hands holding nonbinary flag in front of blue background

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Far-right embraces mass murderer’s pronoun choice to troll grieving LGBTQ community

They don't think it's possible to be nonbinary and a violent right-wing extremist.

 

Claire Goforth

Tech

Posted on Nov 23, 2022   Updated on Nov 23, 2022, 11:36 am CST

The LGBTQ community is still reeling from last weekend’s mass shooting at Club Q in Colorado. Five were killed and 19 injured in a matter of minutes before a brave patron tackled and subdued the shooter.

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Now the far right is using the shooter’s choice of pronouns to mock a grieving community.

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The alleged shooter, Anderson Lee Aldrich, is charged with murder and hate crimes over the shooting, which many believe was motivated by homophobia and possibly far-right extremism. Aldrich is the grandson of a Republican assemblyman in California who has favorably compared the Capitol riot to the American Revolutionary War.

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On Tuesday, the shooter’s attorney told the court that Aldrich identifies as nonbinary.

The far-right is thrilled. In their minds, it’s impossible to be nonbinary and a right-wing extremist.

Extremist Tommy Robinson wrote victoriously of the news that the alleged Colorado shooter identifies as nonbinary, “There goes their whole narrative,” along with a laughing emoji.

Proud Boys-adjacent Telegram channel the Western Chauvinist referred to the shooting as “system on system violence” and suggested Aldrich using they/them pronouns is “why we’re not hearing very much about the Club Q shooting anymore.”

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Others expressed similar sentiments. “And just like that, the media is done talking about the Club Q shooting,” Charlie Kirk said on Telegram.

However, some are questioning the sincerity of Aldrich’s claim to be nonbinary.

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In a video of a 2021 arrest that was obtained by CNN, Aldrich referred to himself as “boy.”

A neighbor and former friend told the Daily Beast that Aldrich frequently used a homophobic slur for gay men. A screenshot of an Instagram account that purportedly belonged to Aldrich contains a single post of an LGBTQ Pride flag burning.

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Meanwhile, the night of the killing, Aldrich’s mother reportedly posted that her son was missing and referred to Aldrich with male pronouns.

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Given some of the evidence, people online have speculated this might be a ploy to avoid hate crime charges or trolling against the LGBTQ community.

That’s a possibility the far-right is refusing to accept, gleefully embracing it to mock gender identity in general.

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They’re calling out the media for misgendering Aldrich, despite previously having never cared to respect pronouns.

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In the wake of a mass murder, it’s particularly galling.

“Literally even if they are non-binary it changes NOTHING about the fact that they went into a happy place and turned a safe, fun night into a tragedy,” commented one.

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*First Published: Nov 23, 2022, 11:29 am CST
 

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