The city of Madison was changed forever in the worst of ways on December 16 as it became the latest school shooting statistic when a 15-year-old girl shot and killed Rubi Vergara (a student) and Erin West (a teacher), and injured six others (whose names have not yet been released) before taking her own life at Abundant Life Christian School (ALCS), a private, non-denominational, K–12 school located on Madison’s east side.

Madison community members banded together quickly to plan a vigil at the State Capitol on December 17, and students organized a walkout and protest on December 20 with a march to the Capitol that included speeches from students and leaders that called on lawmakers and leaders to take meaningful actions to address gun violence and end school shootings.

As with the immediate aftermath of most school shootings there were unsubstantiated claims and misinformation regarding what transpired, including the age of the shooter and the identity of the person who made the initial 9-1-1 call (both of which were later corrected), as well as unfounded claims that the shooter was transgender. The claims that the shooter was transgender came even before information was released regarding the shooter’s name and how she went by a different first name than her legal name. However, this piece of information helped the anti-trans discourse gain traction as people seemed to collectively forget that cisgender people also change their names and that nearly all children try out different names at some point. There was no evidence at any point in the initial reports of the shooting or in the evidence that has been subsequently released that the shooter was transgender, yet enough people were quick to believe the rumors that seemed to originate on far-right social media and were willing to villainize transgender people by spreading the lies. This was a slap in the face of the transgender community, and especially transgender kids, considering that nearly all school shootings have been committed by cisgender people, with more than 95% of those having been committed by cisgender boys/men, and of all mass shootings that have occurred, less than 1% were committed by transgender people. Simply put, transgender people are the least likely to commit mass shootings/school shootings, and cisgender men/boys are the most likely to commit mass shootings.

The claims that the shooter was transgender have seemingly dissipated (at least at the time of this writing), but the damage has already been done to those of us in the transgender community who saw the claims being made not only by the usual anti-trans suspects on social media, but also by friends and acquaintances. This harm will undoubtedly impact transgender kids even more than we can possibly know, especially considering they already face alienation, bullying, and discrimination at higher rates than their LGB and cisgender peers.

Kids are terrified to go to school because of the threat of violence, and particularly gun violence; they are not afraid of the existence of transgender people. Transgender kids are terrified to go to school not only due to gun violence but also due to the violence they regularly experience from peers, teachers, parents, politicians, celebrities, and random strangers (in real life and on the internet). This year alone, transgender kids have been subjected to legislation and public debate regarding their right to exist, including bills that are aimed at excluding transgender kids from: participating in sports, using bathrooms, accessing gender-affirming care of any kind, and even being able to use their pronouns. Just days after the shooting, the Senate passed the FY25 National Defense Authorization Act that included a provision banning kids of military service members from accessing health care. Senator Baldwin did try to introduce an amendment that would strike the provision, but it lacked support to be brought to a vote, despite bipartisan opposition to the provision. This is just the latest act of violence against transgender kids in a year of violence against transgender people with over 600 anti-trans bills introduced in more than 40 states, including 17 in Wisconsin alone. They normalize violence against our transgender community and then justify the violence through villainizing transgender people without evidence, and it seems that people are all too willing to believe the lies.

Despite a lack of evidence to support claims that the shooter was transgender, the rumors that caught on followed a predictable pattern of distorted thinking from the anti-trans crowd that they use to justify the cruelty that the transgender community regularly faces. And these lies catch on when folks who would not consider themselves anti-trans (and in some cases they may even consider themselves allies) breathe life into the lie through sharing false information on social media and in their social circles, information that could have been easily refuted with scrutiny and discernment. The harm that these lies cause cannot be understated as they proliferate transphobia, sexism, and racism by reinforcing cisgender, heterosexual, and white Western supremacy that encourages violence against anyone who does not fit these ideals.

While the primary causes of mass shootings include access to weapons, the normalization of violence, desperation, isolation, alienation, loneliness, homicidal/suicidal ideation, and seeking notoriety/fame, the discussion following mass shootings usually centers around gun control and mental illness, despite evidence that gun control measures have been historically used to criminalize marginalized people and prevent marginalized people from lawful gun ownership. There is a weak correlation between mass shootings and mental illness, with multiple studies showing that people with severe and persistent mental health issues are significantly more likely to be victims of violence.

Access to guns and ammunition in the U.S. is part of the issue of gun violence; however, gun control measures do not directly address the deeper issues related to gun culture, the normalization of violence, or how mass shooters gain notoriety and pseudo-celebrity status. Calls for gun control after mass shooting events also can lead to more people buying guns out of fear that they will not be able to buy guns in the future, coupled with increased fear of gun violence. And the cycle continues with mass shootings, school shootings, and casualties from gun violence increasing each year in the U.S.

Discussion of mental illness as a cause of gun violence is particularly harmful and ableist, and in this case, it turned extremely transphobic. While we can all agree that people who commit mass shootings are not mentally well when they commit these atrocities, there is no consistent correlation between diagnosable mental illness and mass shootings, so the association following mass shooting events causes further stigmatizing of mental illness. This is particularly insidious for transgender people as access to gender-affirming health care requires a diagnosis of Gender Dysphoria which is classified as a mental illness, with effective treatment being access to affordable gender-affirming care and greater acceptance from family, friends, and colleagues—treatment that is actively being legislated out of existence despite opposition from healthcare professionals.

We can agree that more money and resources for mental health care and wellness would be fantastic, but these calls for attention to mental health care are left without meaningful follow-through. Instead of investing in greater access to support and mental health resources in the wake of mass shootings, we are given active shooter training and school shooting drills that are treated as normal as fire safety drills. However, unlike fire safety, mass shooting drills do not focus on both prevention and response. Instead of meaningfully working on addressing prevention of mass shooting events the focus is on response, as though these events are as natural and unavoidable as severe weather events. This is not normal, and it is not ok. We need to do better, and I think we can if we truly put in the work to build community in earnest and invest in violence prevention measures that are not punitive; we need to work to build a culture of interdependence, accountability, and belonging.

This paradigm shift cannot occur overnight, and no one person can solve the many ways that we need to collectively address violence. Nothing changes if nothing changes, and things need to change in order to meaningfully address gun violence, to bring an end to mass shootings and school shootings, and to bring an end to violence against our transgender community. n

Note: We have purposely excluded the name of the ALCS shooter and any other school shooters in this article as there is a correlation between mass shootings and the desire for notoriety/fame, as well as the threat of copy cat behavior. It is important for us to know and name those whose lives were taken by gun violence and to not focus on the details of the shooters beyond what we can learn about preventing these events from continuing to occur.

jilip (jill) nagler (ze/hir; they/them) is a community activist and organizer, a local musician, a muser, a bibliophile, and a cat enthusiast. Everything ze knows about justice they learned from Angela Davis, Audre Lorde, bell hooks and queer/trans folks fighting for our collective liberation.