The Far-Right Spews A Non-Stop Barrage Of Hate Against LGBTQ/Trans People, Then Acts Surprised When A Mass Murderer Kills LGBTQ/Trans People
The killer was charged last year with six felonies related to a bomb, weapons and threats of violence, but he was never prosecuted. His grandfather is a MAGA-loving, pro-sedition politician.
Five people were killed and at least 25 were injured at the nightclub, a popular spot for LGBTQ customers. The 22-year-old assassin was subdued by one unarmed customer, who showed a level of courage and humanity utterly absent among the nearly 400 heavily-armed police officers and law enforcement personnel who stood around using hand sanitizer, handcuffing terrified parents, and pissing their pants in Uvalde, Texas, earlier this year.
The 22-year-old killer was arrested last year after his mother told police he had a homemade bomb and multiple weapons and was threatening to harm her. After a standoff with police, he was charged with six felonies. However, he was never prosecuted and his record was sealed from public view. No explanation has been given for that action. The gunman is also the grandson of California State Assemblyman Randy Voepel, who is a MAGA-loving, pro-sedition Republican and a supporter of “tyranny” against the United States, who compared the Capitol Insurrection to the Revolutionary War.
As soon as Richard Fierro, an Army veteran at the club with his family, heard gunfire, he “charged through the chaos, tackled the gunman and beat him bloody with his own gun”. Fierro pulled the man to the ground by grabbing onto his body armor. After calling out for help while punching the shooter in the head, Thomas James, a drag performer wearing high heels, promptly stomped on the gunman. (Why waste time with cowardly cops? Hire drag performers to patrol school hallways.)
The New York Times reported that after subduing the gunman, Fierro was covered in blood. So naturally, when the cops showed up, “officers tackled him and put him in handcuffs. He said he was held in a police car for more than an hour and screamed and pleaded to be let go so that he could see what had happened to his family.” (my emphasis)
Far-right media and the Republican Party have been spewing hatred and lies and suggesting (or outright encouraging) violence against members of the LGBTQ community for years. In fact, The Daily Wire and Fox kept up the attacks even after the shooting was reported, expressing hatred against trans people while claiming hatred against trans people does not exist. (Fact: Homicides against trans people have doubled in the last four years.)
Narrator: We know.
Here’s a short sampling of Carlson’s non-stop violent rhetoric and anti-LGBTQ demonization.
Ari Drennen, Media Matters:
The attack comes as right-wing media have focused obsessively on drag shows in recent months, falsely portraying them as a threat not just to children, but to civilization as a whole.
For months, anti-LGBTQ account Libs of TikTok has used Twitter to publicize the locations and organizers of drag events while spreading salacious accusations of what might happen there. Recent segments on Fox News have claimed that drag queens are part of a plot to sexualize children. Ben Shapiro of The Daily Wire has positioned drag as a threat to civilization, while his colleague Matt Walsh compared drag shows to cancer, calling for an “aggressive” approach to “fighting it.”
Media observers have warned about the dangers of this unchecked rhetoric, the consequences of which are increasingly evident and dire. Boston Children’s Hospital was targeted with another bomb threat last week after being the target of a right-wing fearmongering campaign over its provision of gender-affirming care. At the start of November, a donut shop in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that had hosted a drag event was targeted by an arsonist. . . .
[M]embers of right-wing media have mocked attempts by LGBTQ people to provide security for their own events in the face of an unprecedented hate campaign.
Boebert is one of the many vile members of Congress. Her hobbies include posing with guns (her holiday card), hating anyone unlike herself, being married to a man who showed two children his penis behind a bowling alley, claiming to love Jesus while doing the exact opposite of everything he taught, and being as dumb as a goddamn post. (My apologies to all the posts out there.) Boebert, who may have hired someone to take her GED test (after she failed three times) so she would be eligible to be sworn into office, had the gall to express the cliched “thoughts and prayers” — which, honestly, seemed out of character based on her online postings. I would have assumed her only regret about this mass murder was that the body count was not high enough.
Note: Her claim is a lie.
An appropriate reply: