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Trans Resistance Network (TRN)

Website:

transresistancenetwork.wordpress.com/
Type:

Transgender Advocacy Organization
Formation:

2022

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The Trans Resistance Network (TRN) is a far-left group that advocates for transgender interests. The group came to national attention after the March 2023 Nashville school shooting by an individual who went by the name Audrey Hale whom media reports identified as transgender. 1 In a statement released by the TRN after the event, the organization sympathized with both the victims and the perpetrator, and suggested that the shooter was pushed to violence due to increasing oppression of transgender individuals in society (escalating to potential genocide), particularly by the American political right.

Activities

The Trans Resistance Network states that it was created to “ensure the survival of gender diverse people” through support systems, “mutual aid,” and “community defense.” 2

Little information is available about the TRN’s organizers or the group’s activity prior to March 2023. Its Twitter account was established in June 2022, and a pinned tweet from August 2022 suggests the group was started in the summer of 2022. A September 2022 tweet urges its followers to “make plans to defend yourself and your family” from legislation concerning the use of bathrooms in public schools by transgender individuals. 3

TRN’s website connects transgender individuals to support volunteers (e.g. mental health clinicians, shelters), as well as activists. 4 There is also a support section for “relocation to a safer state.” 5

Nashville Shooting Response

On March 27, 2023, 28-year-old Audrey Hale, whom media reports identified as transgender, 6 went on a shooting spree in Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, killing three nine-year-old children and three adults before being shot and killed by police. As of late March, the shooter’s motives were unknown, though officials stated that her manifesto would be released after examination by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). 7 8

On the day of the shooting, the Trans Resistance Network released a public statement on its Twitter account expressing sorrow for both the shooting victims and Hale that read, “The second and more complex tragedy is that Aiden or Aubrey Hale, who felt he had no other effective way to be seen than to lash out by taking the life of others, and by consequence, himself.” 9

The statement suggested that Hale may have been inspired by “a virtual avalanche of anti-trans legislation, and public callouts by Right Wing personalities and political figures for nothing less than the genocidal eradication of trans people from society.” 10

Further, the statement claims that Hale’s presumed mental instability may have been caused by her inability to receive adequate mental health care due to the social stigma against transgender individuals. 11

The statement concluded by urging media outlets to use Hale’s reported preferred pronouns (he/him) and to resist “pandering to those individuals on the Right who will use this double-tragedy to torment fear and terror of transgender people in order to advance an agenda of transgender elimination.” 12

The media’s reaction to the TRN’s statement was highly negative, particularly from right-of-center sources. The Spectator called the statement “morally warped” and stated, “To equate the tragedy of the murder of children with the ‘tragedy’ of the suspect’s alleged gender confusions is moral relativism of the most depraved kind.” 13 U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN) commented, “any attempt to turn a mass murderer into a martyr is beyond disturbing” on Fox News. 14

However, the statement received some support from left-wing media outlets. For instance, Vice claimed, “the right is using the Nashville shooting to declare war on trans people.” 15 Not long after the statement’s release, TRN set its Twitter page to private, removing access to the statement for most Twitter users. 16

References

  1. Wallace, Danielle. “Nashville Police Find Suicide Note, Yearbooks, Weapons, Ammo at School Shooter Audrey Hale’s Home: Report.” Fox News. FOX News Network, April 4, 2023. https://www.foxnews.com/us/nashville-police-find-suicide-note-yearbooks-weapons-ammon-school-shooter-audrey-hale-home-report.
  2. “Trans Resistance Network.” Twitter. Accessed March 30, 2023. https://mobile.twitter.com/ResistanceTrans.
  3. “Trans Resistance Network.” Twitter. September 1, 2022. Accessed March 30, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20220901041750/https://twitter.com/ResistanceTrans/.
  4. “Contribute to the Mutual Aid Network.” Trans Resistance Network. Accessed March 30, 2023. https://transresistancenetwork.wordpress.com/contribute/.
  5. “Relocation to a Safer State.” Trans Resistance Network. Accessed March 30, 2023. https://transresistancenetwork.wordpress.com/relocate/.
  6. Wallace, Danielle. “Nashville Police Find Suicide Note, Yearbooks, Weapons, Ammo at School Shooter Audrey Hale’s Home: Report.” Fox News. FOX News Network, April 4, 2023. https://www.foxnews.com/us/nashville-police-find-suicide-note-yearbooks-weapons-ammon-school-shooter-audrey-hale-home-report.
  7. Pagones, Stephanie. “Nashville shooter Audrey Hale’s manifesto to be released after FBI review: official.” New York Post. March 29, 2023. Accessed March 30, 2023. https://nypost.com/2023/03/29/nashville-shooter-audrey-hales-manifesto-will-be-released/.
  8. “Nashville Shooting Police Say Shooter Was Under Doctor’s Care for ‘Emotional Disorder’.” New York Times. March 28, 2023. Updated March 29, 2023. Accessed March 30, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/03/28/us/nashville-school-shooting-tennessee.
  9. “Dr EM.” Twitter. March 28, 2023. Accessed March 30, 2023. https://mobile.twitter.com/PankhurstEM/status/1640626895006908416/photo/1.
  10. “Dr EM.” Twitter. March 28, 2023. Accessed March 30, 2023. https://mobile.twitter.com/PankhurstEM/status/1640626895006908416/photo/1.
  11. “Dr EM.” Twitter. March 28, 2023. Accessed March 30, 2023. https://mobile.twitter.com/PankhurstEM/status/1640626895006908416/photo/1.
  12. “Dr EM.” Twitter. March 28, 2023. Accessed March 30, 2023. https://mobile.twitter.com/PankhurstEM/status/1640626895006908416/photo/1.
  13. O’Neill, Brendan. “Is the cult of victimhood turning violent?” The Spectator. March 29, 2023. Accessed March 30, 2023. https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/is-the-cult-of-victimhood-turning-violent/.
  14. “Nashville congressman responds to radical trans group: Turning shooter into ‘martyr’ is ‘beyond disturbing’.” WFINN. March 30, 2023. Accessed March 30, 2023. https://wfin.com/fox-political-news/nashville-congressman-responds-to-radical-trans-group-turning-shooter-into-martyr-is-beyond-disturbing/.
  15. Zoledziowski, Anya; Lamoureux. “The Right Is Using the Nashville Shooting to Declare War on Trans People.” Vice. March 29, 2023. Accessed March 30, 2023. https://www.vice.com/en/article/5d9ppz/nashville-shooting-marjorie-taylor-greene-matt-walsh-anti-trans.
  16. “Trans Resistance Network.” Twitter. Accessed March 30, 2023. https://mobile.twitter.com/ResistanceTrans.
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