The shooter was confirmed as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos
A transgender woman has suffered horrendous abuse after being wrongly accused of being the Texas school shooter by right-wing trolls.
Following the horrific mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, the infamous website 4chan became a hive of misinformation once more.
4chan users / right wingers are sharing pictures of an innocent trans person they found on Reddit and are falsely claiming that they are the Uvalde school shooter pic.twitter.com/ds4uL9o3F4
— Matt Binder (@MattBinder) May 24, 2022
Sam, 20 from Georgia, was assaulted with transphobic abuse as her pictures were shared across the internet by conspiracy theorists who claimed she was to blame for the mass shooting that claimed the lives of 19 children.
Last night viral rumours spread on Twitter and Infowars that the Texas Elementary shooter was an unrelated trans woman. Trans Safety Network volunteers contacted her and encouraged her to lock her account to reduce risk of doxing and SWATing attacks affecting her or her family.
— Trans Safety Network (@trans_safety) May 25, 2022
“This isn’t the first time I was harassed, but it is the first time I’ve been accused of murder,” she told NBC. Unfortunately, the misinformation is continuing to spread – and with it, images of two other unrelated trans women.
“People are threatening me and harassing me for no reason. They are actively trying to ruin my life instead of helping the families who were affected,” Sam told the i. “I am being attacked unjustly for no reason. I am being harassed and accused of murder with no evidence. And all I’ve done was live my life. I don’t want fame, I just want to live without being attacked when I leave my house.”
That isn’t to say that the abuse was sectioned only to the dark depths of the internet, as Republican congressman Paul Gosar added fuel to the fire.
“It’s a transsexual leftist illegal alien,” he tweeted before deleting his post hours later when the real shooter was identified.
everyone sharing pictures of some random trans girl who doesn’t even live in texas & claiming she’s the shooter in today’s massacre would do well to remember misidentifying a school shooter was the beginning of alex jones’ undoing.
— molly conger (@socialistdogmom) May 25, 2022
The Young Conservatives of Southern Indiana Facebook page, which has more than 4,000 followers, also shared an image of Sam. Other right-wing commentators have shared statements connecting trans women to the shooting.
For instance, Candace Owens, who has before shared misinformation, said she had seen “cross-dressing” images of the shooter.
Related links:
- James Acaster’s demolition of Gervais is being reshared – because his new act is as ‘transphobic’ as his old one
- Doctor planning world’s first womb transplant to allow trans woman to have a baby
- Disney heir comes out as Transgender and apologises for not doing more against controversial bill
