Up with indigestion and made the mistake of following the rabbit-hole above, so I guess I am still posting. Feeling a bit hypocritical (and conflicted)! I've never posted "live" about an attack like this before - I tend to find a lot of realtime commentary quite ghoulish and disrespectful (and I hate "true crime"), so feel a bit guilty with each post... But this just doesn't feel the same, I think we all agree. The knowledge that the MSM have done everything they possibly can to obscure the killer's trans identity somehow makes it feel not just legitimate but almost necessary to discuss (and maybe raise awareness to some small degree?!) And yes, tbh, posting does also feel cathartic, in a sense - because witnessing MSM do this to this degree - with such mulish persistence - is, honestly, pretty frightening.
So (disclaimer now complete)...
The article linked above itself includes this link, to the company producing the t-shirt: https://transfigureprintco.com/. And the products foregrounded on the first page of the shop are eye-openingly focussed on gothy violence.
I've found it interesting when people have drawn parallels between this and Goth/Emo culture, and this seems to make them quite explicit...
...Which leads to thoughts of Columbine...
...Which itself conversely leads to accusations of so-called moral (and Satanic!) panics...
BUT
Those kids didn't have the whole of society's weighty infrastructure telling them that Yes, they are, indeed, cruelly sidelined due to sheer, unadulterated prejudice. Not even that, in fact, but rather that they're a target, at quite extreme physical risk.
I do think this angle must be, at least potentially, relevant. Should be considered, at least.
I mean, the following is what my local school shared with staff (and, I assume, kids) as a key resource for supporting "transgender" students: https://letsqueerthingsup.com/2014/09/15/what-youre-actually-saying-when-you-ignore-someones-preferred-gender-pronouns/. Here are a few choice excerpts from this "translation" of what the teacher or peer who doesn't use your chosen pronouns is truly "saying" to you:
2. I would rather hurt you repeatedly than change the way I speak about you.
3. Your sense of safety is not important to me.
5. I want to teach everyone around me to disrespect you.
10. I am not an ally, a friend, or someone you can trust.
This would be the same school that shared a resource with the kids linking directly to Fallon Fox as a trans role model. You know, Fallon Fox of, "One woman's skull was fractured, the other not. And just so you know, I enjoyed it. See, I love smacking up TEFS (sic) in the cage who talk transphobic nonsense." fame.
The narrative of necessarily violent struggle is a fundamental part of trans culture and mythology. You can't really deny it when you have a San Francisco Public Library exhibition on the subject featuring mass-produced, "I punch TERFs" t-shirts (and hear the same clarion call of Sarah Jane Baker, speaking to loud applause at a British rally) and pink and blue wire-wrapped baseball bats.
This is not a healthy movement. There's a genuine sickness to it (note - to the ideology, not necessarily the members) that we really need to address as a society. And this is to protect its members, too (someone above said they don't see the shooter as a victim; I do, to a degree).
We need to turn a spotlight on it all. But this needs full transparency on the part of our institutions. Maybe recent events will help to turn the tide, Bryson-style...