So I’ve been thinking about trans mass shooters, and I think it very clear that it isn’t transphobia that pushes trans kids to kill. It’s the pain and anger and the cognitive dissonance that come from living a lie. These kids know, deep down, that identifying as the opposite sex is no more valid than identifying as an animal, or as someone from another planet. They know, even if not consciously, that it’s all pretend. Knowing that, they cannot help but be aware that everyone in their life who affirms them is lying through their teeth, whether they admit that consciously or not. Parents, teachers, counselors — everyone in authority is reinforcing a charade. They’re all lying — and that leaves the kid with no firm foundation upon which to build a genuine identity. It’s all pretense, based on whatever stereotypes these kids have picked up about the opposite sex, and that leads to feelings of instability and insecurity. They can’t even trust their own parents to tell them the truth — so how can they trust anyone else? Moreover, these kids are told over and over again that transition will cure all of their mental distress, and because of the culture in trans spaces, they feel compelled to pretend that this is so. That causes a lot of repressed anger and pain they feel unable to express verbally, and whereas girls who are angry and depressed at this level are more likely to self-harm (although there are exceptions), boys — as we continue to see — tend to lash out instead. You cannot surround a child with liars and expect them to grow up as a healthy and rational member of society. Affirming parents are lying parents, and “trans” kids know that. It severs the bonds between parent and child, leaving the child unable to trust their authority figures. Their parents, teachers, etc. will look them in the face and lie to protect them from the truth — but that’s not healthy, and it’s not how you raise functional children. Moreover, forcing a child to make life-altering medical decisions at an age where they are incapable of fully understanding what they’re about to do to themselves is a form of neglect. It puts “trans” kids in an unnatural position, in which the parents push the child to make life-altering choices that no child should be forced to even consider. Instead of being protected, the “trans” child is forced into an adult role, and required to make decisions that will have long term consequences for their health and mental wellbeing, years before they’re even old enough to decide to get their ears pierced on their own. Additionally, they’re expected to make these decisions while living in a carefully curated fantasy world in which everyone they should be able to trust is instead lying to them about the very basis of who they are — but the fantasy is imperfect, and no matter how elaborate, no matter how affirming, it IS a fantasy — and fantasies don’t last. The kid is trapped between his idealized self and his true self, unable to achieve the former, but forced to pretend he has, even as the existence of the latter becomes harder to ignore. The dissonance between fantasy and reality increases as he ages, and the anger at his inability to reconcile the two eventually erupts into violence.