Minneapolis shooter’s trans identity isn’t to blame for mass shooting | Opinion

When tragedy strikes a community, there’s an unspoken pact to honor the victims and their families without turning their suffering into a political spectacle. Yet, the victims of the recent mass shooting tragedy in Minneapolis were not afforded that respect. Instead, political opportunists seized the moment to push their own divisive agendas, further fragmenting our country. There is no worse kind of exploitation than using human suffering for political gain.

Most egregiously, some have used the pain of Minneapolis to double down on targeting the transgender community.

Let me be clear: The identity of the shooter has nothing to do with the violence they unleashed. Just as we don’t scrutinize the gender, sexual orientation or political beliefs of other perpetrators of mass gun violence (who are overwhelmingly not transgender), we shouldn’t do so here. It serves a harmful agenda and it’s an insult to the memory of those who suffered.

For years, many of us have been calling for meaningful reforms to address school shootings and violence — reforms such as gun control, expanding mental health resources, providing safety courses, investing in public schools and creating programs that keep our kids engaged and fulfilled. As someone who has had the privilege of serving as a board director for the Children’s Services Fund of Jackson County, I have become a passionate advocate for children and youth. Yet, when I look around, I see others using incidents such as the Minneapolis shooting to deepen divides in our communities — people who underfund our schools, erect barriers to health care and ignore the need for mental health resources, all while spreading divisive narratives and doing nothing about guns rampant on our streets.

Many who claim to be pro-child are often only pro-birth. What does it mean to be pro-child when a child has to live in constant fear of becoming a victim of gun violence? In this country, guns have more protection than our children do. If we truly want a safe, just society, we need to fund school lunches, after-school programs, services for underserved communities, universal child care and ensure that women continue to have autonomy over their own bodies. The people who parade these tragedies in the name of their agendas are hypocrites. They offer no solutions — just shame. Shame is a negative spiral that does nothing to improve life.

I was taught in church to love thy neighbor, and I believe that God’s followers are called to be among the kindest, most compassionate people here on Earth. But today, those who misuse his name to justify abuse of the tiny minority of the transgender community, all while advancing their own agenda — often in the wake of tragedies such as repeated school shootings — betray the very essence of what it means to follow Christ.

Those who spread division and hate in God’s name are betraying his true message. Christ’s work is about love and unity, not fear and division. Anyone who twists that is not serving God, but something far darker.

The excessive attention to the gender identity of the Minneapolis suspect is serving a political agenda that does not keep us safe. It inflicts more pain on an already suffering community, and allows those in charge to escape accountability for doing nothing to solve the scourge of gun violence and heal the shattered communities it leaves behind.

Justice Horn is vice chairman of the Jackson County Plan Commission. He formerly served as chair of Kansas City’s LGBTQ Commission and as board director for the Children’s Services Fund of Jackson County.