In the 2020s, various hoaxes spread in the United States which falsely claim that transgender people commit acts of violence like mass shootings at a disproportionately high rate, or which incorrectly identify individual perpetrators or suspects of violent events as being transgender. This misinformation is generally pushed by right-wing sources associated with the 2020s U.S. anti-LGBTQ movement, with social media acting as a particularly prevalent vector for its spread.
Experts on the subject say that the disinformation about trans-perpetrated violence is used to motivate violence against trans people and anti-transgender policy. Analyses have noted that transgender people are much more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators of it. Members of the second Trump administration have proposed policies on the basis of this disinformation, including to revoke trans people's right to keep and bear arms, and classifying "transgender ideology" as a domestic terror threat. As of September 20, 2025, none of these policies have been enacted.
According to The Independent , there has been a "years-long effort by many within the MAGA movement to smear America's estimated 2.8 million trans people as exceptionally violent, unstable, and prone to perpetrating mass shootings". [3] This may take the form of false or unverified claims of the perpetrators of violent events having transgender identities to spread on social media in the immediate aftermath of the events, or of misrepresentations of the overall trend of the rate at which trans people commit violence. [4] [3]
An analysis by Wired found 12 violent events between 2022 and 2025 which were falsely blamed on trans people. For example, Republican congressman Paul Gosar incorrectly claimed the 2022 Uvalde school shooting was perpetrated by a "transsexual leftist illegal alien". [5] Right wing social media accounts spread a hoax claiming that the perpetrator of the 2024 Abundant Life Christian School shooting was transgender. [5] Conservative commentator Matt Wallace falsely blamed the 2025 Potomac River mid-air collision on an uninvolved transgender pilot saying it "may have been another trans terror attack", leading her to be harassed. [5]
Initial reports on the 2025 assassination of Charlie Kirk claimed there was "transgender ideology" inscribed on the bullets used to kill Kirk. Prior to a motive or suspect being established, many assumed it to be motivated by Kirk's anti-LGBTQ views. Conservatives attempted to link the shooting to through the suspected shooter's roommate, who is allegedly transgender. There is no evidence the roommate was involved in, or had any pre-knowledge of the assassination. [6]
Conservative figures including Donald Trump Jr. and Ronny Jackson have claimed that transgender people commit disproportionately more violence than other groups, and disinformation around the rate at which transgender people commit violence has spread in conservative media. [7] [8] [9] According to PolitiFact, crime and terrorism experts hold that there is no evidence that transgender people are more likely to commit violent crimes than the general population. [10] Mia Bloom, a professor at Georgia State University, noted that the group with a disproportionate number of shootings was not transgender people but rather white heterosexual men. [10]
Numbers vary across study and methodology, depending on factors such as how such crimes are defined, but studies do not show a disproportionate rate violence among transgender people. According to an analysis by the Poynter Institute, transgender people represent 0.1–1.5% of shooters in the US, and make up 0.5–1.6% of the population. Experts on gun violence agree that transgender people do not represent a disproportionate threat, with human security professor Laura Dugan calling the threat of transgender shooters "just not a concern". [9]
Transgender violence hoaxes have largely been spread by figures associated with the Make America Great Again movement. [3] According to GLAAD, claims are often spread on social media in the immediate aftermath of events before full facts are available. [11]
In August and September 2025, following the Annunciation Catholic School shooting, whose perpetrator at one point identified as transgender, charts went viral on the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) which claimed to show an increased rate of violence perpetrated by transgender people. The data on the charts was fabricated, with one expert on the subject saying of the charts that, "I have no clue where their numbers come from but they are painfully inaccurate across the board." [12]
On September 11, 2025, Donald Trump Jr. falsely claimed on The Megyn Kelly Show that the "radical trans moment" was more violent than Al-Qaeda or the Taliban. In the same show, Kelly blamed "pro-transgender ideology" for the assassination of Charlie Kirk, saying, "That doesn’t mean they are all murderous, but there is a particularly high percentage committing crimes these days, and it is responsible and important to say so." [8]
Right wing politicians in the United States have also repeated misinformation about transgender violence. On September 18, 2025, Texas Republican congressman Ronny Jackson stated on a radio show hosted by Rob Finnerty that trans people "have an underlying level of aggressiveness," and based on this called trans people a "virus", suggesting, "We have to get [trans people] off the streets and we have to get them off the internet. We can’t let them communicate with each other." [7]
Following the Annunciation Catholic School shooting, the United States Department of Justice considered enacting policies to ban transgender people from owning guns on the incorrect basis that transgender people are more prone to violence. One unnamed Justice Department official was quoted as saying, "We're not playing semantics with words like dysphoria. We're talking about trannies, and we don't think they should have guns." [2] This initial proposal was criticized by gun rights organizations, including the National Rifle Association, Gun Owners of America, the National Association for Gun Rights, and the Second Amendment Foundation. [13]
In September 2025, the Heritage Foundation launched a petition to have "violent transgender ideology" classified as domestic terror threat in the United States based on the belief that trans people are exceptionally violent. [3] That same month, sources reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was preparing to classify certain transgender offenders as a "nihilistic violent extremist" threat group. [6]
Subject matter experts, including Yotam Ophir, a University of Buffalo professor specializing in gun violence, and Ari Drennen, a program director for Media Matters, noted that transgender violence disinformation could be used to justify anti-trans legislation and violence against trans people. According to Ophir, "If you persuade conservatives that LGBTQ people are inherently flawed, that they are violent, that they are a risk to society, then any legislation against them will be justified... Every act of violence against them will be justified." [5] [14] According to GLAAD, the hoax aims to "dehumanize, demonize, and promote fear about transgender and nonbinary people". [11] Analyses of the subject have noted that trans people are far more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators of it. [4] [15] [3] [10]