3 children dead in private Christian elementary school shooting in TN

[Anonymous]

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A source close to the Hale family told The Daily Beast on Monday night that Hale was autistic, but high-functioning.

“And relatively recently announced she was transgender, identifying as he/him,” the source said, asking to remain unnamed so as to avoid additional family strife.

Reached by phone, Hale’s mother, Norma Fort Hale, told an ABC News reporter, “It’s very difficult now, we ask for privacy. I really can’t talk right now, I think I lost my daughter today.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/nashville-covenant-school-shooting-suspect-identified-as-audrey-hale?ref=home

Well that checks out. She probably lost her son a long time ago. My mom lost me and I don’t know any trans people on good terms with their parents and I know a lot of other trans people. I’m sure someone out there exists but it seems pretty common to be completely estranged from one or both parents once you come out as trans. It just further isolates trans people if they don’t go out and try to find community and found family.

As the mother of a trans kid, I did not isolate my kid - my kid isolated me. Ask a question? PHOBIC!! Express a concern about treatment interfering with medicated conditions? PHOBIC! BIGOT! Spouse to me in private: "If you ask anything, our kid will commit suicide!" Me: "That sounds more like blackmail"

I’m sure your child has a completely different view of how you behaved. For most of the people I know, their estrangement is related to their family’s christianity. It’s certainly true in my case. I’m sure my mother makes herself the victim in my transition as well. It’s all about her. I harmed her by transitioning. She didn’t want me to do this. What became apparent over time was that to her, my body and my life was just an extension of her’s. I was nothing but an NPC in the story of her life. Your child being LGBTQ isn’t about you.

Not that poster, but trans teens/young adults are still teens/young adults. And they are self-centered, all the same. That's how humans are built. That's how we survive. But it can make for some rough relationships. I'm in my 50s and have had peers transition in their 30s and 40s and it looked much different than what teens are doing today. And their relationships with their immediate family are much healthier, likely because they were more mature when dealing with such a significant life change.

The shooter was 28, well beyond the magic age of 26 when the brain is supposed to be "done". This trans man seems to have had a vendetta. Why else would there be a manifesto?

If autism is present, it's a much longer journey. But I was speaking about a relationship with a parent, not a shooting.

I know a lot of trans people in their 30's and 40's. I'm one. None of us have good relationships with our parents. I know some people that still talk to their parents but even those aren't that common. One was told that she was afflicted with demonic possession by her catholic mother.

If not one has a good relationship with your parents, consider your own behavior as one of the reasons. My kid is being told to reject us, not the other way around.

Nobody is telling any kid to reject a supportive family member. Nobody. All you have are lies.

DP but I actually have a related experience in my family. My second cousin, whom I do not know very well, decided to transition from female to male. He sent an email to our entire extended family - probably like 30 or 40 email addresses - to announce his transition. The email was long and elf absorbed. About half the people responded with supportive messages. No one said anything unsupportive. My second cousin then sent a second email accusing the family as a whole of being transphobic and terrible people because - some - people failed to respond. No acknowledgement that maybe they just didn’t check their email or didn’t know him that well or felt like we were already innundated with repetitive supportive emails. He announced he was cutting himself off from the family. Mind you I’ve only met this person like five times in my life. It was so unnecessary. So I actually believe PP!

This.

I’m sick of the trans bashing in this thread—and I’m surprised Jeff allows it. Mass shooters have all kinds of different backgrounds and “issues”—why harp on the trans identity of this shooter and then try to tie it to your own negative impressions of trans people? This shooter has the same thing in common with all other shooters – – mental health problems combined with a desire to commit suicide.

PP here- Its relevant because its a possible (likely) motive for the shooting. A conservative school that likely didn't support this student in the way they thought they should be supported. In a state that is make life hell for trans people. Its as relevant as any other motive, why bury it? I'm guessing you don't have an issue around reporting when a white supremicist shoots up a Black church? Its just seems like disingenuious reporting by a serious new outlet.

