https://www.opb.org/article/2022/11/23/colorado-gay-club-shooting-suspect/
In several standard motions filed on behalf of Anderson Lee Aldrich on Tuesday, public defenders refer to the suspect as “Mx. Aldrich," noting in footnotes that Aldrich, 22, is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns. The motions deal with issues like unsealing documents and evidence gathering, not Aldrich's identity and there was no elaboration about it.
Real, or cynical ploy to avoid hate crime charges? how does court work, would this be at the discretion of prosecution to challenge, only if they saw fit? :cringe:
changed name before 16
A petition for the name change was submitted on Brink's behalf by their grandparents, who were their legal guardians at the time.
"Minor wishes to protect himself and his future from any connections to birth father and his criminal history. Father has had no contact with minor for several years," said the petition filed in Bexar County, Texas.
The suspect’s father is a mixed martial arts fighter and pornography performer with an extensive criminal history, including convictions for battery against the alleged shooter’s mother, Laura Voepel, both before and after the suspect was born, state and federal court records show. A 2002 misdemeanor battery conviction in California resulted in a protective order that initially barred the father, Aaron F. Brink, from contacting the suspect or Voepel except through an attorney, but was later modified to allow monitored visits with the child.
The father also was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in custody for importation of marijuana and while on supervised release violated his conditions by testing positive for illegal steroids, according to public records. Brink could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Aldrich's request for a name change came months after Aldrich was apparently targeted by online bullying. A website posting from June 2015 that attacked a teen named Nick Brink suggests they may have been bullied in high school. The post included photos similar to ones of the shooting suspect and ridiculed Brink over their weight, lack of money and what it said was an interest in Chinese cartoons.
Additionally, a YouTube account was opened in Brink's name that included an animation titled “Asian homosexual gets molested."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/11/21/colorado-springs-qbar-shooter/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/colorado-springs-mass-shooting-suspect-anderson-lee-aldrich-changed-name-teenager-records/
Clip of the shooter calling self "ya boy" during 2021 standoff with police https://twitter.com/madprofes/status/1594799319814545408
edited
If this is true then why rename themselves at all?
Because another construct that doesn't sit right with a lot of the queer community is that names are chosen by one's parents and immutable for life.
I just want to emphasize for clarity here that the shooter deserves a sentence of death by immersion blender, but allowing the weaponization of transphobic rhetoric is a genuine slippery slope.
Don't you think it's transphobic to suggest that non binary people do things like changing their names solely as a political statement, rather than an actual reflection of their gender identity?
It might look like a political statement for a non-binary person to do a thing that subverts the gender binary. The fact of the matter is that one of the difficulties of being trans is that actions that bring you closer to expressing your true self are viewed as political statements, by, for example, people on the internet in one's own safe communities.