LGBTQ advocates react to increase in transphobic rhetoric

CLEVELAND — As Americans reckon with recent gun violence, some are trying to draw an unfounded connection between the transgender community and violence.

What You Need To Know

Researchers at Hamline University found that in the last decade, fewer than 1% of shootings with four or more victims were perpetrated by transgender individuals

Transgender individuals are more likely to be victims of violence than their cisgender peers, according to GLAAD

LGBTQ advocates in Cuyahoga County express concerns about mental health, particularly for LGBTQ youth, as homophobic rhetoric increases online

Analysis by Politifact found that data does not show transgender people are more prone to violence. In fact, according to GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, transgender individuals are more likely to be victims of violence than their cisgender peers.

The Violence Prevention Project at Hamline University has found the majority of shootings where four or more people were wounded in public were by men. In the last decade, fewer than 1% of these shootings were perpetrated by transgender individuals.

“When there’s hard things that are happening for us in society, when there’s really challenging, violent, overwhelming instances and then the blame comes on to the LGBTQ community, it gets ratcheted up at a level that, you know, makes my wife and I sit down and have conversations about safety,” Amanda Cole, the executive director of Plexus LGBT and Allied Chamber of Commerce, said.

Cole said she is particularly concerned about young LGBTQ kids who are hearing hateful rhetoric.

“I’m a 90s baby. There was not a cyber place that followed me home,” Cole said. “You could pass notes about me in class, but when I got home, like, what are you going to do? Call me on my landline?”

Now, in our digitally connected world, hateful messages follow kids home.

“They’re getting messages to harm themselves,” Cole said. “They’re getting messages that they shouldn’t exist. They’re getting messages that they’re illegal. And then again, there’s actual policies and legislation that’s making it difficult to exist.”

Cuyahoga County Councilman Robert Schleper has pushed for additional protections for the LGBTQ community in Cuyahoga County.

“We live in difficult times at the moment and, I think for LGBT folks in general, let alone young people and youth, it can feel hopeless,” Schleper said. “And, what I would say is, don’t give up hope.”

To the people spreading false and harmful information about the LGBTQ community, Schleper asks them to consider love instead of hate.

“The scriptures would say that God is love, right?” Schleper said. “If those that consider themselves a member of a faith-based community have issues with our community, I would encourage them to consider the idea that all of us were created in God’s image.”