by Joe Siegel

The September 10, 2025, murder of conservative podcaster and activist Charlie Kirk has prompted fears of further attacks on transgender rights and free speech.

Kirk, 31, was shot while delivering an address to students on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. Video footage of the shooting spread quickly on social media, with many conservatives blaming liberal political activists for Kirk’s death. Several individuals who were perceived as having “celebrated” Kirk’s death on social media were harassed, suspended, and fired from their jobs. 

The FBI alleged that Kirk’s assassin, Tyler Robinson, has a transgender roommate and the bullets used to kill Kirk were engraved with expressions of “transgender and anti-fascist” ideology.

Late night television host Jimmy Kimmel was suspended from broadcasting for six days after offending Kirk supporters with a comment in on of his monologues.

LGBTQ media editors and publishers have spoken out in the aftermath.

Renee Raketty, publisher of Seattle Gay News, wrote an editorial on September 10. “I imagine the death of Charlie Kirk will only fuel the rhetoric that has displaced families, increased the risk of violence for many minorities (particularly BIPOC Trans people), and stoke white nationalist sentiments. Let me be clear: I disagree with almost everything the man stood for. And I would happily rise up to resist his presence in my community. However, political violence is never the answer.”

“Over the ensuing decade, with every mass shooting, false accounts trickle out labeling the shooter as transgender, and sometimes even attempting to claim a specific trans person was involved,” wrote columnist Gwendolyn Ann Smith in a September 17 piece in San Francisco’s Bay Area Reporter. “These are usually caught before publications go to press, but the inferences still linger in the air as provocateurs attempt to forge a connection between transgender people and mass shootings.”

The editorial board of the Bay Area Reporter wrote of free speech: “The president and his officials have gone up to the line — or crossed it, in our opinion — on numerous issues: immigration, trans rights, universities, public health, you name it. Trump is behaving like an authoritarian leader who can stop things he doesn’t like or punish people who don’t like him. He doesn’t care about the Constitution and he has a supermajority of conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court who think nothing of overturning precedents or otherwise ruling in favor of this administration. And while free speech is a bedrock American principle, we must all realize that could change. It’s how dictators consolidate their power — through intimidation, fear, and illegal actions.”

The Bay Area Reporter editorial board also commented on the Jimmy Kimmel controversy. “We’re glad that Kimmel is back on the air. Disney should have never suspended him in the first place. Companies, like law firms, universities, and hospitals, must stand up to Trump, as so many activists are. It’s a shame that’s not the case with UC Berkeley, which is providing names of 160 students, faculty, and staff to the federal government to comply with an investigation into allegations of antisemitism on campus. Many hospitals, as we’ve noted, have stopped providing gender-affirming surgeries and/or care to trans people under the age of 19. You can’t appease a bully by giving in — they always come back with new demands and it becomes a never-ending cycle.”

The Dallas Voice’s managing editor, Tammye Nash, referenced efforts of Texas state officials to restrict free speech in the aftermath of the Kirk shooting. “Texas’ MAGA Republican leaders this week continued talking out of both sides of their mouths this week, on the one hand praising Charlie Kirk’s commitment to free speech and the first amendment while on the other demanding that students who criticize Kirk or make fun of his assassination and that others who criticize the slain conservative be fired from their jobs.”

IN THE NEWS
Volume 27
Issue 8