I Searched For Stories Of Trans Contagion. Google Lectured Me With False Propaganda
I tried searching for stories of kids peer-pressured into trans identities, and Google spat out unsolicited propaganda and falsehoods.I tried searching for stories of kids peer-pressured into trans identities, and Google spat out unsolicited propaganda and falsehoods.'Trans' fad is dying out among American youth, and straightness is ascendant: Study
A new study from the University of Buckingham's Centre for Heterodox Social Science suggests that gender ideology is falling out of favor and the sex-change regime's supply of potential young victims might be drying up.
Citing data from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression's annual campus surveys of undergraduate students — FIRE polled over 60,000 this year — and several institution-level surveys of young Americans, study author Dr. Eric Kaufmann indicated that "the share of young people not identifying as male or female (typically ticking the non-binary or questioning options) has declined substantially since its 2022-23 peak."
'The fall of trans and queer seems most similar to the fading of a fashion or trend.'
One of the institutional-level student surveys Kaufmann looked at, the survey conducted annually at the Boston-area Andover Phillips Academy, showed a drop from over 9% of all respondents identifying as "non-binary" in 2023 to 3% total this year.
FIRE survey data and Brown University student survey data similarly showed declines in the share of self-identified "non-binary" respondents — from 6.8% to 3.6% of the total in the first case, and a drop from roughly 5% to 2.6% in the second case.
While the homosexual cohort has remained relatively stable, in the 3-5% range, Andover Phillips data indicated that there has been a rebound in the share of students who identify as straight.
This rebound was similarly reflected in the FIRE data — which indicates that straightness dropped from 80% in 2020 to 68% in 2023, but now sits around 77% — as well as in the General Social Survey's findings, which reportedly indicated that straightness fell from 95% in 2010 to 71% in 2022, then rose to 81% last year.
RELATED: Groomed for violence? The dark world of furries and transgenderism in America's classrooms
Meanwhile, the category of self-identified bisexuals, which increased from 10% to 17% between 2020 and 2023, has dropped to 12%, according to the Andover Phillips data.
The category for "queer and other" sexual identities, which had jumped from 7% in 2020 to 17% in 2023, has since fallen to 12% of the total.
FIRE data indicates that the "queer and other" sexuality category has fallen from 15% in 2023 to 8%.
Kaufmann suggested that "it appears that trans and queer are going out of fashion among young people, especially in elite settings," and that the freshman 2028 cohort "was less likely than older students in 2025 to identify as BTQ+."
"To the extent that the youngest represent the leading edge of new trends, this suggests that trans, bisexual and queer identities are declining in popularity with each new cohort," Kaufmann added.
The professor indicated that the decline in non-straight identification "does not appear to be the result of a shift to the right, the return of religion, or a rejection of woke culture war attitudes."
Kaufmann suggested on X that "the fall of trans and queer seems most similar to the fading of a fashion or trend. It happened largely independently of shifts in political beliefs and social media use, though improved mental health played a role."
Gender ideologues appear to be everywhere losing their battle against common sense and the well-being of young Americans.
For instance, a recent Gallup poll indicated that 66% of American adults think people should be required to list their real sex on government documents and that 69% believe medical transvestites should play on sports teams with members of their own sex.
Pew Research Center polling shows that a majority of Americans now support bans on child sex-change procedures — bans of the kind now in effect in a majority of U.S. states.
This rebuke of the sex-change regime, which is also taking a beating from the Trump administration, appears to be pan-generational. Data published by the Public Religion Research Institute in May indicates that support for so-called "gender-affirming care" has also plummeted among younger Americans. For instance, 66% of young men ages 18-29 think that sex-change interventions, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy, should be illegal in most or all cases.
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'Like they are some kind of freak': Sex offender posing as woman allegedly exposes himself in school locker rooms
A 58-year-old male registered sex offender may have claimed to identify as a woman in order to allegedly expose himself in locker rooms at public school facilities in Virginia.
Richard Kenneth Cox, who also goes by Riki Cox, is facing more than 20 charges — including indecent exposure, sex offender on school or day care property, and sex offender loiter near school/day care/park/playground — after he was accused of exposing his naked body in a female locker room at a Washington-Liberty High School pool on October 21, 2024.
'This school board candidate, now a sitting school board member, without any apparent vetting or inquiry into who this individual was, touted her record as an ally to the LGBTQ community to really secure — Richard Cox, his vote.'
Arlington Public Schools' policy allows individuals to use locker-room facilities that align with their so-called gender identity. Outside school hours, the pools at Washington-Liberty High School and Wakefield High School in the district are open to the public.
Emails obtained by Parents Defending Education via a Freedom of Information Act request and reviewed by Blaze News revealed that Cox had reached out to a current school board member to express his frustrations over the October 21 incident. He also asked how she planned to address the issue in order to secure his vote in the upcoming election.
"I am a member of the LGBT and specifically transgender community," Cox wrote to current APS school board member Kathleen Clark on October 28. "The issue is that transgender people including minors are disproportionately homeless and use places like the County swimming pools to shower. But let me be clear that this is not only an opportunity to be clean but to be and feel part of the community."