No. The point is that motives are all over the board for mass shootings, from the right to the left.

The issue is NOT the motive. The issue is the easy access to guns. The issue is that mass shootings are more likely in states with more permissive gun laws.

Stop arguing about the motive. It's a useless spiral into inaction Every. Single. Time.

[Anonymous]

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A source close to the Hale family told The Daily Beast on Monday night that Hale was autistic, but high-functioning.

“And relatively recently announced she was transgender, identifying as he/him,” the source said, asking to remain unnamed so as to avoid additional family strife.

Reached by phone, Hale’s mother, Norma Fort Hale, told an ABC News reporter, “It’s very difficult now, we ask for privacy. I really can’t talk right now, I think I lost my daughter today.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/nashville-covenant-school-shooting-suspect-identified-as-audrey-hale?ref=home

Well that checks out. She probably lost her son a long time ago. My mom lost me and I don’t know any trans people on good terms with their parents and I know a lot of other trans people. I’m sure someone out there exists but it seems pretty common to be completely estranged from one or both parents once you come out as trans. It just further isolates trans people if they don’t go out and try to find community and found family.

As the mother of a trans kid, I did not isolate my kid - my kid isolated me. Ask a question? PHOBIC!! Express a concern about treatment interfering with medicated conditions? PHOBIC! BIGOT! Spouse to me in private: "If you ask anything, our kid will commit suicide!" Me: "That sounds more like blackmail"

I’m sure your child has a completely different view of how you behaved. For most of the people I know, their estrangement is related to their family’s christianity. It’s certainly true in my case. I’m sure my mother makes herself the victim in my transition as well. It’s all about her. I harmed her by transitioning. She didn’t want me to do this. What became apparent over time was that to her, my body and my life was just an extension of her’s. I was nothing but an NPC in the story of her life. Your child being LGBTQ isn’t about you.

Not that poster, but trans teens/young adults are still teens/young adults. And they are self-centered, all the same. That's how humans are built. That's how we survive. But it can make for some rough relationships. I'm in my 50s and have had peers transition in their 30s and 40s and it looked much different than what teens are doing today. And their relationships with their immediate family are much healthier, likely because they were more mature when dealing with such a significant life change.

The shooter was 28, well beyond the magic age of 26 when the brain is supposed to be "done". This trans man seems to have had a vendetta. Why else would there be a manifesto?

If autism is present, it's a much longer journey. But I was speaking about a relationship with a parent, not a shooting.

I know a lot of trans people in their 30's and 40's. I'm one. None of us have good relationships with our parents. I know some people that still talk to their parents but even those aren't that common. One was told that she was afflicted with demonic possession by her catholic mother.

If not one has a good relationship with your parents, consider your own behavior as one of the reasons. My kid is being told to reject us, not the other way around.

Nobody is telling any kid to reject a supportive family member. Nobody. All you have are lies.

DP but I actually have a related experience in my family. My second cousin, whom I do not know very well, decided to transition from female to male. He sent an email to our entire extended family - probably like 30 or 40 email addresses - to announce his transition. The email was long and elf absorbed. About half the people responded with supportive messages. No one said anything unsupportive. My second cousin then sent a second email accusing the family as a whole of being transphobic and terrible people because - some - people failed to respond. No acknowledgement that maybe they just didn’t check their email or didn’t know him that well or felt like we were already innundated with repetitive supportive emails. He announced he was cutting himself off from the family. Mind you I’ve only met this person like five times in my life. It was so unnecessary. So I actually believe PP!

I kinda believe PP, too. My experience - I don't have any family members who transitioned but I do know some high school students who transitioned. Majority have autism/on the spectrum/have some other types of mental health issues. Their brains are just wired very differently. You can't necessarily reason with them the same way you could a neurotypical person. They see things differently and because they are rigid, aren't as open to other viewpoints.

