CINCINNATI — Friday is International Transgender Day of Visibility.
Cincinnati city leaders and LGBTQIA+ partners gathered together at city hall to shine a light on the struggles that transgender people across the region face.
“As the State of Ohio and governments across the nation continue to introduce, consider, and pass legislation that directly targets and harms the most vulnerable among us, the City of Cincinnati continues to defend and work for the safety of all people, especially the young who are uniquely vulnerable," said council member Reggie Harris. "We honor International Transgender Day of Visibility by condemning legislation at the State level and continuing to partner with our local advocacy organizations to protect our community.”
Trans issues have been highlighted in politics recently as Republican state lawmakers push measures including a bill targeting trans athletes and drag performers, as well as limiting gender-affirming care.
According to the Associated Press, many supporters of these bills say they're trying to protect children from undertaking gender-affirming treatments they might regret as adults. Research shows such regret is rare.
“At a time of historic anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation, it is critically important that we acknowledge and celebrate the lives of transgender folks in our community,” said Harris.
In the midst of an increase in legislation targeting trans youth, Nashville police reported that the Covent School shooter was trans.
On Monday, Audrey Hale, killed six people, including three students.
Upon learning of the horror, it didn't take long for local leaders to voice their thoughts on the incident.
Republican Senator J.D. Vance and Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy placed the blame on trans mental health.
Vance called the idea of being trans "dangerous."
We're still learning about the horrific shooting in Nashville. But if early reports are accurate that a trans shooter targeted a Christian school, there needs to be a lot of soul searching on the extreme left. Giving in to these ideas isn't compassion, it's dangerous.
— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) March 27, 2023
Ramaswamy, a Cincinnati native, spoke more bluntly in a video he posted on his official campaign Twitter account. He said that more often than not when someone identifies as trans, he said it is usually a sign of an underlying mental health disorder.
When someone says they’re trans, it usually means *something else* is badly wrong in their life. Let’s abandon the farce that the “humane” thing to do is to affirm their confusion, rather than to actually help. It’s inhumane. My heart goes out to the victims & families in… pic.twitter.com/B5tm4Ophu4
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) March 27, 2023
There isn't a lot of data available when it comes to the percentage of violent crimes committed by trans-identifying individuals. However, according to an ABC News report, the overwhelming majority of people who commit mass shootings are cisgender males. "Cisgender" is a person that identifies as the gender they were assigned at birth.
Laura Dugan, a professor of human security and sociology at Ohio State University, said out of 3,561 mass shootings since 2016, about 0.11% were perpetrated by someone who is not cisgender.
According to ABC News, the number of mass shootings committed by those identifying as trans or nonbinary — and their ratio compared to mass shootings committed by other groups — is hard to quantify. There are many factors that make this difficult to gauge including the database used, how the act is defined and how gender identity is recorded.
There is a lot of data available when it comes to trans suicide rates. According to data from the National Institutes of Health, 82% of transgender individuals have considered killing themselves and 40% have attempted suicide.
The Associated Press contributed to some of the reporting in this article.
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