A vigil for the victims of a deadly mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C.Jennifer Gauthier/Reuters
On Wednesday afternoon, the RCMP identified the shooter in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., as an 18-year-old transgender woman who lived in the small community and had a history of mental-health issues.
But before the shooter was even identified, speculation around their gender identity was proliferating across social media.
Since the RCMP, in an emergency alert on Tuesday, described the shooter as a “female in a dress with brown hair,” prominent American right-wing influencers, social-media accounts and Reddit communities quickly spread and amplified anti-trans rhetoric.
On X, Elon Musk reacted to and shared several posts to his 234 million followers that falsely claimed trans people are the most likely to commit mass shootings.
LibsofTikTok, an American far-right, anti-LGBTQ account with more than 4.6 million followers on X, has posted several transphobic messages and reposted derogatory memes. Daily Wire commentator Matt Walsh and Andy Ngo, a commentator and editor of the Canadian conservative news website The Post Millennial, have also posted inflammatory comments that villainize the shooter’s gender identity. In replies to these posts, users posted photos of trans people unrelated to the shooting.
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Some in the trans community are concerned the online vitriol could lead to further stigmatization and a rise in anti-trans violence.
“The unfortunate reality is that there’s this targeted misinformation campaign that’s been unfolding for years,” said Tre’vell Anderson, the executive director of the U.S.-based Trans Journalists Association.
Statistics have repeatedly shown that the majority of mass shootings are perpetrated by cisgender men.
The Violence Prevention Project at Hamline University in Minnesota found that in mass shootings, which they define as four or more fatalities in public places with no connection to criminal activity, fewer than 1 per cent of shooters were transgender.
Another report from the LGBTQ+ policy research centre Williams Institute at the University of California found that transgender people were more than four times likely to be the victims of crimes, including sexual assault, than cisgender people.
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Yet targeting the trans community has become a key element of the right-wing media ecosystem in the aftermath of mass shootings.
The practice originates from the Uvalde school shooting, which left nearly two dozen dead in Texas in 2022, Tre’vell Anderson said. Right-wing influencers and some Republican politicians pushed the false narrative that the shooter was transgender, a rumour that began on 4chan.
Since then, after mass shootings and other tragedies, trans people have frequently been baselessly blamed as the perpetrators.
Ari Drennan, a trans researcher based in Seattle who monitors right-wing media and disinformation targeting LGBTQ people, said the assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk in September, 2025, further inflamed the issue. A government report suggested some of the inscriptions on the shooter’s bullet casings included pro-trans messages.
“It became a huge inflection point where it really reached a boiling point and started being heavily embraced by not only the media, but the United States government,” said Ms. Drennan.
“It pushed this narrative as an excuse for increased political repression, increased online surveillance and even measures targeting the gun rights of trans Americans, something that would normally be the anathema to the right in the U.S.”
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This type of misinformation can have real world effects on the trans community. In the U.S., where trans rights have become a cornerstone of the culture wars, politicians have called for retribution on the LGBTQ+ community, such as rolling back gender-affirming care.
“There’s a fear that incidents like this could be seized upon by politicians who are trying to use culture war issues as a way to increase societal repression, take away rights more broadly, and restrict the medical access of a population that is really dependent on medical care,” said Ms. Drennen.
Tre’vell Anderson said social media is a vital tool for conservative politicians and influencers agenda that can be used to marginalize trans people.
“People with political motivation will use whatever they can in service of that political motivation. There is no care for the local community when people are amplifying these unfounded allegations,” they said. “It turns into a witch hunt.”
At a press conference on Wednesday about the Tumbler Ridge killings, RCMP Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald was asked by a reporter if there is a connection between trans people and mass shootings. The shooter’s motive is still unclear.
“It’s too early to say whether that has any correlation in this investigation and I think it’s important to recognize this investigation is still in its infancy,” he said.
