Twitter users who came out in support of gay and transgender Americans reacted with shock and disgust after a guest on Tucker Carlon’s immensely popular Fox show claimed that more attacks like the Colorado Springs shooting would occur unless doctors ceased performing voluntary gender-affirming care for any American.
It was a moment viewed as a direct threat of violence by those who circulated the video on Twitter and came as some conservatives loudly protested being linked to the same rhetoric that is now blamed for inspiring the attack.
The remark came from Jaimee Michell, founder of the anti-trans group “Gays against groomers”, a right-wing group that purports to be made up of gay and lesbian Americans while at the same time using the pedophilia-invoking “groomer” slur that has been leveled on everyone from transgender Americans to gay men and even straight men and women who support the LGBT community or left-leaning politics in general.
In an interview with Mr Carlson, Ms Michell claimed that the only way the gay community would shed that unfair label leveled by her own political allies would be for such communities to end their support for transgender persons.
“You know, saying that ‘groomer’ is an anti-LGBTQ slur, that is doing irreparable damage to us as a whole, and it’s putting a really large target on our backs,” Ms Michell told Mr Carlson. “And unfortunately, you know, the tragedy that happened in Colorado Springs the other night, it was expected and predictable.”
“Sadly I don’t think it’s going to stop until we end this evil agenda that is attacking children,” she continued.
The moment was met with rage from left-leaning Twitter supporters who saw it as an attempt to further threaten a marginalised community as well as an outright endorsement of the violence.
“If I say what needs to be said I’m gonna be banned,” one commenter noted with disgust.
Others said it was a nail in the coffin for the efforts by conservatives to distance themselves from anti-gay rhetoric that has seen a resurgence in recent months.
Police named a suspect on Wednesday in the attack that killed five, stating that Anderson Aldrich was requesting to use they/them pronouns and claimed to be nonbinary.
But an interview the same day with Aldrich’s father painted a very different picture, as Aldrich senior in an interview showed no remorse for the younger Aldrich’s actions and expressed anti-LGBT views and stated that his son was not part of the LGBT community.