Are you trying to argue with trans people about their gender identity? If I were to argue with you that you should transition even though you feel comfortable as you are, I don’t think I’d call you rigid or inflexible.

That being said, there are a lot of autistic trans people. I’m neurotypical and they definitely process things differently than I do. I don’t think that makes them not trans though.

Knowing trans people IRL and having a job that puts me in regular engagement with the lgbtq community coupled with my visibility via friends and colleagues, I believe transpeople suffer from underlying mental health issues that their LGB counterparts do not in the same degree or numbers. I also have observed far more transpeople on the spectrum. I’ve also observed tragically sad mental health issues that nobody would dispute.

The knee jerk defense of all trans people as being totally fine really isn’t serving any of us well.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Doesn't matter who the shooter is. They had access to a gun and committed a mass murder that included innocent children, just as our nation has had many, many other mass shootings along with all other forms of gun violence and we continue to do nothing.

Conservatives will continue to do nothing and if the shooter is trans (not confirmed at this time), perfect example of how they will continue to deflect from ACTUAL SOLUTIONS THAT WILL SAVE LIVES.

Stop the deflection and start with solutions.

We can’t control people but we can guns.

You can only control guns that are LEGAL. You can only infringe on freedoms of law abiding citizens. You can't do anything about criminals, who will retain have access to their guns. Hey, lets make some more laws to punish law abiding gun owners, especially those who own those scary looking rifles.

Don’t care about law abiding gun owners. I don’t care about your feelings and possessions, I worry about people being shot, especially kids.

A law abiding gun owner has nothing to worry about from increased gun regulation. I think the problem is the gun owners aren't actually law abiding and that's why they are so freaked out about gun control.

I’m PP. No, I want law abiding gun owners to lose gun rights. They should be more concerned with other people’s right to not be shot than their right to own guns. I’m tired of their unwillingness to sacrifice for the greater good. We’ve given enough lives on my side for their rights.

How exactly would that work? Sure, some people will turn them in should the laws change, but a sizable number will not. That's not just 2a activists, its also the criminal element who isn't supposed to have them in the first place. Firearms are easily made now with 3d printers.

Door to door confiscation is a non-starter.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:2nd Amendment is more important than the lives of children. This is America.

This is an unfair criticism. And you could say the same thing about alcohol and marijuana. How many children have to die because of legal alcohol and marijuana? School shootings, while tragic, are extremely rare. Drunk drivers kill around 10,000 people per year in the US, every fkn year. And yet, there is no hysteria or calls to ban alcohol. But when there is a shooting, the problem is guns and we need door to door confiscation. Why?

Because alcohol's main purpose is not to kill.

And when people became aware of how deadly drinking and driving were, they came together and banned drinking and driving.They regulated alcohol so that you have to be over 21 to buy it legally because they recognized how powerful alcohol can be. There are regulations about drinking in public or having open containers in a car.

There were more than 40,000 gun deaths in the US in 2022. What have we done to try to mitigate those deaths? Where's the regulations that say you have to be 21 to buy a gun? Whereas you can't walk in some places with an open can of beer, or drive with an open bottle of wine, Republicans want to loosen laws so that anyone can open carry anywhere.

Yes, I know. You'll come back and say guns are in the constitution but alcohol is not! We've heard all your tired arguments.

So the PP is correct. The 2nd Amendment is more important to you people than the lives of children.

Federal law requires you to be 21 to buy a pistol. Pistols are what are used in most shootings/gun crimes. Rifle and shotgun shootings are quite rare.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Children die for the 2nd Amendment. The GOP has decided to sacrifice our young for men to pretend to be the punisher.

We have their thoughts and prayers. Doesn't that stop bullets or do they just call fake news when children actually die?

