USA Today and other Media outlets are facing backlash for their reporting on the shooting at a Christian school in Nashville.
On Monday, USA Today tweeted, “Police on Monday afternoon said that the shooter was a transgender man. Officials had initially misidentified the gender of the shooter.”
Twitter users were quick to take issue with the outlet’s focus on the gender of the shooter.
Founder of Live Action Lila Rose replied, “In an act of terrorism, a woman murdered three children and three adults in cold blood today at a Christian school and our Media is worrying about her ‘preferred pronouns.’ Utterly insane.”
Activist Chloe Cole responded, “Have to respect the school shooters pronouns.”
Author Ashley St. Clair wrote, “Imagine being a parent of one of the victims and seeing the Media being apologetic for misgendering your child’s murderer.”
Conservative commentator Matt Walsh added, “This is the most disgusting and insane tweet I think I’ve ever seen from a Media organization, and that is certainly saying a lot.”
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USA Today was not the only outlet to comment on the shooter’s gender identity.
Similarly, The New York Times tweeted, “There was confusion later on Monday about the gender identity of the assailant in the Nashville shooting. Officials had used ‘she’ and ‘her’ to refer to the suspect, who, according to a social Media post and a LinkedIn profile, appeared to identify as a man in recent months.”
The suspect killed three children and three adults during the shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee.
“At one point she was a student at that school,” Nashville police Chief John Drake said.
He added, “There was a vehicle nearby that gave us a clue as to who she was.”