"However, solely because of complaints of a transgender person in the locker room, Washington Liberty Swimming Pool made a rule that people using the shower but not the pool must use the single, isolated locker room away from everyone else, like they are some kind of freak or something," he stated.
RELATED: 2 boys were filmed by a girl in the boys' school locker room. The school punished the BOYS.
Cox contended that women who object to "transgender people" using their locker-room facilities should be the ones encouraged to separate themselves by using the single locker room.
"If they cannot, then they are the ones that should be isolated before casting off me or other transgender people trying to be part of our community and not be treated like freaks," Cox added.
In a second email to Clark, Cox complained that pool staff had directed females to "use the individual changing room while I was in the full locker room."
"This is again sending the message that a transgender person is a freak and I guess not normal and beautiful like everyone else," he wrote. "There are anti-discrimination laws on both the Federal, State, and County levels including in the Schools to prevent this kind of animosity."
Clark appeared sympathetic to Cox's concerns.
"I hope that you did not experience transphobic statements from the staff. You should be able to use the showers and changing rooms that you are most comfortable using," Clark responded.
In another email obtained by PDE, Clark seemed to indicate to Assistant Superintendent Catherine Ashby that she felt misled by Cox.
"It is concerning to me that 1) he appeared to come at this from the angle that he was or represented a minor hurt by the pool decision, 2) even after rereading the pool communication back in October, I find it particularly insensitive to actual minors that may have issues with secure housing, and 3) that there is such a disconnect in our processes between the HS safety protocols and that of the pool, at the same APS facility," Clark wrote.
"I understand that has been remediated, but only after this type of situation occurred," she added. "For the LBGTQIA+ community, this type of situation sets them back years. I hope that future APS/Media comms portrays this as an isolated incident with one known criminal and does not reflect the values of the greater LBGTQIA+ community."
“You have school board members who are really running on being ‘allies’ for members of the community like this,” Kendall Tietz, an investigative reporter for PDE, told Blaze News. “I think it’s important to note that this school board candidate, now a sitting school board member, without any apparent vetting or inquiry into who this individual was, touted her record as an ally to the LGBTQ community to really secure — Richard Cox, his vote.”
RELATED: Trans lawmaker says conservatives are the 'weird' ones
PDE reported that in January 2025, APS and the Arlington County Board worked on "talking points" for the "pool incident."
An email obtained by PDE bulleted the various talking points, including that "APS permits pool patrons access [to] restrooms and facilities that correspond to their gender identity."
APS contended that it "responded to all patron concerns related to this matter in a timely manner," which included confronting Cox and "tak[ing] appropriate and immediate action to investigate, notify law enforcement, and prevent the individual from returning to our pool facilities."
Despite being a Tier III sex offender, Cox has "visited numerous women's locker rooms in Fairfax County," according to WJLA. Video footage also captured Cox at a children's water park, though he is not allowed within 100 feet of children's areas.
A January report from WJLA revealed that Cox was charged in 1992 with knowingly and intentionally exposing his genitals to a child under 14 years old. He was also convicted of taking indecent liberties with a child.
The news outlet obtained a letter Cox wrote to the judge in 1992, in which he admitted to having "sexual problems." In a 1995 letter to a judge, he wrote, "I am aware that I suffer compulsions to expose myself in public places."
In June 2024, just months before the incident at the APS facility, he was charged with indecent exposure for allegedly exposing himself to women in a gym locker room. The charge was later dismissed.
"This incident shows exactly why private spaces for women and girls are so important," Alleigh Marré, executive director of the American Parents Coalition, told Blaze News. "Privacy and safety aren’t political; they’re basic rights. When public officials ignore biological sex and allow men into female spaces, it opens the door for abuse."
"A registered sex offender exposed himself in a women’s space, and only after that became a public relations problem did the rules change," Marré continued. "Separate spaces for men and women exist to protect everyone’s dignity and safety, and parents need to continue to their uncompromising fight to make sure these basic protections exist."
The scandal reportedly prompted APS to begin conducting identification checks against the sex offender registry. Yet it still permits males to use female restrooms and locker rooms.
Blaze News contacted Clark and the APS superintendent for comment.
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Groomed for violence? The dark world of furries and transgenderism in America's classrooms
The horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk on September 10 has sparked a number of politically charged conversations, not only about the frightening increase in political violence but about the suspected killer's associations with nonheteronormative relationships and so-called furries.
On September 12, just hours after investigators revealed that an engraving on one of the bullet casings makes reference to an online meme mocking gay furries, the suspect, Tyler Robinson, 22, was apprehended. In short order, details about Robinson and his alleged romantic relationship with roommate Lance Twiggs began to spread online. A photo of Twiggs wearing an animal costume went viral, and the New York Post and other outlets reported that an account name associated with Robinson appeared on the sexual fetish website FurAffinity.net, prompting speculation that Robinson has a "furry fixation."
