#Lakewood Church

[coachtfd]

Go to school, you might become a mass shooting victim.

Go to work, you might become a mass shooting victim.

Go to a concert…

Go to worship…

Go to a movie…

Go to the store…

Go to a Super Bowl parade…

We’re running out of places.

[haleviyah]

As much as Lakewood Church and I have our differences, no one deserves to be attacked in a place of worship ever.

Keeping the families of Houston in my heart today.

#TexasStrong

[memenewsdotcom]

Lakewood Church shooting

[sixbucks]

[apostropheman]

8.4.24

Shut up, I actually like Osteen

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Li Zhou at Vox:

Following a Sunday shooting at a Houston megachurch that wounded two people, conservatives have seized on aspects of the alleged perpetrator’s identity — and misinformation about it — to further their attacks on trans people and immigrants. Police have disclosed that the shooter previously used male and female names as aliases, while noting that she consistently identified as female. Additionally, police said that she was the biological mother of a child who was seriously injured in the shooting. They also revealed that she had a label that read “Palestine” on the gun that was used, and had produced antisemitic writings that officials think could be related to a familial dispute. Thus far, law enforcement is still working to establish a motive, but the reports of aliases have already led to incorrect claims that the shooter was a trans woman and that this aspect of her identity was tied to the attack.

Some on the right — including lawmakers and commentators — have amplified those claims, using them to suggest this act of violence was an example of the threat they claim trans people pose. Certain conservatives also highlighted the shooter’s background as an immigrant from El Salvador and used this information to attack migrants. In addition to advancing their culture war messaging, focusing on the shooter’s identity arguably helped Republicans divert attention from the issue of gun control and the need for more firearm regulations in the wake of another frightening shooting. It’s a response that’s similar to the conservative reaction to a 2023 school shooting in Nashville, when prominent GOP pundits also used the shooter’s transgender identity to reiterate false claims about how trans people are dangerous. And it’s one that reveals how this is becoming a more common tool in the GOP’s messaging playbook.

For example, conservative commentator Benny Johnson linked the Lakewood shooting with the Nashville shooting and another shooting in Denver, where the perpetrators were transgender. Johnson claimed that these incidents were evidence that “the modern LGBTQIA+ movement is radicalizing activists into terrorists.”

After any mass shooting, it’s worth asking questions about how it happened and how different political movements or policy choices could have contributed. But given the lack of information about the shooter’s motive or general views — and the outright factual inaccuracies about her — this response from the right appears to be simply capitalizing on this tragedy to advance their political aims. The GOP reaction also comes as Republicans have pushed a swath of hardline anti-trans policies and anti-immigrant policies both at the federal level and in states across the country. Implicitly, their statements suggest that violence like the Houston shooting proves why such harsh policies are justified.

[...]

The right is using the shooter’s identity to make political attacks

In recent months, Republicans nationally and locally have launched rhetorical and policy attacks against trans people and immigrants, with this shooting marking their latest effort to continue them. As Vox’s Nicole Narea and Fabiola Cineas have reported, anti-trans attacks across the country have centered on treating trans people as a threat to women’s sports and girls’ locker rooms, and on treating medical care as a threat to trans kids. At least 19 states across the country have enacted laws restricting kids’ access to gender-affirming care.

Republicans have also been focused on attacking migrants and describing them as part of an “invasion” of the United States, arguing that unchecked immigration will result in more criminals and gang members entering the country and abusing public services. Similarly, as both Republicans and Democrats have supported Israel’s military offensive in response to Hamas’s October 7 attack, there’s also been pushback toward people who support Palestinian rights, including congressional rebukes. By targeting these groups, Republicans have sought to capitalize on people’s fears of trans people and migrants, and to suggest that the GOP’s policies are aimed at protecting their voters from these groups and their actions. In citing some of the Houston shooter’s characteristics, conservatives sought to point to her as a concrete example of the dangers their policies are purportedly seeking to shield people from.

In doing so, many were pointed in sharing the supposed details of the shooter’s background, offering inaccurate posts like Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-TX) on X, formerly known as Twitter: “Church shooter was a migrant woman who apparently identifies as a man and had a ‘Palestine’ sticker on the rifle.” Commentators like Johnson and the team behind the conservative social media account @LibsofTikTok also claimed that the shooter was transgender and emphasized that she was an immigrant from El Salvador. As police clarified, the shooter in the Lakewood Church case is not trans. Some conservative media outlets, including Fox News, altered their framing of the shooting in response to this announcement, though others seem determined to emphasize this point as a way of amplifying their critiques of trans people and the other groups the shooter actually belonged to.

