By Luke Rosiak. Media: DailyWire.
The slaying of children in a Christian school on Monday by a person who police described as transgender came the same week that transgender activists had slated a “Day of Vengeance.”
The group–run in part by a former Democratic staffer–also raised money for firearms training and specifically called for action in Nashville, the city where the shooting took place–specifically naming The Daily Wire’s offices there. Little is known about the shooting at this time, and no link between the shooter and the group has been indicated.
The main Day of Vengeance event is scheduled to occur in D.C. at 11 a.m. Saturday, when attendees are asked to show up masked at the Supreme Court. Justice Brett Kavanaugh is a particular target of LGBTQ activists and narrowly avoided an assassination attempt by a far-left activist last year.
Other events will occur March 31, according to promotional materials. That is also the “Trans Day of Visibility,” but organizers wrote “we need more than visibility.”
“The Time is Now,” says the web page promoting the event for the Trans Radical Activist Network (TRAN). The site quotes a participant in the Stonewall Riots saying “I remember when someone threw a Molotov cocktail, I thought, ‘My god, the revolution is here.’”
The group planning “vengeance” is run in part by a former staffer for Virginia Democrats. Bo Belotti, TRAN’s national recruitment director, “is a trans masculine non-binary person,” his bio on the TRAN website says. “While working in their state’s legislator they helped craft trans affirming state wide policies. Recently Bo has left the campaign world to pursue more radical changes and activism … They are a successful organizer and founder of Virginia’s chapter of TRAN, reaching 100 members in just 4 months.”
According to Virginia Commonwealth University, Belotti worked as a fellow for Del. Elizabeth Guzman, who floated a plan that could sic Child Protective Services on parents if they did not affirm their child as transgender. Belotti also worked for Del. Joshua Cole as a legislative aide and helped draft HB 145, which required the state to create model transgender policies for public schools, VCU said.
The group’s website says one of its co-founders is “Tsukuru”: “As a graduate of a high school in Hiroshima where 350 young lives were brutally taken on August 6, 1945, Tsukuru is an anti-nuclear/anti-war/human rights activist … After his brief marriage to his best friend and the birth of his child, he first came out as lesbian at age 29 and as a transgender man at age 50.”
Its other co-founder is “Noah Buchanan; I am a transgender male and have been out since 2018 … I have 10+ years of working in the mental health field … What motivated me to start TRAN was the fact I was bullied to the point where I attempted to end my own life. The person that bullied me was a fellow member of the LGBTIA+.”
The action is billed as avenging a “trans genocide,” despite the FBI reporting that only two transgender people were killed in hate crimes in 2021, the most recent year available. In all, there were 278 transgender victims of hate crimes, many of which were minor such as vandalism or “intimidation,” putting them at significantly less risk of hate crimes than other groups such as Jews and blacks, according to the FBI data.
Organizers did not return The Daily Wire’s request for comment earlier this month.
On March 22, the Virginia chapter retweeted a suggestion that “The trans day of vengeance should take place outside the Daily Wire HQ,” adding a call to action: “Tennessee neighbors, when can we make this happen?” The main TRAN Twitter account retweeted that. The Daily Wire is headquartered in Nashville.
On March 7, the Virginia chapter held a “dance party fundraiser” in Richmond “benefiting firearm/self defense training for trans Virginians. Come boogie with us and defend trans life!”
The group has not publicly indicated that Saturday’s day of “vengeance” is cancelled following Monday’s slayings. On Monday evening, TRAN hid its tweets by making its account private.