A strange trend infiltrates public schools
In general, furries are people known to don animal costumes and exhibit animal-like behaviors. Once the sort of topic discussed only in hushed tones and in private company, furry culture has since gone mainstream, infiltrating common discourse — and even K-12 public education systems across the U.S. Reports indicate that since 2012, furry-like groups have sprung up in school districts in Arizona, California, Colorado, Kentucky, and Texas.
'Most furries are LGBTQ+.'
In April 2024, Blaze News exposed a growing furry problem at Mt. Nebo Middle School in Payson, Utah, about 20 miles or so south of Utah Valley University, where Kirk was murdered. Students, parents, and even a former staff member at the school shared disturbing stories of students who identified as furries wearing animal-like costumes, barking at others, chewing on sticks in class, playing fetch in the halls, and even biting classmates who invaded their territory.
RELATED: Furry trend in Texas public schools will hibernate permanently, if Republicans have their way
— (@)
Despite extensive video and photographic evidence of furries at the school, Nebo School District initially denied the existence of a furry problem, repeatedly insisting to Blaze News that the issue was akin to kids occasionally dressing up as their "favorite basketball player or baseball player."
"That’s just what kids this age do," district spokesman Seth Sorenson said at one point. "These rumors are unfounded and are not occurring in our schools," Sorenson told Blaze News in a separate statement.
Days later, the district moderated those denials, claiming to "take any and all harassment very seriously" and pledging that no group of students would be permitted "to target and harass other students without intervention and consequences." The updated statement, however, still made no mention of the furry group at the center of the harassment problem.
'Some degree of sexual motivation'
While Blaze News received numerous reports that Mt. Nebo furries were tormenting their classmates, none of the reported harassment there seemed to be sexual in nature. Yet admissions from furries and their supporters more broadly reveal that the furry culture is firmly grounded in sex and sexual identity.
A 2019 article published in Archives of Sexual Behavior found that 99% of the 334 male furries who participated in the authors' survey acknowledged "some degree of sexual motivation for being furries." Eighty-four percent categorized their sexual orientation as something other than heterosexual.
In a 2022 Religion News Service article that noted the high rates of atheism and anti-Christian bias among furries, Courtney Plante, a Furscience researcher and associate professor of psychology at Bishop’s University in Quebec, confirmed that "most furries are LGBTQ+."
Perhaps unwittingly, Debra Soh demonstrated the sexual foundation of the furry trend, even as she attempted to convince readers that furries are hardly "sex-crazed perverts." On the one hand, Soh gushed that the furries she met at a 2014 furry convention were "all friendly and welcoming, offering hugs and agreeing to have their photo taken." Yet in the next sentence, Soh noted that "they were mostly young, either teenaged or in their early 20s, male, and identifying as gay or transgender."
Likewise, in a Psychology Today blog post in 2017, Hal Herzog, Ph.D., claimed that characterizations of furries as "fetishists or as psychologically dysfunctional people" are "misconceptions" that "are demonstrably false," even as he admitted that "furries are seven times more likely than the general population to identify as transgender and about five times more likely to identify as non-heterosexual."
Despite the widely understood association between furries and sex, furries and others on the left often pretend that furry culture is mainly about community, that the animal costumes and "fursonas" help otherwise socially awkward introverts interact with others and express themselves in everyday, family-friendly situations.
RELATED: Man who tried to kill Justice Brett Kavanaugh identifies as transgender, new docs show
United Utah Furry Fandom, for example, characterizes its members as "free-spirited and creative individuals" who simply "enjoy embodying characters that look and act like anthropomorphic animals." However, the group likewise acknowledges that "many members of the furry community tend to either have Autistic Spectrum Disorder, neurodivergence, or other traits that make social interaction in conventional spaces difficult."
Of note, U2F2 adds that furries often "align with LGBTQ+ values" but insists that any presumed association between furries and sexual deviancy is "false."
By contrast, Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, explained to Blaze News that such assertions are a form of gaslighting in which leftists claim that disturbing groups like furries do not exist or if they do exist, they pose no danger. In many cases, these gaslighters imply that those voicing concerns are either overreacting or manifesting latent bigotry.
"These people do this stuff because ... it sounds unbelievable and like it's not happening," Schilling said. "That's how the whole trans thing played out."
Schilling indicated that so many parents and medical professionals have gotten away with mangling children through so-called "gender-affirming care" because until recently, the idea of letting "a kid get a sex-change procedure" was considered "preposterous." He believes that the furry trend has spread for the same reason.
"It's dangerous, and it's hurting our education system."
'If you say we're not going to have any rules, we're not going to teach that anything's right or wrong, well, then you get furries in your seventh-grade classroom.'
U2F2 did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News, but did offer a statement in response to the Kirk murder.
"We condemn in the strongest terms the spreading of hate, conspiracy theories, and misinformation from any side of the political spectrum. For years, our leaders and volunteers have dedicated themselves to creating safe, welcoming, and joyful spaces for others — a mission that has always been the foundation of the fandom. Our community is built on creativity, inclusivity, and mutual support," U2F2 said, according to KTVX.
"We are saddened that our community has been dragged into this climate of hostility, and our thoughts remain with everyone directly affected by these tragic events."
