On Monday, yet another person who identified as transgender carried out a mass shooting—this time during a high school hockey game—highlighting why federal law enforcement should consider designating the threat of transgender ideology as violent extremism.
While most people who identify as transgender do not pose a threat to others, a growing number of them and their allies have taken up arms, at times targeting or threatening those who disagree with the ideology.
Police described the motive in the Rhode Island shooting Monday as a family dispute, but court records suggest the shooter—who turned the gun on himself after killing two family members—had grown estranged from his family due to his transgender identity.
Robert Dorgan, 56, who identified as female and went by the name Roberta, also reportedly warned that he might “Go BERSERK” in response to critics of transgender orthodoxy. When actor Kevin Sorbo posted on X last week that Rep. Sarah McBride, D-Del.—a man in Congress who identifies as a woman—is a man, Dorgan responded, “keep bashing us. But do not wonder why we Go BERSERK.”
A Radicalizing Movement
The transgender movement not only encourages men and women to adopt a “gender identity” as the opposite sex and to alter their bodies to make them conform to this identity, but it also demands that society accept, and even celebrate, the delusion.
Activist groups like the Human Rights Campaign not only demand societal acceptance, but also demonize dissent as a form of violence against people.
HRC has described the deaths of people identifying as transgender as an “epidemic.” However, the Human Rights Campaign’s own data suggests that these people face a lower homicide risk than other groups, particularly men, women, black, white, and Hispanic people.
This claim represents the fountainhead of a constant stream of hyperbolic transgender rhetoric. For instance, MSNBC columnist Katelyn Burns once described a move to restrict the Frankensteinian treatments of “gender-affirming care” as an act of genocide.
Supporters of “gender-affirming care” maintain—with a straight face—that people with gender dysphoria (the painful and persistent identification with the gender opposite one’s sex) cannot prevent themselves from committing suicide if they do not receive these interventions. Yet, at the Supreme Court, the lawyer arguing for “gender-affirming care” admitted there is “no evidence” these interventions reduce suicide.
Online influencers who identify as transgender have amassed huge followings, and members of their audiences may find themselves bombarded with exaggerated rhetoric about the “hate” of those who dare to disagree. In fact, the influential Southern Poverty Law Center repeatedly compares conservative Christians who disagree with transgender orthodoxy to the Ku Klux Klan.
If you legitimately believe that there is an “epidemic” of murder against people like you, that opposition to your agenda is a form of “genocide,” and that Christians’ disagreement with transgender identity is fueling this, you might be tempted to lash out.
A Growing Number of Shooters
Just last week, Jesse Van Rootselaar, an 18-year-old man who identified as a woman, killed his mother and stepbrother at their home in British Columbia, Canada, before targeting nearby Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, killing six people.
Tyler Robinson, 22, who faces murder charges in the September killing of Charlie Kirk, reportedly lived with a boyfriend who identifies as transgender. Robinson appears to have been motivated by this relationship.
Authorities confirmed that 23-year-old Robin Westman, a male identifying as a female, opened fire at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis in August, killing two children and injuring 17 others.
Mia Bailey, 30, a male who identifies as female, shot and killed his parents in June 2024. A judge sentenced him to two consecutive terms of 25 years to life in prison after a jury convicted him.
Audrey Elizabeth Hale, a 28-year-old woman who identified as male, shot and killed three children and three adults on March 27, 2023, at The Covenant School, a Presbyterian school in Nashville, Tennessee.
The man who tried to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in June 2022 identifies as a woman. Nicholas Roske, who was 29 when he pleaded guilty in April, identifies as Sophie Roske in a court document.
On May 7, 2019, then-16-year-old Maya “Alec” McKinney and her 19-year-old fellow student, Devon Erickson, opened fire at STEM School Highlands Ranch in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, killing one and injuring eight. Both have been sentenced to life in prison. McKinney, a female, identifies as male.
In June 2024, a judge sentenced Alexia Willie, a man who identifies as a woman, to one year in prison after he pleaded guilty to threatening to injure people across state lines. Willie, a resident of Nashville, Illinois, confessed to threatening to rape girls in girls’ restrooms, carry out mass shootings at schools, and bomb churches.
A Federal Designation
Under 18 U.S. Code § 2331, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security maintain categories for domestic violent extremism, but no category specifically addresses transgender ideology.
The Oversight Project and The Heritage Foundation have formally called on the FBI to designate transgender ideology violent extremism, and I agree. Such a designation would allow the FBI to tailor specific investigative techniques to address the threat, but it must be careful not to suggest that all transgender people or their allies represent a threat.
The FBI told The Daily Signal that it had no comment on the issue.
The growing list of violent offenders identifying as transgender suggests this is a serious problem and federal authorities should get to the bottom of it.
