The “Trans Day of Vengeance” rally scheduled to take place in Washington, D.C., on Saturday has been canceled due to a “credible threat to life and safety,” according to its organizers.
The decision comes after a transgender individual, Audrey Hale, killed six people, including three 9-year-old children, at a Christian grammar school in Tennessee earlier this week.
In a statement released Thursday, the Trans Radical Activist Network (TRAN), the leftist organizers of the demonstration, announced that the physical event in front of the U.S. Supreme Court will not take place due to a “credible threat” to life and safety.
On TikTok, the group mentioned that they will be hosting an online event at 2 p.m. PST. and plan to organize “another protest with a better theme” in the near future.
The group claimed the purported threat was a direct result of the “flood of raw hatred” directed toward the trans community following the Tennessee shooting and that innocent individuals “who had nothing to with that heinous act” have been subjected to “serious threats” and blame solely because of their gender identity.
“This is one of the steps in genocide, and we will continue our efforts to protect trans lives,” the group stated.
TRAN emphasized that their decision to cancel the rally was not an easy one, as they strongly believe in the mission and message behind the “Trans Day of Vengeance.” However, the group explained that they lacked the resources to ensure the safety of the protest and could not move forward with it.
“While we wholeheartedly believe in the mission and message we put forth for Trans Day of Vengeance, we must prioritize the safety of our community and the people that make it up.”
‘Day of Vengeance’ Protest Name Elicits Strong Response
After the school shooting, several high-profile people expressed anger over the name of the activist group’s protest, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who claimed that the “Trans Day of Vengeance” represented the “threat of Antifa-driven trans-terrorism.”Twitter restricted multiple accounts that posted about the event, including that of conservatives commenting on it, citing that the term “Vengeance” did not suggest a peaceful protest.
Twitter’s head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, said on Twitter that the company was removing images of the poster over concerns it could incite violence.
Transgender Activists Defend Protest
Our Rights DC, which co-organized the protest alongside TRAN, reported that groups affiliated with TRAN had their accounts temporarily suspended until they voluntarily removed the promotional posters for the event.In a joint statement, Our Rights DC, TRAN, and TRAN co-founder Tsukuru Fors said they were horrified by the “violence at the Covenant School” and mourned the loss of the victims. They also stated that the shooting had nothing to do with the concept of “vengeance” promoted in their activism.
“We also reject any connection between that horrific event and ours. Vegeance means fighting back with vehemence,” the group stated. “We are fighting against false narratives, criminalization, and eradication of our existence.”
In a separate statement, TRAN condemned the efforts of “bad faith actors on the far-right,” who it accused of “weaponizing” the tragedy to target the transgender community.
Twitter’s sweeping and mostly automated bans impacted the accounts of the New York Post, a Daily Wire journalist, and others who shared about the “Trans Day of Vengeance” rally.
The Federalist CEO Sean Davis was among those whose account was restricted.
Prior to the account block, Davis had posted: “The cold-blooded mass murder at a Christian school in Nashville by an apparent transgender person came just days before a planned ‘Trans Day of Vengeance’ organized by the Trans Radical Activist Network.”