‘Trans Day of Vengeance’ Protest in DC Canceled Over Safety Concerns

‘Trans Day of Vengeance’ Protest in DC Canceled Over Safety Concerns
The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on March 23, 2023. Richard Moore/The Epoch Times
Caden Pearson
Updated:

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.

According to its official website, the Trans Radical Activist Network is a “nationwide network of activists and community organizers for transgender/non-binary rights.”

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.”

“In an ideal world, we would have continued on in defiance of the attempt to silence our right to free expression,” the group said. “However, we lack the resources to ensure the safety of the protest and cannot in good conscience move forward with it.”

‘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.

Greene’s account was restricted on the grounds of “violent speech” after she shared a poster for the now-canceled rally. In the same post, shared on Tuesday, Greene alleged that Antifa was organizing the “Trans Day of Vengeance” event. Twitter subsequently locked Greene out of her account on the condition that she deleted her offending tweet.

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.

“We had to automatically sweep our platform and remove >5000 tweets /retweets of this [‘Trans Day of Vengeance’] poster,” Irwin wrote. “We do not support tweets that incite violence irrespective of who posts them. ‘Vengeance’ does not imply peaceful protest. Organizing or support for peaceful protests is ok.”
Irwin also wrote that the platform has “not applied any strikes to anyone” and had “[j]ust restricted the media.”

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.
Our Rights DC, which has roughly 1,200 followers as of the time of writing, describes itself on Twitter as an “autonomous community sustaining direct action to demand accountability for injustice.”

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.”

Mimi Nguyen-Ly contributed to this report.
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