'Sexual anarchy'
Like many others on the right, Schilling does not view the furry trend as a benign cosplay niche for weird adults. He made plain to Blaze News that furries are instead indulging in a "disgusting" sexual fetish.
"You can't separate the sexual from the furries. It is part and parcel," he told Blaze News. "They're constantly fantasizing about hooking up in these costumes."
Schilling further warned that the sexual component of furries is present in school-age groups too and has a particular impact on students who regularly use online forums and games. "These online forums are full of pornography. It's a whole porn genre," he said.
RELATED: 'Red state privilege': MD Anderson’s quiet LGBTQ+ push in Texas
Schilling believes that furries and other alleged sex-related deviancies like transgenderism have resulted from the overall "sexual anarchy" that has pervaded American culture, especially online and in public schools. "If you say we're not going to have any rules, we're not going to teach that anything's right or wrong, well, then you get furries in your seventh-grade classroom," he claimed. "You get complete disorder and chaos."
"The online world is radicalizing these kids, and then the schools are actually supporting it," he said in reference to furries. "Basically, the schools are treating it as a protected class."
Ties to violence
Tyler Robinson is hardly the first accused assassin with ties to transgenderism. In fact, he's not even the only suspected assassin with ties to transgenderism from Washington City, Utah, in just the last 16 months.
In June 2024, Mia Bailey, a 28-year-old man whose given name was Collin Troy Bailey, allegedly marched into the Washington City home of his parents — 70-year-old Joseph Bailey and 69-year-old Gail Bailey — and opened fire. Police found the couple shot to death. Joseph had been struck twice and Gail four times. Police also said the suspect attempted to gun down his brother, who locked himself in a room before making a daring escape to a neighbor's home.
After an extensive manhunt, Mia Bailey eventually surrendered to police. While in custody, Bailey allegedly told cops, "I would do it again. I hate them." In June 2025, he pled not guilty to two counts of aggravated murder, one count of attempted murder, seven counts of felony discharge of a firearm, and aggravated burglary.
Despite the transgenderism link to two Washington City-based murder suspects in just over a year, Washington City Mayor Kress Staheli called the Kirk shooting "an isolated incident," while Police Chief Jason Williams claimed that it "wasn’t really a reflection of our community."
"One individual doesn’t define who we are as a community," Staheli added.
Staheli did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.
RELATED: It's time to address America's transgender ideology problem
Transgenderism has also been a common theme in other national atrocities within the last few years.
Just weeks before Kirk's horrific death on September 10, a trans-identifying male shot up Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, murdering two schoolchildren and injuring more than a dozen others attending Mass. The trans-identifying suspect in that case, Robert "Robin" Westman, who committed suicide at the scene, left behind a handwritten letter, journals, and a video that indicated he was motivated by hatred for President Donald Trump and the Catholic Church.
Goodwill-Yost had previously introduced her 17-year-old daughter to the furry 'subculture,' where the teen met Acosta and Frank Felix ... described as 'obsessed' with the girl.
In March 2023, a trans-identifying female stormed into the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, and mowed down three adults and three children with bullets. The manifesto she left behind revealed deep-seated anti-Christian and anti-white bigotry.
Deadly meeting through furry 'subculture'
Furries have also been implicated in heinous crimes as well.
In September 2016, Jennifer Goodwill-Yost, 39; her husband, Christopher Yost, 35; and their friend Arthur “Billy” Boucher, 28, were shot to death by Joshua Acosta, a 21-year-old Army mechanic stationed at Ft. Irwin in Barstow, according to the Orange County District Attorney's Office.
Goodwill-Yost had previously introduced her 17-year-old daughter to the furry "subculture," where the teen met Acosta and Frank Felix, then 25, who soon began a relationship with the girl, despite her parents' objections, and later supplied the gun and ammunition used in the commission of the crime. The D.A. described Felix as "obsessed" with the girl.
On the night of the murders, Acosta and Felix drove to the teen's house. After she jumped in their truck, Acosta went into her home and shot Boucher, who was sleeping on the couch, followed by Goodwill-Yost, whom the teen had previously accused of abuse. Lastly, Acosta shot Yost, the girl's stepfather, whom she accused of molesting her, as he was attempting to flee.
Two children, ages 6 and 9, were left alive and woke up the next morning and called 911 after discovering the dead bodies.
For their crimes, Felix was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences, and Acosta was sentenced to life plus 75 years. Neither man has the possibility of parole.
The LockJaw Arts murder
In March 2020, a Las Vegas couple tied to the furry world enticed 57-year-old Michael Crabtree to invite them to his home under the pretext of a threesome and then savagely murdered him. Police also indicated that the pair confessed to killing and skinning a dog.
Tonya Dillard, 33, and Jacob Berkovitz, 29, both pled guilty, though Berkovitz pled "guilty but mentally ill." Dillard will spend at least 14 years behind bars, while Berkovitz has a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 20 years plus a consecutive minimum sentence of eight years.
In the furry world, Dillard was known as "Vincent Vex," while Berkovitz went by "Jax." The pair is believed to have operated LockJaw Arts, offering furry costumes and furry-related art. An Instagram account for LockJaw Arts shares violent and pornographic depictions of furries.