Per the perusal of Foxnews comments every time something like this happens, it's:

-That we don't have enough armed guards at schools ("lots of retired veterans would be happy to guard schools!") ignoring that we have mass shootings with armed guards anyways, and at other locations besides schools including concerts, malls, movie theaters, workplaces, churches, and on and on
-That we don't arm teachers (most teachers don't want to be armed, I know many of them and they have enough to worry about let alone carrying a loaded gun that kids could easily get ahold of)
-That it's our lack of family values as a country/society in the USA that is to blame (specifically democratic erosion of traditional family values)... basically a "shrug, can't do nothing about that till we have better morals!" response that is useless
-We have enough gun laws, more won't do anything

blah blah blah. Conservatives have absolutely nothing helpful to say and it keeps happening and rinse and repeat.

Tbh I just pray it happens at schools filled with the kids of Republican elites. Then only way they change their tune is when it happens to them. They don’t give a f#ck about anyone else.

That said, I wish for a world with strong gun control and an absence of school shootings.

Wow. Just wow.

Yes, I am also shocked at how ghoulish the Republican elites conduct themselves. Democrats have been begging for 20 years for sensible gun reforms and the Republicans just grow more extreme, egged on by our lunatic Supreme Court.

If we are going to have a country with mass shootings, I’m going to pray that it mostly affects those who enable it to happen and block good-faith reforms. Reap what you sow, and all that.

Multiple posters on this thread have literally said they hope the dead children have Republican parents, and you're calling Republicans "ghoulish?" I've never seen/heard Republicans hoping for dead children.

DP... I don't know whether it's one poster, one person trying to troll, or multiple posters - and neither do you. Either way I hope they aren't being sincere in wishing death on children.

But I will say I can understand where that poster might be coming from, that Republicans generally refuse to help on issues, even the worst kinds of things like children being slaughtered in schools, until it actually affects them personally. There's something fundamentally broken and sociopathic in the Republican mindset that this is what it always has to come to, rather than Republicans actually having the empathy and care about the fate of others and their children that they should. It's like they are living in a bubble of delusion thinking their guns will stop all of this - yet the violence and horror keeps continuing in spite of their guns, and in fact fueled by easy access to guns.

NO WISHED DEATH ON CHILDREN. What the PP said was that when this crap happens to the children of republicans, maybe the republicans will wake up to the issue and actually deal with it.

AFTER she said she PRAYED that this would happen to the children of Republican elites.
Yes, she was praying for the death of children. Disgusting!

What’s disgusting is people who love and value guns more than the lives of children.

And simultaneously work so hard to torment pregnant women by focusing on abortion while people's actual loved ones are being murdered daily.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will get a bit of joy to see parents if dead children interviewed and asked if they had been gun freedom supporters.

I would like them to be asked, where were all the good guys with the guns as their children were being butchered.

I bet the parents were all Republicans. Remember, this is a private Christian school in Tennessee that we’re talking about.

the shooter’s mother called for gun control prior to the shooting

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will get a bit of joy to see parents if dead children interviewed and asked if they had been gun freedom supporters.

I would like them to be asked, where were all the good guys with the guns as their children were being butchered.

I bet the parents were all Republicans. Remember, this is a private Christian school in Tennessee that we’re talking about.

the shooter’s mother called for gun control prior to the shooting

Some republicans support commonsense gun safety and gun control. Polling indicates it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did the shooter get the guns legally and pass a background check? Perhaps the trans may have been a concern because of mental illness and unfit to purchase a gun

TN doesn’t have much in the way of gun restrictions. The Republican Party pushes to block all gun control from those they brand “gun grabbers”.

[Anonymous]

I’m tired of sacrificing lives for the 2nd Amendment. Time to sacrifice the 2nd Amendment for lives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m tired of sacrificing lives for the 2nd Amendment. Time to sacrifice the 2nd Amendment for lives.

This.

[Anonymous]

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A source close to the Hale family told The Daily Beast on Monday night that Hale was autistic, but high-functioning.

“And relatively recently announced she was transgender, identifying as he/him,” the source said, asking to remain unnamed so as to avoid additional family strife.

