When It Comes To The Nashville Shooting, Leftists Suddenly Ditch Their Identity Obsession

Following the tragic mass shooting in a Nashville Christian school by a transgender-identifying shooter, Amazon leadership sent a message to staff saying that it “remains in solidarity with our LGBTQIA+ employees, customers, and communities.” This message was shared by Candi Castleberry, Amazon’s vice president of global diversity, equity, and inclusion. The 28-year-old shooter was identified by the police as transgender-identifying, although law enforcement has not yet released her manifesto. Despite this, many on the left have ignored mention of the shooter’s gender identity or have used it to argue that transgender people, rather than Christians, were the actual victims of the mass shooting.

CBS News even prohibited its staff from reporting that the shooter was transgender, citing a leaked memo which stated that her gender identity had no known relevance to the crime. Instead, they were ordered to “move on to focus on other important points of the investigation, community and solutions.” This has played into a broader trend of the left refusing to associate incidents of violence with the gender identity of perpetrators, which some say can be justified by religion or provoke religious conservatives. Meanwhile, coverage of other violent incidents often strongly emphasizes the suspect’s race or political views, particularly if they are conservatives or police officers.

While a transgender mass shooting is exceedingly rare, the media’s reluctance to discuss the possible role of gender identity in this incident seems to be linked to their desire to demonize conservatives and the police while avoiding potentially negative stereotyping of transgender individuals. Their focus on the Nashville shooter’s mental health and her motives not only shows an inconsistent approach to reporting on mass shootings but also raises questions about the potential dangers of identity politics and the culture of victimization that leftists promote.