Child sex trafficking at a furry party
In 2017, David Parker pled guilty to sex trafficking involving a minor and was later sentenced to 30 years in federal prison. Reports indicate that in 2009 he began taking a boy under 10 years old to furry parties, where he offered the boy to an adult male for sexual purposes.
Four others besides Parker were charged in connection with what lehighvalleylive.com described as a "furries' child predator sex ring," but at least one of the defendants, Kenneth Fenske, accused of raping the child, was acquitted of all charges.
Online grooming
In September 2024, 41-year-old Adam Woolacott pled guilty in a court in Vancouver, British Columbia, to sexual interference, arranging a sexual offense against a child, and making sexually explicit material available to someone under 16.
Woolacott was sentenced to spend just six years behind bars despite having five separate sexual encounters with a girl he met in a furry group on Facebook. The girl was only 12 when she first made contact with Woolacott, who was then 35, according to Vancouver Is Awesome.
At his sentencing hearing, Judge Donna Senniw claimed that Woolacott knew the victim's age from the start. "[The victim] said he was the reason other men exploited her and had been abused, used, and groomed," Senniw stated.
'It's totally demonic'
Considering the surge in cases of trans-related violence and the alarming link between LGBTQ identities and furries, Schilling told Blaze News that parents must stay alert and "raise holy hell" about any instances of furries they see in their local school district. Otherwise, the furry fetish will metastasize and morph into something even worse.
"It's not always going to be furries," he said. "It's going to be something else totally crazy and something that we didn't even imagine. I mean, think about this: Ten years ago, would you have ever imagined that furries would be a new sexual fetish and that children in schools would be identifying as it? No, because it's unthinkable. It's unimaginable.
"It's demonic. It's demonic," he reiterated. "It's totally demonic."
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Spanberger Refuses To Condemn Male Sex Offender Using Girls’ Locker Rooms
Virginia’s Fairfax County claims there is no “probable cause” to charge Richard Cox, a Tier III registered sex offender, for allegedly exposing himself to women and girls. Fairfax County’s refusal to charge Cox comes despite an Arlington detective’s testimony that Cox was in possession of child pornography and Fairfax County children’s swim class schedules, Cox’s […]Socialist Mamdani’s $65M plan to turn NYC into ‘gender-affirming’ sanctuary for ‘transgender youth’
Despite his radical policy ideas, Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani seems to be the front-runner in the New York City mayoral race, according to several polls. His remaining opponents include former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, following the recent withdrawal of current NYC Mayor Eric Adams from the race over the weekend.
Mamdani's platform includes a slew of controversial far-left programs for the city, including investing tens of millions of dollars in so-called "gender-affirming care" for adults and children.
'New York City must be a refuge for LGBTQIA+ people, but private institutions in our own city have already started capitulating to Trump’s assault on trans rights.'
During a June interview with actor Laverne Cox, who identifies as transgender, Mamdani declared he would ensure that New York City is a "sanctuary city" for the "LGBTQIA+" community.
If elected mayor, he vowed to establish an office for "LGBTQIA+ affairs" and invest $65 million in "gender-affirming care." Mamdani told Cox that to fight the Trump administration, New York City must fully fund its own services, which he plans to accomplish by "taxing the wealthiest New Yorkers and corporations."
Mamdani's "LGBTQIA+ Protections" sheet offered a breakdown of the $65 million, revealing that $57 million would be provided directly to hospitals and clinics offering these services to "both transgender youth and adults." He also plans to take action against facilities that refuse to provide such services, claiming that they are violating the New York Constitution and other state and city laws.
"The Mamdani administration will coordinate with the NYS Attorney General and District Attorneys to investigate and hold public hearings on hospitals that deny trans youth their rightful healthcare and hold them accountable to the law," the policy sheet read.
RELATED: NYC mayor race shake-up: Adams drops out, boosting Cuomo’s fight against Mamdani
Mamdani intends to allocate $87 million for various LGBTQIA+ "support and services," including $30 million for housing programs, $20 million for mental health services, and $10 million for organizations providing "transgender" services.
"Queer and trans people across the United States are facing an increasingly hostile political environment. New York City must be a refuge for LGBTQIA+ people, but private institutions in our own city have already started capitulating to Trump’s assault on trans rights," Mamdani's website states.
RELATED: Trump slams Hochul’s endorsement of ‘communist’ Mamdani: ‘No reason to be sending good money’
His plans appear to directly violate the Trump administration's January executive order, "Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation," which states that the federal government will withhold funding from institutions that support the use of puberty blockers or surgical procedures for children.
Mamdani has run on the platform of "Trump-proofing NYC," which involves a greater reliance on local funding rather than federal support. To achieve his goals, he would implement an 11.5% tax on corporate profits, increase income taxes by 2% for households earning over $1 million per year, and hire additional staff for the Department of Finance. These workers would be responsible for enforcing tax laws, including collecting $2.1 billion in unpaid fines.
Blaze News contacted Mamdani and the White House for comment.