Reached by phone, Hale’s mother, Norma Fort Hale, told an ABC News reporter, “It’s very difficult now, we ask for privacy. I really can’t talk right now, I think I lost my daughter today.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/nashville-covenant-school-shooting-suspect-identified-as-audrey-hale?ref=home

Well that checks out. She probably lost her son a long time ago. My mom lost me and I don’t know any trans people on good terms with their parents and I know a lot of other trans people. I’m sure someone out there exists but it seems pretty common to be completely estranged from one or both parents once you come out as trans. It just further isolates trans people if they don’t go out and try to find community and found family.

As the mother of a trans kid, I did not isolate my kid - my kid isolated me. Ask a question? PHOBIC!! Express a concern about treatment interfering with medicated conditions? PHOBIC! BIGOT! Spouse to me in private: "If you ask anything, our kid will commit suicide!" Me: "That sounds more like blackmail"

I’m sure your child has a completely different view of how you behaved. For most of the people I know, their estrangement is related to their family’s christianity. It’s certainly true in my case. I’m sure my mother makes herself the victim in my transition as well. It’s all about her. I harmed her by transitioning. She didn’t want me to do this. What became apparent over time was that to her, my body and my life was just an extension of her’s. I was nothing but an NPC in the story of her life. Your child being LGBTQ isn’t about you.

Not that poster, but trans teens/young adults are still teens/young adults. And they are self-centered, all the same. That's how humans are built. That's how we survive. But it can make for some rough relationships. I'm in my 50s and have had peers transition in their 30s and 40s and it looked much different than what teens are doing today. And their relationships with their immediate family are much healthier, likely because they were more mature when dealing with such a significant life change.

The shooter was 28, well beyond the magic age of 26 when the brain is supposed to be "done". This trans man seems to have had a vendetta. Why else would there be a manifesto?

If autism is present, it's a much longer journey. But I was speaking about a relationship with a parent, not a shooting.

I know a lot of trans people in their 30's and 40's. I'm one. None of us have good relationships with our parents. I know some people that still talk to their parents but even those aren't that common. One was told that she was afflicted with demonic possession by her catholic mother.

If not one has a good relationship with your parents, consider your own behavior as one of the reasons. My kid is being told to reject us, not the other way around.

Nobody is telling any kid to reject a supportive family member. Nobody. All you have are lies.

DP but I actually have a related experience in my family. My second cousin, whom I do not know very well, decided to transition from female to male. He sent an email to our entire extended family - probably like 30 or 40 email addresses - to announce his transition. The email was long and elf absorbed. About half the people responded with supportive messages. No one said anything unsupportive. My second cousin then sent a second email accusing the family as a whole of being transphobic and terrible people because - some - people failed to respond. No acknowledgement that maybe they just didn’t check their email or didn’t know him that well or felt like we were already innundated with repetitive supportive emails. He announced he was cutting himself off from the family. Mind you I’ve only met this person like five times in my life. It was so unnecessary. So I actually believe PP!

I kinda believe PP, too. My experience - I don't have any family members who transitioned but I do know some high school students who transitioned. Majority have autism/on the spectrum/have some other types of mental health issues. Their brains are just wired very differently. You can't necessarily reason with them the same way you could a neurotypical person. They see things differently and because they are rigid, aren't as open to other viewpoints.

Are you trying to argue with trans people about their gender identity? If I were to argue with you that you should transition even though you feel comfortable as you are, I don’t think I’d call you rigid or inflexible.

That being said, there are a lot of autistic trans people. I’m neurotypical and they definitely process things differently than I do. I don’t think that makes them not trans though.

Knowing trans people IRL and having a job that puts me in regular engagement with the lgbtq community coupled with my visibility via friends and colleagues, I believe transpeople suffer from underlying mental health issues that their LGB counterparts do not in the same degree or numbers. I also have observed far more transpeople on the spectrum. I’ve also observed tragically sad mental health issues that nobody would dispute.

