Right-Wing BlazeTV Talkers Think Killing Trans Kids Is Hilarious

A host and guest on BlazeTV, a right-wing media outlet, peppered a recent broadcast with jokes about killing transgender children.

Elijah Schaffer, host of Slightly Offensive, mentioned last week that someone had told him "there's this mass genocide happening to trans kids by fascists" in Texas. In the state, Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered that parents who allow their children to receive gender-affirming health care be investigated for child abuse. The order is on hold while a court case against it proceeds.

Schaffer and guest Dave Landau, a so-called comedian, found this hyperbolic and somehow hilarious. "How many trans kids did you kill today?" Schaffer asked Landau; both men live in Texas.

"Uh -- six, they come with a toll tag," Landau responded. Schaffer replied, "I did four. I was trying to beat you this week."

Landau said that Texans kill trans kids by dragging them behind a truck. That's how a group of white men killed Black man James Byrd Jr. in Jasper, Texas, in 1998. The federal hate-crimes law passed when Barack Obama was president is named for Byrd and gay murder victim Matthew Shepard.

"The Blaze ships us the better trans kids," Landau said, adding, "They come in a tackle box, it's like a half dozen. And you kill them any way you want, it's pretty good. Only in Texas, though, apparently. I didn't know that 'cause I've been killing them everywhere, so I better stop."

"Me too," Schaffer said. "I started in California -- talk about the Trail of Tears, I did version 2, it's a new movie. 12 Years a Slave, I've been doing it for 28."

The exchange was edited out of versions of the show posted to Apple and Spotify, Mediaite reports.

On The Young Turks, a liberal-leaning political talk show, comedian Ben Gleib lambasted Schaffer and Landau. "Look in the mirror and be disgusted at yourselves the rest of your lives," he said. Wosny Lambre, another guest of Young Turks host Adrienne Lawrence, noted that Blaze hosts and guests see their appearances as auditions for more prominent conservative outlets, such as Fox News.

The "mass genocide" comment may have been a straw man set up by Schaffer just to knock it down, but there is an epidemic of violence against trans Americans as at least 57 died by violent means last year, a record since activists and media have been keeping track, and 11 so far this year. Trans youth are are also at high risk of death by suicide, a risk that lessens if they receive gender-affirming support and care.