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The Zizians’ violent spiral: A trans group tied to killings across America
The assassination of Charlie Kirk, connected to a suspect who is reportedly in a romantic relationship with a man who claims to identify as female, reignited concerns about increasing violence associated with transgender ideology. Kirk's murder follows the Covenant School shooting in Nashville in 2023 and the Annunciation Catholic Church shooting in Minneapolis last month, both of which were carried out by individuals who claimed to identify as trans.
Among those accused in this surge of violence is a crew of young, trans-identifying radicals from the Bay Area known as the Zizians, who have drawn particular attention from the authorities for their alleged string of deadly attacks.
The Zizians, dubbed a cult-like group that has been likened to a modern-day Manson family, have been implicated in a chilling series of killings: a Vermont Border Patrol agent gunned down during a traffic stop, a Pennsylvania couple found shot in their home with no signs of forced entry, and the stabbing of a California landlord scheduled to testify against group members.
Beyond the ominous headlines, their story reveals not a well-organized underground network but rather a disjointed group of tech-savvy youth who were drawn into progressive movements and ensnared by a toxic mix of gender dysphoria, artificial intelligence doomsaying, radical veganism, and anarchism. These ideologies have directed their quest for logic and innovation down a path of isolation and increasing violence.
The birth of a fringe group
Before the group came to be known as the Zizians, its lead founding member, Jack "Ziz" LaSota, moved to San Francisco in 2016, with the aspiration of breaking into the Bay Area's tech startup scene. LaSota, a male who identifies as a woman, became deeply involved with the local rationalist movement, a philosophy that emphasizes the use of reason, logic, and evidence to understand the world and make informed decisions. LaSota's stated goal was to make a positive contribution to the tech industry by addressing the potential existential threat posed by artificial intelligence, a major concern for rationalists focused on "effective altruism," which stresses prioritizing actions that promote good.
However, LaSota encountered several issues after relocating to the Bay Area, the first of which was the high rental prices. Determined to address this problem, LaSota formulated a plan with Gwen Danielson that involved dodging exorbitant rent costs by living on boats with other rationalists. LaSota dubbed the communal living initiative the "Rationalist Fleet."
'Ziz planned to drive across the entire continental United States to murder me.'
LaSota's blog, Sinceriously — which has since been taken down, but mirrored and archived versions still exist — described Danielson as a "bigender" "trans woman."
At the time, LaSota was actively attending in-person meetups hosted by users of LessWrong.com, an online discussion board for rationalists. During one of those events, LaSota met Jacob Pekarek, also a "trans woman," who went by several names, including Jay Leo Winterford, Jane, and Fluttershy. Pekarek became involved in the boat venture, for a time living with LaSota and Danielson.
In 2017, the group invested in a tugboat, "The Caleb." They lived on it while it was illegally docked in Pillar Point Harbor, according to a lawsuit.
While the Rationalist Fleet aimed to address the lack of affordability of the Bay Area, both internal and external pressures soon began to fracture the group.
RELATED: Zizians: The vegan trans cult behind a Border Patrol agent’s murder?
Clashes with the rationalists
Things for LaSota and the crew started to take a strange turn around 2019 amid growing friction between the group and the area's rationalist movement.
In November, LaSota staged a protest against the Center for Applied Rationality, a Berkeley-based nonprofit that hosts rationalist workshops. The organization was scheduled to host an alumni weekend retreat at the Westminster Woods camp along the Bohemian Highway in Sonoma County, but the gathering was interrupted by LaSota and several others — Danielson, Amir "Emma" Borhanian, and Alexander "Somni" Leatham — who showed up wearing Guy Fawkes masks and hooded black robes.
LaSota and the group claimed that CFAR had "betrayed us," going so far as to accuse members of the nonprofit of sexual misconduct against children. CFAR's leadership has repeatedly denied those claims. LaSota also argued that instead of forwarding the mission of protecting humanity from AI, CFAR was pushing its members to work on AI.
The protesters allegedly blockaded the entrance to the retreat with their vehicles, knowingly or unknowingly trapping inside a class of over two dozen elementary school children who had been attending a ropes course.
Law enforcement responded to the scene by deploying a SWAT team and a helicopter after receiving reports that one of the protesters may have had a gun. However, no firearm was found on the protesters. The group was arrested on suspicion of felony child endangerment, false imprisonment, conspiracy, resisting arrest, wearing a mask while committing a crime, and trespassing.
They each were released from jail after posting bail, and prosecutors dropped felony charges to misdemeanors.
The group later filed a civil rights complaint against Sonoma County authorities, claiming that officers had subjected them to excessive force and "sexual assault and battery" by ignoring their requests to be searched by female officers instead of male officers. The complaint further alleged that, while incarcerated, their clothing was "forcibly stripped off their bodies" and officers "crowded around to look at the Claimants' genitals and naked bodies." They claimed they were "tortured" and "woken whenever they started to fall asleep … and were kept naked and cold for days."
Court proceedings in the cases slowed to a crawl during COVID.
The protest not only led to legal battles but also deepened the group's alienation from the rationalist community, pushing them toward more extreme ideologies.
