax gun laws that do not even require a concealed permit to carry handguns for people of legal age.
False analogies, like the Republican assertion that the demonstration was an uprising, are authoritarian strategies, according to the author. The political system does not appear to be ending mass shootings, and trans persons will likely continue to be the targets of violence and official persecution; the author laments the state of affairs in the US.
Related Article: US Senator Josh Hawley Claims Nashville Transgender School Shooter Targeted Christians Due to 'Hateful' Rhetoric
