5 LGBTQ UVU Students Speak Out After Charlie Kirk’s Murder
After last week’s assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University (UVU), LGBTQ people—and especially trans people—have been targeted with blame and vitriol. Far-right figureheads quickly engaged in unsubstantiated speculation that the shooter was, in Congresswoman Nancy Mace’s words, “a tr*nny, or pro-tr*nny,” and used this to portray trans people as violent and to advocate for “no mercy” in retaliation. Even after law enforcement confirmed that the shooter was, like more than 90%of mass shooters, a cisgender man, many still used the identity of his partner and roommate—who Utah Governor Spencer Cox has said is “transitioning from male to female”—to blame the shooting on the trans community. Kirk, who called trans people […]