Spiraling ideologies and isolation
Following the protest, the group was ultimately banned from LessWrong.com and CFAR meetups.
For the last several years, Danielson had also been experimenting with a sleep technique LaSota described as "partial sleep" or "unihemispheric sleep," which supposedly lets "parts of your brain do REM sleep without the rest."
LaSota built on Danielson's sleep practices, creating the concept that people are made up of two hemispheres and each hemisphere can be either "good" or "nongood." Those with two good hemispheres are considered "double good"; those with one, "single good"; and those with none, "nongood." LaSota noted that "double good" is "far less common than single good."
"This means that they cannot have fusion concerning good, only treaties, and will tend to take actions where the two sets of concerns seem to overlap, with infinitely recursive mutually-warped epistemics," LaSota wrote, describing the concept of "single good."
The group's living situation also began to change.
Curtis Lind, an 82-year-old man who was living on his boat, reportedly befriended the group. In early 2020, Lind, who owned property in Vallejo, California, allowed some of the friends — including Borhanian and Leatham — to live in box trucks and RVs on his land.
The crew abandoned "The Caleb" in 2022, allowing it to sink in the harbor.
It was around this time that things appeared to go off the rails completely for the group of friends.
Michelle "Jamie" Zajko, who was living in Vermont, claimed publicly in February 2022 that LaSota had made death threats against Zajko. LaSota allegedly demanded that Zajko kill Alice Monday, Zajko's romantic partner, and provide photographic proof.
"And if I didn't do it," Zajko wrote in a blog post, "Ziz planned to drive across the entire continental United States to murder me."
LaSota's Sinceriously blog posts had become progressively more bitter and aggressive over the years, even calling for "airlock[ing]," a term used to mean killing, certain types of people. The friends' comments on LaSota's blog further revealed the extent of the group's fractures and ongoing disagreements.
After Danielson failed to show up at a court hearing related to the protest incident, the defense attorney asked for a stay in the case in August 2022, stating that he believed Danielson had committed suicide.
That same month, reports surfaced that LaSota had also died. The Coast Guard received a call from a relative who claimed LaSota had fallen overboard while boating in San Francisco Bay. After the Coast Guard concluded an 18-hour search, LaSota was presumed dead.
At this point, it seemed that the group had largely fallen apart, with Danielson and LaSota both presumed dead and two other individuals tied to their clique — Chris "Maia" Pasek and Pekarek — having reportedly committed suicide in 2018 and 2021, respectively.
RELATED: Police nab suspected leader of trans murder cult linked to Border Patrol agent's killing
Faked deaths and violent retaliation
Amid the COVID-19 lockdowns, California implemented an eviction moratorium that allowed those living on Lind's property, including Borhanian and Leatham, to avoid paying rent. The state extended this moratorium for more than two years, with it officially coming to an end in late June 2022.
After they still failed to pay rent, Lind moved to evict the friends by scheduling a date with the sheriff's office.
With the eviction date looming, Lind claimed one of the friends, Suri Dao, asked him on November 13 to inspect a leaky outdoor water tap. During the visit, Lind stated that he blacked out and woke up to find several individuals standing over him as he was covered in stab wounds.
Lind pulled out his gun to defend himself, and that is when Leatham stabbed him with a samurai sword, he claimed. Lind opened fire, killing Borhanian and wounding Leatham.
Lind, somehow, survived the alleged attack — this time.
When police arrived on the scene, they arrested Dao and transported Leatham and Lind to the hospital. A blonde friend who identified as "Julia Dawson" was taken to the station for questioning, then transferred to the hospital after appearing to suffer from a medical emergency. Dawson quietly left the hospital, evading further interaction with law enforcement.
Authorities later confirmed that "Dawson" was a false identity, and the individual who had been living with Borhanian and Leatham was, in fact, the previously thought deceased LaSota.
The alleged attack on Lind was only the beginning of a wave of violence that extended beyond California.
More senseless killings
In early January 2023, authorities discovered Zajko's parents, Richard and Rita, dead from gunshot wounds in their Pennsylvania home.
Law enforcement noted no signs of a break-in, concluding that the killer must have been someone the couple knew.
'We are seeing all across the country an increase in violence from the transgender community and those that are obsessed with breaking out of gender norms and sexual norms.'
Several days later, police detained Zajko, who was staying in a hotel room in Pennsylvania after attending a graveside ceremony. While being apprehended by authorities, Zajko requested that the hotel's lobby attendants inform Daniel Blank, another friend of the group who was also staying in the hotel, of the arrest.
Police obtained a warrant to enter Blank's hotel room, where they say they discovered him hiding in the bathroom with LaSota.
Zajko and Blank were already released by the time authorities allegedly recovered Zajko's Smith & Wesson 9mm and five boxes of ammunition hidden in a cloth bag in Blank's hotel room.
RELATED: If radical Islam was terror, why isn’t transgender extremism?
The group of friends, now widely referred to as the Zizians, seemed to lie low for a couple of years amid ongoing investigations until January 2025, when Lind, who was scheduled to testify against the Zizians accused of attacking him a few years earlier, was found stabbed to death on his property in California.
