The trans shooter who killed six people at a Nashville school has shocked the transgender community, raising tough questions about militancy and mental health issues among the marginalized group.
Since Audrey ‘Aiden’ Hale rampaged through The Covenant School on Monday, killing three children and three adults, researchers and analysts have scrutinized her trans identity and how this may have played a role in the bloodbath.
Nashville Police Chief John Drake told reporters of a “theory” that Hale, a biological woman who had recently begun using the pronouns “he/he” and the nickname “Aiden,” had launched the attack. as a manifestation of their changing gender identity.
Hale, 28, was heavily armed when she fatally shot three children and three adult employees at the private Christian elementary school she once attended in the Tennessee capital city, before officers shot her dead.
The motive for the attack was not immediately clear. Hale had drawn detailed maps of the school, including entry points to the building, and left behind a “manifesto” and other writings that detectives were studying, Drake added.
Audrey ‘Aiden’ Hale in a recent LinkedIn photo. The shooter left a manifesto outlining her plans.
A patch on the backpack of a trans rights activist at a protest in Boston. Some trans activists say that their community is under attack and that they need to defend themselves, even with weapons, against an alleged ‘genocide’.
The Nashville attack has drawn parallels with other shootings of FTMs: Maya ‘Alec’ McKinney (left), who was involved in a shooting at a Denver, Colorado, school in May 2019, and Snochia Moseley, who killed three at a Rite Aid warehouse in Aberdeen, Maryland, in September 2018
A doctor had been treating her for an “emotional disturbance,” Drake said Tuesday. Despite the ‘he/he’ pronouns, Hale is most often described as a woman who was in a tentative stage of gender transition.
Hale was at odds with her devout Christian parents, Church coordinator Norma, 61, and her husband Ronald, 64, because they “couldn’t accept” that she was gay and trans, a source told DailyMail.com.
The attack quickly sparked a debate between conservatives and trans activists.
Tennessee Republican Rep. Tim Burchett called for Hale’s manifesto to be made public, telling Fox News that “we need to know what was going through this person’s head.”
“Our trans youth are in trouble,” Burchett said. “If they don’t get the help they need, they can grow up and have some serious problems, but obviously I don’t think everyone grows up to be a shooter like this.”
The shooting raised questions about the drugs used in gender reassignment treatment and mental health conditions that are widespread in the trans community, and drew parallels to other attacks on young female-to-male transitions.
They include Maya ‘Alec’ McKinney, who was involved in a shooting at a Denver, Colorado, school in May 2019, and Snochia Moseley, who killed three at a Rite Aid warehouse in Aberdeen, Maryland, in September 2018.
‘Our trans youth are in trouble,’ says Tennessee Republican Tim Burchett
Prominent members of America’s trans community took to social media to emphasize that Hale’s alleged killing spree was more clearly related to the availability of guns than her gender or political identity.
They were rejecting claims by right-wing commentators that the violence was a symptom of an increasingly radicalized trans community that was embracing terrorist tactics in a push against mainstream gender ideas.
“When hundreds of white men commit mass shootings, it’s a ‘social issue,’ but when a trans person commits a mass shooting, it’s a ‘trans issue,'” posted Alejandra Caraballo, a male-to-female trans clinical instructor at Harvard. Law School,
“The real problem is that this country can’t do anything to stop gun violence.”
Transgender activists, like these protesters in London earlier this year, are taking an increasingly tough stance against efforts to restrict access to sports, baths and sex reassignment treatments, which they frequently describe as “genocide”. against him.
Hale with his older brother Scott, who has not commented on the shooting. Neighbors say Hale was ‘sweet’ and ‘calm’
Hale was at odds with her devout Christian parents, Church coordinator Norma, 61, and her husband Ronald, 64, because they “couldn’t accept” that she was gay and trans, a source told DailyMail.com.
Alex Petrovnia, another prominent trans voice on social media, echoed this sentiment, saying that “the identity of the shooter… contributed less to this tragedy than the access they had to military-grade firearms designed to kill in mass”.
Drake’s comments about Hale’s “emotional upset” highlight the higher rates of mental health problems and suicide suffered by the estimated 1.6 million people who identify as trans in the United States.
These mental health issues are often linked to underlying issues and gender confusion, as well as the impacts of discrimination against trans people in society, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Symptoms can include “anxiety, depression, sadness and isolation,” the clinic says.
Hale was reportedly “autistic but high-functioning,” an anonymous friend told the Daily Beast. Autism is a common problem among transgender girls and young women, several studies show.
Testosterone injections can increase a woman’s ‘propensity for violence’
While Hale chose to use masculine pronouns and was socially transitioning by wearing masculine clothing, it is unclear if she received a sex reassignment treatment, such as the male hormone testosterone.
Genspect, which campaigns against gender-affirming care for young people, noted Tuesday that “when women are given testosterone, their propensity for violence increases rapidly.”
Trans rights have become a frontline issue in America’s culture wars, with Republican lawmakers in Hale’s home state of Tennessee and elsewhere restricting access to sex reassignment treatments in a push broader against radical gender ideology.
Erin Reed, another prominent trans voice, described the legislative push as part of an ‘ongoing anti-trans genocide in the US.’ Many members of the trans community have vowed to fight back.
Protesters at pro-trans rallies against the law have been seen holding banners denouncing ‘trans genocide’. Some trans activists say their community is under attack and they need to defend themselves, even with weapons.
Hale used two assault weapons and a pistol during the elementary school robbery, the latest in a long series of mass shootings across the United States that have made guns a hot political issue.
Those three guns were among seven Hale purchased legally at five area stores, Drake told reporters.
Hale’s parents were unaware Hale was in possession of seven guns, the chief said, adding that they were under the impression the suspect had only owned one gun but had sold it.
Drake said it appeared the suspect had some type of firearms training. Hale fired at officers from the second story as they arrived in patrol cars as they backed away from large windows to avoid making themselves an easy target.
The violence on Monday marked the 90th school shooting, defined as any incident in which a gun is fired on school property, in the US this year, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database, a website founded by the Researcher David Riedman.
Last year there were 303 such incidents, the highest of any year in the database, which goes back to 1970.
The three nine-year-old children who died were identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney. Also shot dead were Katherine Koonce, 60, the school’s principal; Mike Hill, 61, school janitor; and Cynthia Peak, 61, a substitute teacher.
Scruggs’ father, Chad, is a pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church, which is connected to the school. In a statement given to ABC News, he said the family was heartbroken.
“Through tears we trust that she is in the arms of Jesus who will raise her once more,” the statement read.
The school in a statement said: ‘Our community is heartbroken. We are grieving a tremendous loss and are in shock coming out of the terror that destroyed our school and church.”
Nashville police began receiving calls about a shooter at 10:13 a.m., spokesman Don Aaron told reporters Monday. The suspect was pronounced dead at 10:27 am. “The response from the police department was quick,” Aaron added.
Wires contributed to this report.