Letters to the Editor: Colorado shooting doesn’t change this: LGBTQ+ people exist. Always have, always will.
I am still reeling after witnessing two men, armed with guns, shoot and seriously injure a transgender woman. The shooter is a man who has claimed a gender identity, or something far more nefarious, because he wants to go to a women’s prison. The transgender woman is a woman who wanted to protect her daughter, who was with her, and was shot by the shooter.
The shooter says he thinks God told him that he had to shoot her. I am not so sure. The shooter is a man who has threatened his fellow men on the Internet and now, on the street. But maybe God made this man as he is today to make a statement, to try to push back against the patriarchy that has taken away his voice and made him not feel wanted.
While his intent may have been good, what we’re talking about are the lives of two people, who happen to have the same gender assigned at birth. That is all. Two people who are just like us. They deserve the same rights as we do. They deserve to live their lives without fear.
I am still recovering from seeing two men who have the audacity to call themselves men (which they consider to be the masculine gender) shoot a transgender woman who has chosen to present as and live as a woman, and who had also been shot by a man who wanted to kill the woman, who was protecting the little girl.
Those two men are now making false claims about God to justify and excuse these acts. That’s where we are. Two men who make false claims about God. Two men who say they feel God telling them to commit such horrific acts.
My hope and prayer is that there are men who read this letter and read the truth: There is no such thing as “being a man” (or a “man”) who does such things. We are not a “man” because of our beliefs. Neither are we a woman because of our beliefs. That’s it. We are women, all of the time. Every day of our lives, no matter what we are assigned at birth.
We are people just like everyone else, with the same rights and protections as everyone else. We