Ghoulish right-wingers have used the Lakewood Church shooting in Houston, Texas to push anti-trans, anti-immigrant, and anti-Palestinian tropes, such as falsely painting trans people as "dangerous" and "violent".

The vast majority of mast shootings has been done by cisgender men.

See Also:

Vice News: The Far Right Is Spreading Misinformation Claiming the Lakewood Church Shooter Was Trans

MMFA: Media spread false reports church shooter was a trans woman, furthering moral panic

[shanneltarot]

Joel Osteen Lakewood Church False Teacher Exposed after Fatal Incident | Tarot Investigation

Breaking News, Joel Osteen Lakewood Church False Teacher Exposed after Fatal Incident?Why did she violate Joel Osteen megachurch? Did Joel know the child involved? Tarot Investigation reveals details that media is hiding from public. https://youtu.be/cSFt5Ps6Ib8

[becomingtoday]

Healing Collectively

Together, we can aid and abet healing, giving assistance and comfort, in order to create a more perfect union- a world where everyone feels seen, heard, and held in the embrace of a collective hope “Becoming Today”. 

As we come together today, let us acknowledge the immense power that lies within the act of embracing one another in collective healing.  We are not isolated beings but part of a larger interconnected web, and by coming together in this space, we have an opportunity to support and uplift each other on our healing journeys.  Each of us carries unique experiences, challenges, and strengths, and…

[positivebeatmagazine]

Living a Life of Gratitude | Paul Osteen, M.D.

[getoutofthisplace]

Dear Gus & Magnus,

This afternoon we met Yiayia at Lakewood United Methodist for their Egg-Stravaganza, which Caroline and Cate happened to be working. They both looked so grown up today. Egg hunts were divided by age group, so I went with Gus while Mom and Yiayia went with Mags.

I said, "Follow these kids, buddy, and when the the lady says 'go,' get after it." He was nervous because he didn't know anyone, and he saw all the other kids were holding their parent's hand, but he marched on in the crowd without me while I hung back and watch. I was so proud of him. And when that lady said 'go,' he cleaned up.

Afterward, we went to Yiayia's for dinner.

Dad.

Little Rock, Arkansas. 3.24.2024 - 4.21pm.

[nervoustragedyluminary]

Cw mass shooting, venting

Cis people will see a cis woman who committed a mass killing's previous arrest records listing her as "female" (knowing how hard those docs are to change and update for trans ppl ) hear police referring to her as "the biological mother of the child" and still clutch at straws to claim that her use of false identities for fraud in the past including "male names" means that she's OBVIOUSLY a trans woman...

Like do cis people not understand that fraudsters use a variety of names often of different genders for their crimes and something being listed as an alias doesn't automatically mean it's a legal name or a deadname?

Meanwhile there's other people going "oh so it's a ftm then lol trans men trying to be men ban testosterone "....

Like no this was a cisgender woman with a history of mental health issues, fraud and antisemitism who used her own child as a human shield while doing a mass shooting while trying to claim her crime was pro Palestine like many antisemites have been doing

like ffs people you think police of all people would call a trans woman "the biological mother"? 🤦 I swear if they just used the word 'cis' this bullshit wouldn't be as widespread as it is.

The whole "she used these aliases but identified as female" didn't clear anything up because chuds hear "identified as" & automatically assume that means the person is trans

[thewwshow]

Update: Woman Shooter at Joel Olsten Lakewood Church

[wakingthefury]

ABC News reports "Free Palestine" was written on the long rifle belonging to a man dressed as a woman who opened fire at the Lakewood Church in Houston, according to a law-enforcement official briefed on the investigation.

You're on the wrong side, handlers. And you'll find out the hard way when Jesus comes to clean house.

