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Louisiana governor candidate blames Nashville school shooting on ‘transgender indoctrination’ 

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Louisiana governor candidate blames Nashville school shooting on ‘transgender indoctrination’ 

Mar 31, 2023 | 10:00 am ET
By Piper Hutchinson
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Louisiana governor candidate blames Nashville school shooting on ‘transgender indoctrination’ 
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Independent candidate Hunter Lundy (Photo by Henrietta Wildsmith)

Hunter Lundy, a candidate for governor of Louisiana, places blame for Nashville’s school shooting Tuesday on “transgender indoctrination,” which he worries will lead to more violence in Louisiana and worldwide. 

Lundy, an independent who has self-funded his campaign, raised his concerns during an interview with the Illuminator about higher education. Lundy is a fundamentalist Christian and serves on the board of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers, a religious group that supports “biblical” legislation. 

“You had this transgender go to the Covenant Presbyterian school in Nashville and kill three children and three adults,” Lundy said. “You go back and you look at every killing that’s happened at a school or a public location in recent years, every one of them had a mental problem.” 

“Or there was some kind of anti-creation going on in their mind. When I say anti-creation, [I mean] anti-biblical view of creation,” Lundy added. 

Lundy is not the only conservative to express similar thoughts. On the national stage, right wing commentators have ramped up anti-trans rhetoric in the wake of the shooting at a Christian private school in Nashville, during which six individuals, including three children, were killed by an individual law enforcement described as being assigned female at birth but using he/him pronouns on social media. The perpetrator is believed to have attended the school. 

Pearl Ricks, an LGBTQ rights activist and executive director of the New Orleans Reproductive Justice Action Collective, condemned Lundy’s comments in a statement to the Illuminator. 

This attack on students and transgender people is violent,” Ricks said. “It is unacceptable for anyone; including persons held to formal ethical standards, like attorneys, to preach and perpetuate hate and false information.” 

“​​The hate and vitriol for transgender students and children is misconstruing the facts and deflecting from solutions to issues of gun violence, youth safety, and trans rights,” they added. 

Ricks pointed out that most shootings are committed by cisgender men who identify as their sex assigned at birth. 

“This whole thing is evil,” Lundy said. “We don’t need to be a part of it in Louisiana… we don’t need any unhealthy ideology going on.” 

Lundy said he worried that what he referred to as “transgender indoctrination” would lead to more violence. 

“We’ve known that God created man and woman, male and female, and our body parts were different, our DNA, our hormones are all different,” Lundy said. “When you start tampering with that, you are playing with the enemy.” 

This whole thing is evil. We don't need to be a part of it in Louisiana… we don't need any unhealthy ideology going on.

– Hunter Lundy, independent candidate for governor

Lundy said parents who allow their children to have access to gender affirming healthcare should be held criminally responsible. He compared getting such care for their children to negligently leaving a gun accessible to children, leading the child to hurt themself or another child. 

“They’ll [charge a parent for leaving a gun out], but you’re not going to charge a parent who allows a child to change his sex, or try to change his sex, because we’ve already proven that you can’t change it,” Lundy said. “But they can remove and mutilate body parts.” 

Gender affirmation surgery, sometimes referred to as a sex reassignment or sex change operation, refers to any procedure that helps a transgender individual transition to their identified gender. For the vast majority of minors, gender affirming care does not include surgery, but rather social affirmation and reversible medical treatments such as puberty blockers. 

In some cases, gender affirming care is given to cisgender minors, such as puberty blockers for children who enter puberty too early or breast reductions for males with an abnormal amount of breast tissue. 

“The idea that the first conceivable step is the removal of children from the home and the jailing of parents and caregivers is saddening, out of touch and dangerous,” Ricks said. 

Lundy also said he believes that transgender people are mentally ill, pointing to the high rates of suicidal ideation among transgender individuals. Research on the topic indicates this is due to discrimination, harassment, violence and rejection by friends and family. 

“Transgender people are over four times more likely than cisgender people to experience violent victimization, including rape, sexual assault and aggravated assault… in Louisiana,” Ricks said.