The shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis on August 27, carried out by a transgender individual, has sparked a wave of transphobic narratives and threats against the LGBTQ+ community. The attack left two children dead and 21 others injured.
Officials from both the Trump administration and MAGA-aligned social media circles have long targeted the trans community. Trump has issued several executive orders aimed at undermining the community’s civil rights.
Anti-trans posts by far-right figures went viral after the shooting. These included white nationalist Nick Fuentes; Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA; Benny Johnson, a far-right journalist; and Jesse Watters, a host on Fox News. On the day of the shooting, Johnson posted on X saying that “the trans movement is radicalizing the mentally ill into becoming violent terrorists who target children for murder.” His post received over three million views and 14,000 shares.
On fringe platforms like 4chan, Rumble, Gab, and Telegram, the shooter’s gender identity has been weaponized to portray the entire transgender community as violent or mentally ill.
4chan stands out as one of the most racist and violent social media platforms on the internet, known for hosting neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and mass shooters. On the day of the attack, posts containing anti-trans slurs and anti-LGBTQ+ or anti-transgender language increased. From August 25 to 31, the number of comments on the site rose from a daily average of 9,000–10,000 to 14,330 on the day of the attack—a roughly 43 percent increase— and 11,851 the day after.
4chan comments containing anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ language and slurs. (Data collected using Open Measures).
Users discussing the shooter in 4chan threads took the opportunity to spread hate. One wrote on August 28, “Because when it comes to kids, tr**nies only know two things. Groom and shoot.” Others followed with hateful generalizations, stating: “He was trans, that’s why all trans rape and kill.”
One user posting hateful content against transgender people. (Source: 4chan).
The transphobic narrative linking transgender people to mental illness is widespread across online forums. One user wrote on 4chan: “Tr**** are mentally ill.” Another added: “With that being said, the only actual solution is to.. ROUND THE T******* UP AND LOCK THEM UP IN MENTAL INSTITUTIONS. Literally.”
A 4chan user encouraging the institutionalization of transgender people. (Source: 4chan).
This anti-trans rhetoric is in line with that of influential figures in far-right circles. For example, Charlie Kirk posted on X the day of the shooting, “If you are crazy enough to want to hormonally and surgically ‘change your sex,’ you have a mental disorder, and you are too crazy to own a firearm.”
Similarly, the commentator and podcaster at the far-right outlet The Daily Wire, Matt Walsh, wrote on X, “Every trans person is dangerously delusional. They are all mentally sick and doctors should be legally barred from affirming their mental illness in any way.” The post has 12,000 retweets and 8.6 million views.
“Gender dysphoria is a mental illness and children are being targeted by the multibillion dollar medical and pharmaceutical industry,” said Marjorie Taylor Green on X , a Republican House member from Georgia.
Matt Walsh tweet. (Source: X).
4chan users echoed these claims, linking transgender people to violence. “Transgirls just love firearms!!,” stated one user. Another reinforced the hateful rhetoric and targeting of the transgender community, “Trannies shouldn’t own firearms because all trannies are bottoms and bottoms shouldn’t own firearms for their own good. Case in point.”
On Gab, an unmoderated platform that works similar to Twitter, GPAHE recorded a sharp rise in posts containing slurs and transphobic or anti-LGBTQ+ language on the day of the shooting. In the days before the Annunciation Catholic Church attack, such content averaged between 120 and 160 posts a day. On the day of the shooting, the number more than doubled, jumping to 366—a 161 percent increase—. The following days showed a similar trend, with 350 on August 28 and 326 on August 29.
Gab content containing anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ language and slurs. (Data collected using Open Measures).
The platform also hosted posts openly inciting hate against transgender people. “When tr****** aren’t trying to bang other people’s kids, they are trying to kill them,” wrote one user. Another claimed, “more tr****** have become shooters than actually pass as women.” A third post went further, calling “TO DECLARE TR***** VIOLENT DOMESTIC TERRORISTS.”
Several far-right commentators, including Matt Walsh, began using the phrase “trans terrorism” after the shooting, pushing the false claim that transgender people are responsible for a distinct kind of terrorism and, by extension, that the trans community is inherently violent.
In the same vein, Trump media adviser Alex Bruesewitz described the shooter on X as “another deranged trans terrorist” and criticized Democrats for “rushing to defend the ‘trans community’” the day of the attack. Brian Brown, co-founder of the U.S.-based National Organization for Marriage, reinforced this rhetoric, “I have been calling this out for years. Trans terrorism is real.”
Alex Bruesewitz tweet. (Source: X).
On fringe platforms, a segment of Jesse Watters’ editorial on Fox went viral in the hours following the shooting. In it, he repeated a false far-right assumption, claiming: “Statistically, the trans population has been prone to violence. That’s not villainizing, that’s reality.”
However, Watters’ statement is entirely false. Michael Jensen, research director at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, told USA Today that in over 1,000 mass-casualty plots he has studied, the number carried out by a transgender individual can be “counted on less than one hand.” Researchers from various U.S. universities interviewed by Politifact in 2024 reached the same conclusion: there is no evidence of rising LGBTQ+ violent extremism or so-called “trans terrorism.”
Contrary to the false narrative circulated by far-right circles and Trump staffers portraying transgender people as dangerous, the transgender community is actually at increased risk of violence.
Although they make up less than two percent of the U.S. adult population, transgender people are four times more likely to be victims of crime according to GLAAD. Between May 1, 2024, and May 1, 2025, the organization recorded at least 26 injuries and one death among transgender and gender non-conforming individuals due to hate-fueled violence. Compared to the previous year, incidents against trans people increased by 14 percent.
The shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church also fueled the spread of anti-trans rhetoric. On platforms like 4chan and Rumble, users posted comments such as “kill trans people” and “round them up.
Comments on a Rumble video about the shooting. (Source: Rumble).
A 4chan user posting antisemitic, xenophobic, and anti-transgender content. (Source: 4chan).
Another narrative amplified within far-right circles on the day of the shooting linked the attack to demonic influence, echoing broader Christian nationalist rhetoric. Among those pushing this framing were white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, commentator Allie Beth Stuckey, and musician Sean Feucht, a figure associated with the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR).
Fuentes posted that the attack did not appear “to be ideologically motivated.” “If anything, it appears to be demonic influence,” he added.
On Gab, the attack fueled a surge in posts linking the shooting or transgender identity to demonic imagery, with terms like “unholy,” “satanic,” and “demon” appearing far more frequently. Daily mentions jumped from an average of two to 12 on the day of the shooting, and to around 30 on the following day.