But hey, play the odds.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Daniel Villarreal at LGBTQ Nation:

Right-wingers are falsely claiming that a transgender woman conducted a Sunday shooting at the Houston megachurch of homophobic celebrity pastor Joel Osteen, even though local police have definitively said that she wasn’t trans. The right-wing claims originate from reports that the 36-year-old shooter, Genesse Ivonne Moreno, also used the male alias Jeffrey Escalante in the past, The Houston Chronicle reported. Right-wingers have increasingly blamed public shootings on the “mentally ill” trans identities of the shooters. “She utilized both male and female names but, through all of our investigation to this point — talking with individuals, interviews, documents — Houston Police Department reports she has been identified this entire time as female: she/her,” a Houston police officer said in a recent public briefing posted on X.

Two off-duty officers shot Moreno dead shortly after she entered the church with an assault rifle and a 5-year-old child who was hospitalized in critical condition after being hit by gunfire. Moreno’s rifle reportedly had a sticker that said “Palestine” on it, though police are still investigating the possible motive behind her attack. Police say she had a long record of mental illness and prior arrests dating back to 2005 that include assault, forgery, marijuana possession, theft, evading, and unlawful carrying of a weapon. Despite police saying that the shooter wasn’t trans, far-right X accounts like anti-LGBTQ+ extremist Chaya Raichik, who goes by Libs of TikTok, have falsely told their social media followers that the shooter was trans. In the past, Raichik also misidentified the May 2022 Uvalde school shooter as trans — the shooter was not trans.

“The trans terrorist who shot up a Texas Church was mentally ill,” Raichik wrote in her misleading post. “What kind of hormones and drugs was she on? … Leftists ‘affirm’ gender dysphoria rather than treat the root cause which is mental illness.” While Raichik’s post has been reshared nearly 1,000 times on X by the time of this article’s publication, Raichik is not a mental health expert or medical professional. Gender dysphoria is not caused by mental illness — scientists suspect it is caused by a variety of genetic, hormonal, natal, cultural, and environmental factors, according to medical experts at Mt. Sinai Hospital. Nonetheless, numerous right-wing accounts on Twitter have repeated the claim, calling Moreno a “trans terrorist” and adding “our government protects lunatics like this.” Those spreading the false claim include far-right troll Jack Posobiec, the promoter of the anti-gay #Pizzgate conspiracy theory that eventually morphed into QAnon, whose believers regularly accuse gay politicians and allies of sexually abusing kids.

Right-wing anti-LGBTQ+ demagogues jumped to conclusions to falsely claim a trans woman conducted a shooting at the Joel Osteen-pastored Lakewood Church on Sunday.

Turns out the shooter wasn't a trans woman, but a cisgender woman.

See Also:

LGBTQ Nation: Marjorie Taylor Greene falsely calls church shooter “a trans from El Salvador”

The Advocate: Fox News and GOP politicians falsely claim Lakewood Church shooter was transgender

MMFA: Media spread false reports church shooter was a trans woman, furthering moral panic

[leohttbriar]

As Colorado leaders prepared to roll out universal preschool in the fall of 2023, they invited public and private preschools across the state to join the program. Among them were St. Mary Catholic Virtue School in Littleton and Wellspring Catholic Academy of St. Bernadette in Lakewood, the two schools now at the center of the lawsuit. The “mixed delivery” approach — meaning both public and private schools can participate — helped ensure there were enough seats for all of the Colorado families that wanted one. This year, about 41,000 4-year-olds are getting tuition-free preschool through the program. But the Archdiocese of Denver wouldn’t let most of the 36 preschools it oversees sign off on the state’s non-discrimination agreement, a requirement to participate. The sticking point was the agreement’s protections for people based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Officials from St. Mary’s and other religious preschools raised their concerns during meetings with state preschool leaders before the program launched. That’s when state leaders mentioned an idea they’d come up with to allow religious preschools that joined universal preschool to reserve some or all of their seats for members of their congregations, according to testimony from the trial. But the Catholic preschools instead wanted the state to exempt them from the parts of the non-discrimination rule covering sexual orientation and gender identity. State officials refused, saying those protections were part of state law. “In a sense, church leaders want to have their cake and eat it too,” said Bob Shine, associate director of New Ways Ministry, a Catholic group based near Washington, D.C., that advocates for LGBTQ inclusion. “They want public funding because in most cases the church cannot sustain a lot of its educational or charitable efforts now, so they need the government money, but they don’t want any of the conditions that come with (it).”