LogFAQs > #972468096

MightBeOverSoon posted...

Nice victim blaming.

Yes and no. Did the school deserve to be shot up? No. There's zero chance that the child victims had anything to do with the shooter's mental state and a significant chance that at least 2/3 adult victims were similarly innocent (the substitute teacher probably wasn't even there 20 years ago, the custodian likely had little interaction with the former student, the only plausible personal vendetta would be against the "top administrator," and even that's just speculative), and even if one or more of them were responsible, that doesn't mean they deserved to die for it. Did the school as an institution play a role in the shooter's mental health deteriorating to such a critical point? Almost certainly.

It's likely not the only factor in that, since it would only have been part of a broader transphobic culture that harmed the person's mental health, but it's still important to recognize the role the school played in the mental health of this and every other trans person who attends/attended. Even if we still want to shy away from blaming them for the shooting because victim blaming feels icky, I expect there are plenty of cases where they can be blamed for trans (or gay, for that matter) people experiencing depression or anxiety, having relationships fall apart because they tried to force themselves to be something they aren't, self-harming, or committing suicide. That's just the reality of what anti-LGBT culture does to LGBT people.

Now, of course, this is speculation. Maybe the school is actually super LGBT-friendly and just ended up being a target because the shooter fell into a rabbit hole of self-loathing transphobia and blamed the school for not doing enough to discourage them from coming out. We don't know for sure, and probably never will because any understanding we have of their motivations is going to be heavily filtered through the police and media. The bottom line, though, is that addressing this epidemic of gun violence has to include addressing the mental health issues that are underscoring it, and for gay and especially trans people suffering from mental health issues, anti-LGBT culture plays a substantial role in causing them. That needs to be called out for more reasons than just "this one time a trans person shot up a school," because - like all mental health issues - it's causing far more harm than just what makes national headlines. The only way to curtail this is to address that.