Misinformation about trans people floods social media in wake of B.C. mass shooting

Discrimination and false claims spread online following reports about the 18-year-old shooter’s gender identity. Heather Wright examines the facts.

As news broke and details emerged of Tuesday’s mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., Dee McWatters says her heart sank. She was thinking about the victims, their families, as well as the transgender community.

“It was like, ‘oh no, people are going to use this to weaponize hate … and use it as an excuse against the transgender community,’” said McWatters, who herself is a transgender woman that lives in southern B.C.

Even before the shooter’s identity was confirmed by police, speculation about their gender identify spread across social media. Independent B.C. MLA Tara Armstrong posted on X, saying “there is an epidemic of transgender violence spreading across the West.”

The post goes on to say: “this epidemic of violence will continue until we change our society’s response to transgender ideology.”

CTV News reached out to Armstrong, but she has not responded to a request for comment.

Many groups have come out against the MLA’s comments, including the Kelowna Pride Society.

“Let us be clear: violence is not caused by gender identity or trans identities,” the group wrote in a statement. “Attempts to weaponize tragedy to target trans, non-binary and two-spirit people are harmful, inaccurate and unacceptable.”

• What we know about the victims of the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C.
• Who was the Tumbler Ridge shooter? What we know

Elon Musk also shared a number of tweets to his 234 million followers on X, claiming that trans people are more likely to carry out mass violence.

Like many members of the trans community, McWatters worries these comments will lead to even further stigmatization and marginalization.

“This is a mental-health issue. This has nothing to do with gender,” she said.

RCMP say police had visited the shooter’s home multiple times in the last few years because of her mental health issues. Investigators have not provided a motive in what led the 18-year-old to carry out one of the worst mass shootings in Canadian history.

‘Trying to find a scapegoat’

Statistics show that most mass shootings are carried out by cisgender men, and that mass shooters who identify as trans are rare.

“I think it’s a product of the information environment that we’re in,” said James Densley, co-founder of The Violence Prevention Project, which tracks mass shootings in the United States. “When a shooter is transgender, that becomes the headline and that becomes the story.”

A mass shooting is defined by The Violence Prevention Project as “four or more people shot and killed, excluding the shooter, in a public location, with no connection to underlying criminal activity, such as gangs or drugs.”

According to Densley, there is just one in their database involving a shooter that identified as transgender: a school shooting in Nashville, Tenn., in 2023.

Densley says linking trans identity with violence is an extension of how the trans community is demonized.

“There’s been a lot of conversations about transgender people’s role in society, their access to care … their access to bathrooms, their access to sports,” he said. “This is an extension of that.”

Densley says by demonizing one group, it means harder conversations about things like mental health and access to guns can be avoided.

“We’re trying to find a scapegoat, we’re trying to find a conversation starter around this … so that you don’t have to talk about some of the more challenging issues, particularly on the right, that they might not want to talk about,” he said.

B.C. human rights commissioner Kasari Govender also weighed in on the rhetoric, calling it “dangerous.”

“I am disappointed by the anti-trans disinformation and the hateful narratives that are being spread,” Govender said Thursday. “Using this horrific incident to conflate trans identities with violent tendencies is incorrect, irresponsible and frankly dangerous.”

Govender also passed along condolences to the community of Tumbler Ridge and all those affected by the shooting.

“Our hearts are with you.”