For deeply troubled youth and their parents, reframing a host of difficult issues—trauma, anxiety, depression—as a single problem of gender dysphoria is appealing. It offers a seemingly simple fix (transition) for problems that are otherwise overwhelming and hard to treat.
The shooter developed gender dysphoria after immersing himself in sexualized anime subcultures. He became fixated on resembling the 'cute and petite' female characters, suggesting his trans identification was an outgrowth of a fetish rather than an innate sense of identity.
In certain online subcultures, identifying as transgender is seen as 'cool' and provides immediate access to a tribe. This reframes an individual's social alienation from a personal failing into a societal moral failure, a powerful coping mechanism for maladjusted young people.
When police and media refer to a biologically male mass shooter as female, they erase the most significant risk factor for such crimes: being male. This ideological choice undermines necessary conversations about male violence and alienation, hindering crime prevention efforts.
Survey data shows declining public acceptance for LGBTQ+ people since the late 2010s. This is attributed not just to right-wing attacks, but to a public backlash against policies seen as 'objectively ridiculous,' creating a resentment that harms the entire community, not just trans people.
Authoritarian regimes like Russia weaponize extreme examples of Western gender discourse, such as police calling male shooters 'female.' They use this to promote 'traditional values' diplomacy, portraying the West as perverse, which consolidates their soft power and hinders local LGBTQ+ rights.
The high correlation between gender dysphoria and other mental health issues is interpreted in two ways. The 'minority stress' model posits that societal rejection causes these issues. The alternative view is that mentally ill individuals now gravitate toward a trans identity to cope with pre-existing conditions.
Issues like placing biological males in women's prisons create a rift between new-wave trans activists and traditional feminists. The latter feel that the safety and rights of vulnerable women are being sacrificed for ideological purity, leading them and other moderate progressives to withdraw support.