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Let's talk about mass shootings in the United States.

Yeah. I'm sorry.

On Tuesday, extremist conservative outlet Newsmax reported that Dr. Jennifer Bauwens told them "transgenderism" could be linked directly to a rise in mass shootings. I would say I don't have words to express how vitriolically stupid that statement is, but I would be lying. I'm a professional writer. I always have so many words. Here are some of them:

Bauwens appeared on Newsmax's Frontline, where host Carl Higbie asked her whether or not "transgenderism is possibly a symptom [in the increase of mass shootings]." Higbie should be well acquainted with the concept of murdering strangers in cold blood, since he used to be a Navy SEAL, which probably explains why he's such a raging douchebag as well.

In response, Bauwens said, "I believe so because you have all of these other comorbidities that are not being addressed in the clinical community ... and a lot of times you have clinicians who, the first sniff of a transgender identity, they go down the path of gender-affirming care rather than addressing the real issues."

Just tell that to the trans Scots currently waiting 224 years for their first gender clinic appointment.

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This is not some novel observation. Anti-trans activists pretending to be experts in fields they know very little about have been suggesting that trans people (typically, they mean children) are being fast tracked to hormone therapy instead of simply undergoing therapy. Besides ignoring the historical reality that gender-affirming care was long gatekept from trans people by hostile medical professionals, or the modern reality that many trans people still see therapists both before and after beginning medical transition to treat the "comorbidities" Bauwens laments, her claim fails to account for the inalienable truth that GAC directly addresses mental health on its face.

A systematic review in 2021 found that hormone therapy "was associated with increased QOL, decreased depression, and decreased anxiety," and that results "were similar across gender identity and age." Further studies in this area would be wonderful, but the evidence is already quite clear that undergoing hormone therapy is incredibly likely to treat those "comorbidities" without further intervention.

To say nothing of the fact that many trans people do not medically transition, and do not experience the same kind of mental stress or bodily discomfort that a highly dysphoric trans person might. Ours is a community with a very broad range of experiences; there is no singular way that trans people feel, think or act.