Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, home of megachurch pastor Joel Osteen, was the site of an attempted mass shooting on February 11.

During a Sunday afternoon Spanish-language service, a woman armed with an AK-15 and dressed in a trench coat stormed the church with her 7-year-old son and proceeded to open fire on the congregation.

Almost immediately, she was shot and killed by two off-duty police officers who were already present at the scene—but not before the shooter’s son and a 57-year-old man were also shot.

While the man has been released from hospital, the boy is still fighting for his life.

In the aftermath of the shooting, the attacker was identified as 36-year-old Genesse Moreno, an El Salvador national with a long rap sheet and a history of mental health problems.

Among the other details to emerge were that she had the word “Palestine” emblazoned across her weapon, had left behind her a trail of antisemitic writings, and regularly went by the name Jeffery Escalante.

The latter detail sparked widespread speculation that the shooter was transgender—as well as loud condemnations, from all the usual suspects, that such a possibility might even be countenanced.

The Federalist’s label for Moreno, in a February 14 report, as “gender-confused” seems at least reasonable, given her penchant for identifying as “Jeffery”—a name even her ex-husband used for her.

As we wait for more details to emerge, it seems relevant to ask the question: When can we talk about trans mass shooters?

As The Epoch Times reported last month, “Since 2018, five people who identified as transgender or were gender-confused have gone on killing sprees at schools and businesses.” Looking at the statistics in more depth, they note:

The number of people aged 13 and older who identify as transgender in the United States is estimated to be about 1.6 million, or 0.6 percent of that population, according to the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy.

And although 0.6 percent of the 13-and-older population identifies as transgender, 5.4 percent of the mass shootings in recent years involved gender-confused individuals.

Assuming these numbers are correct, trans and gender-confused shooters are overrepresented ninefold.

Thus, while it would be a stretch to call this an epidemic of trans shooters, trans shootings have certainly become a classification of mass shootings.

According to The Federalist:

The 17-year-old Iowan male who shot up his high school in January was known to flirt with inaccurate pronouns and transgender ideology.

The 28-year-old woman who shot and killed three children and three staff at a small Christian school in Nashville in March 2023 went by a male name and referred to herself with male pronouns.

The 22-year-old man who shot and killed five and injured dozens more at a Colorado Springs nightclub in November 2022 told courts he is ‘nonbinary’ and uses ‘they/them pronouns,’ and asked to be referred to as ‘Mx.’ instead of ‘Mr.’ by his lawyers.

The 16-year-old female who, along with another teen, shot up the middle school and high school sections of a Denver-area charter school masqueraded as a man and demanded people call her by a male name.

The 26-year-old female who shot and killed three employees and herself at a Rite Aid distribution center in Maryland in 2018 told family and friends she was trans.

Perhaps most troubling is that, while the legacy press is ever eager to highlight a person’s transgender identity if he or she  falls victim to a crime, they willfully neglect to mention it when a trans or gender-confused person perpetrates one.

This was especially the case with the Nashville transgender shooter, whose woke manifesto was buried by the authorities for months and came to light thanks only to a whistleblower who leaked it to the media.

It goes without saying that we should not demonize an entire group of people based on the actions of a few.

On the other hand, people from certain identity groups should not be given special immunity from the media or the authorities. Politicians and the media have been quick to point to people’s race, beliefs, or identity in other cases—why not in the case of transgender shooters? The public must be allowed to ask questions.

Among them: What role do cross-sex hormones play in changing brain chemistry? Does taking testosterone make a person more likely to commit violence? Does “transitioning”—and, in particular, medicalization of the issue  —actually result in better outcomes? Has it resulted in overall good for society to no longer treat gender dysphoria as a mental illness but instead as a matter of identity and pride?

Being allowed to talk about trans mass shooters means being allowed to ask the questions that should be asked with the urgency those questions deserve. And ultimately, it means providing the best help possible for those who need it—and safer societies for all of us.

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