The knee jerk defense of all trans people as being totally fine really isn’t serving any of us well.

I am in a similar boat with regard to knowing people IRL and my job, and I 1000% agree with you. We need to be able to have an honest conversation about this in order for people to understand and accept each other. Saying there's a higher incidence of autism and/or mental health issues in people who are trans when compared to people who are cisgender is not bigoted, it's backed by peer-reviewed research. It doesn't mean that people who are trans, people who are autistic, or people with mental health issues are bad or wrong. We've come a long way in removing the stigma from mental health issues, and a long way in how we think of autism. (Still plenty of work to do, of course.) A lot of people have difficulty accepting trans people because they don't understand it, just like people didn't understand autism or depression or anxiety. Understanding something better leads to destigmatization and acceptance. A knee-jerk reaction to suppress any conversation about gender identify and mental health does not help anyone.

[Anonymous]

Who cares about the gender identity of the shooter? Who cares about the MOTIVE? The fact is this person had easy access to weapons of WAR! Ban the assault rifles and get rid of the 2nd amendment once and for all.

I can’t believe the excuses people are coming up with trying to argue about the shooter’s trans identity or the motive.

[Anonymous]

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A source close to the Hale family told The Daily Beast on Monday night that Hale was autistic, but high-functioning.

“And relatively recently announced she was transgender, identifying as he/him,” the source said, asking to remain unnamed so as to avoid additional family strife.

Reached by phone, Hale’s mother, Norma Fort Hale, told an ABC News reporter, “It’s very difficult now, we ask for privacy. I really can’t talk right now, I think I lost my daughter today.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/nashville-covenant-school-shooting-suspect-identified-as-audrey-hale?ref=home

Well that checks out. She probably lost her son a long time ago. My mom lost me and I don’t know any trans people on good terms with their parents and I know a lot of other trans people. I’m sure someone out there exists but it seems pretty common to be completely estranged from one or both parents once you come out as trans. It just further isolates trans people if they don’t go out and try to find community and found family.

As the mother of a trans kid, I did not isolate my kid - my kid isolated me. Ask a question? PHOBIC!! Express a concern about treatment interfering with medicated conditions? PHOBIC! BIGOT! Spouse to me in private: "If you ask anything, our kid will commit suicide!" Me: "That sounds more like blackmail"

I’m sure your child has a completely different view of how you behaved. For most of the people I know, their estrangement is related to their family’s christianity. It’s certainly true in my case. I’m sure my mother makes herself the victim in my transition as well. It’s all about her. I harmed her by transitioning. She didn’t want me to do this. What became apparent over time was that to her, my body and my life was just an extension of her’s. I was nothing but an NPC in the story of her life. Your child being LGBTQ isn’t about you.

Not that poster, but trans teens/young adults are still teens/young adults. And they are self-centered, all the same. That's how humans are built. That's how we survive. But it can make for some rough relationships. I'm in my 50s and have had peers transition in their 30s and 40s and it looked much different than what teens are doing today. And their relationships with their immediate family are much healthier, likely because they were more mature when dealing with such a significant life change.

The shooter was 28, well beyond the magic age of 26 when the brain is supposed to be "done". This trans man seems to have had a vendetta. Why else would there be a manifesto?

If autism is present, it's a much longer journey. But I was speaking about a relationship with a parent, not a shooting.

I know a lot of trans people in their 30's and 40's. I'm one. None of us have good relationships with our parents. I know some people that still talk to their parents but even those aren't that common. One was told that she was afflicted with demonic possession by her catholic mother.

If not one has a good relationship with your parents, consider your own behavior as one of the reasons. My kid is being told to reject us, not the other way around.

Nobody is telling any kid to reject a supportive family member. Nobody. All you have are lies.

