Insurrection at Tennessee state capitol building? Marjorie Taylor Greene calls Nashville shooting protest ‘Transgender day of vengeance’

Videos of people swarming into the Tennessee state capitol building on Thursday went viral on Twitter. The protesters remained almost entirely peaceful and gathered with placards and signs outside the building to protest against the mass shooting at the Covenant school in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday, which ended up killing 6 people.

Meanwhile, GOP Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene compared the protest to the January 6, 2021 insurrection that unfolded in Washington D.C., at the Capitol Building. She called the protest at the Tennessee Capitol Building a “Transgender day of vengeance” suggesting that the protestors were wholly made up of transgender people.

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However, there was no evidence of that and the protesters were merely advocates of gun control. MTG’s attack on trans people might have come from the fact that the Nashville school shooter was Audrey Hale, a 28-year-old biological woman who identified as a man.

“The trans mob are literally doing exactly what people did on J6 in Tennessee today after a trans murdered children & adults at a school shooting and on the eve of the “Trans Day of Vengeance” in DC. Will there be the same accountability for them as J6’ers?

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Twitter said it has removed thousands of tweets showing a poster promoting a “trans day of vengeance” protest in support of transgender rights in Washington DC, on Saturday. “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,” Twitter’s trust and safety head, Ella Irwin, said in a tweet.

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Twitter said it used automated processes to remove the tweets quickly at a large scale, without considering what context the tweets were shared in.

Trans-rights activists pointed out that “trans day of vengeance” is a meme that has been around the trans community for years and is not a call to violence.

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Three Democratic lawmakers in the Tennessee state house also joined pro-gun control protestors. Chants of “no justice, no peace” and “save our children” echoed through the Tennessee House of Representatives chamber.

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Democrat state lawmakers, Representatives Justin Jones, Justin Pearson, and Gloria Johnson brought the Tennessee lower chamber to a halt when they joined the protestors.