DP but I actually have a related experience in my family. My second cousin, whom I do not know very well, decided to transition from female to male. He sent an email to our entire extended family - probably like 30 or 40 email addresses - to announce his transition. The email was long and elf absorbed. About half the people responded with supportive messages. No one said anything unsupportive. My second cousin then sent a second email accusing the family as a whole of being transphobic and terrible people because - some - people failed to respond. No acknowledgement that maybe they just didn’t check their email or didn’t know him that well or felt like we were already innundated with repetitive supportive emails. He announced he was cutting himself off from the family. Mind you I’ve only met this person like five times in my life. It was so unnecessary. So I actually believe PP!

I kinda believe PP, too. My experience - I don't have any family members who transitioned but I do know some high school students who transitioned. Majority have autism/on the spectrum/have some other types of mental health issues. Their brains are just wired very differently. You can't necessarily reason with them the same way you could a neurotypical person. They see things differently and because they are rigid, aren't as open to other viewpoints.

Are you trying to argue with trans people about their gender identity? If I were to argue with you that you should transition even though you feel comfortable as you are, I don’t think I’d call you rigid or inflexible.

That being said, there are a lot of autistic trans people. I’m neurotypical and they definitely process things differently than I do. I don’t think that makes them not trans though.

Knowing trans people IRL and having a job that puts me in regular engagement with the lgbtq community coupled with my visibility via friends and colleagues, I believe transpeople suffer from underlying mental health issues that their LGB counterparts do not in the same degree or numbers. I also have observed far more transpeople on the spectrum. I’ve also observed tragically sad mental health issues that nobody would dispute.

The knee jerk defense of all trans people as being totally fine really isn’t serving any of us well.

I am in a similar boat with regard to knowing people IRL and my job, and I 1000% agree with you. We need to be able to have an honest conversation about this in order for people to understand and accept each other. Saying there's a higher incidence of autism and/or mental health issues in people who are trans when compared to people who are cisgender is not bigoted, it's backed by peer-reviewed research. It doesn't mean that people who are trans, people who are autistic, or people with mental health issues are bad or wrong. We've come a long way in removing the stigma from mental health issues, and a long way in how we think of autism. (Still plenty of work to do, of course.) A lot of people have difficulty accepting trans people because they don't understand it, just like people didn't understand autism or depression or anxiety. Understanding something better leads to destigmatization and acceptance. A knee-jerk reaction to suppress any conversation about gender identify and mental health does not help anyone.

My problem with the Pp you replied to (but not you) is that there seemed to be an implication that a person can’t be autistic and trans or depressed and trans. Having SAD and getting depressed in the winter doesn’t exclude you from also being trans. Why so many trans people are autistic though, who knows? I know an extremely autistic trans woman but she had early childhood gender dysphoria. I’m neurotypical and she’s the “same kind of trans” as men so to speak. That’s pretty much a stereotypical binary trans woman. I’ve definitely met others that are not the same and I have a hard time relating to them. I don’t really feel comfortable invalidating their identity because I’ve had people try to invalidate mine (and as I said I’m basically a stereotype of a trans woman).

[Anonymous]

Guns are just like the story of the farmer drowning the bunnies.
A man comes upon a river and sees a bunny in it drowning so he takes it out. He keeps seeing bunnies coming down the river and he saves them.

The problem is actually the farmer up the river throwing a bunnies into the river for eating his crops.

The man can't leave where he's at in the river because bunnies will drown while he goes upstream to see what the problem is. But if he never goes upstream.....to see the problem... the farmer will continue to do it.

What we need is one man to stand on river and save the bunnies while another runs uphill to see what the hell the farmer is doing and why and to come up with a solution to stop him from throwing bunnies into the river.


We need to take on gun reform and gun control and also address mental illness in this country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who cares about the gender identity of the shooter? Who cares about the MOTIVE? The fact is this person had easy access to weapons of WAR! Ban the assault rifles and get rid of the 2nd amendment once and for all.

I can’t believe the excuses people are coming up with trying to argue about the shooter’s trans identity or the motive.

People care because there’s a culture war surrounding trans people right now.