Maximilian Snyder, another individual tied to the Zizians, was arrested and accused of the murder. Prosecutors alleged that Snyder had killed Lind to prevent him from testifying against Leatham and Dao.
Days later, two other Zizians were wrapped up in yet another tragic and senseless killing.
A Vermont Border Patrol agent, David "Chris" Maland, 44, was performing a vehicle stop on January 20 when vehicle occupants Teresa "Milo" Youngblut and Felix "Ophelia" Bauckholt opened fire. The exchange of gunfire resulted in the deaths of Maland and Bauckholt, a German national.
Authorities recovered multiple guns, ammunition, cell phones, laptops, and tactical gear inside the suspects' vehicle. They noted that some of the cell phones were wrapped in foil. It is unclear why the suspects were in the area. However, when previously stopped by authorities, they claimed they were looking at real estate.
Zajko allegedly purchased the guns in Youngblut and Bauckholt's possession. Further tying the incident to the Zizians, Youngblut and Snyder had previously applied for a marriage license.
Where are they now?
In February 2025, Danielson's father told the New York Post that Danielson had not committed suicide and was still alive and in hiding from the "dangerous" Zizians.
"She checks in regularly and I heard from her very recently, but she's not ready to come out of hiding just yet," Brett Danielson stated.
He noted that the Zizians' "political ideology was that killing animals is just as violent as killing people, and therefore everybody is guilty of violence."
"And that probably led some of them to a self-justification for their own propensity for violence," he concluded.
LaSota, Zajko, and Blank are currently being held without bond at the Allegany County Jail, facing trespassing, obstruction of justice, weapons violations, drug possession, and felony drug-trafficking charges. LaSota was also federally charged with possessing firearms and ammunition as a fugitive.
No charges have been filed in response to the killing of Zajko's parents.
Youngblut is currently in federal custody, facing a four-count superseding indictment for the murder of Maland, the assault of two other Border Patrol agents with a deadly weapon, and firearms offenses.
Dao and Leatham are in custody, facing aggravated mayhem and murder charges. Leatham is also facing charges for allegedly trying to escape from jail.
Snyder is in custody, facing murder charges for the death of Lind.
An increase in violence
The killings allegedly linked to the Zizians appear to stem from personal disputes or impulsive actions taken in moments of panic, rather than organized efforts. However, the possibility of future shifts in their behavior remains, as the number of active Zizians and those influenced by their ideologies is unknown.
"We are seeing all across the country an increase in violence from the transgender community and those that are obsessed with breaking out of gender norms and sexual norms. It's growing out of hand," Terry Schilling with the American Principles Project told Blaze News. "The internet is fueling it at an incredible rate, and it's one of the main reasons why American Principles Project has decided to focus so heavily on protecting children online from these dangerous social media sites that warp these kids' brains and turn them into absolute monsters."
The Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Blaze News, "DHS works diligently with law enforcement partners to keep our nation's communities safe from ideologically driven violent extremists."
The FBI declined to comment. Attorneys for LaSota and Zajko did not respond to a request for comment.
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WI Republican Linked To Explicit Trans Account Was A Trump-Dissing RINO Who Pushed Leftist Election Rules
Whitefish Bay businessman Bill Berrien -- who also had a past dalliance with the disastrously kinky election method known as ranked-choice voting -- has dropped out of the Badger State governor’s race.10 ways to crush the trans scourge in red states
Slavery denied the humanity of people created in God’s image. Transgenderism — and its stepmother, gay marriage — does the same. Transgenderism mutilates bodies, erases truth, and mocks the created order. A society that tolerates it cannot remain free. Just as America once purged slavery, red states must now abolish this destructive creed.
The violence can no longer be dismissed as coincidence. Before investigators even finished documenting the carnage from a transgender shooter at a Minneapolis Catholic school, Charlie Kirk was murdered by a young man entangled in a relationship with a transgender partner and radicalized by that subculture online. These killers do not spring from nowhere. They emerge from a movement that celebrates mutilation, spreads delusion, and channels self-harm outward into violence.
This is the new abolition. Just as our ancestors eradicated slavery, our generation must eradicate transgenderism.
The medical data confirms the pattern. A 2023 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association led by NIH researcher Sarah Jackson found that transgender-identified people are three times more likely than men and five times more likely than women to die from suicide or homicide. In plain English: This ideology is deadly. It breeds broken bodies, broken minds, and broken communities. The “transition” industry is built on violence — against the self first, and then against others.
That makes transgenderism not a lifestyle but an inherently violent ideology. Like slavery, it is not a private eccentricity we can politely ignore. It is a social contagion that destabilizes families, radicalizes young men and women into killers, and leaves a trail of corpses in its wake.
Conservatives often ask: Can we shield our families from this? Not completely. The culture is too saturated. But we can, and must, turn red states into political no-go zones for transgenderism. If a state will not protect children from mutilation, schools from indoctrination, or families from assault, then it has surrendered to the lie. Legislatures must act now.
Here are 10 steps every red state must take — and soon:
- Ban adult castration and hormone “transitions.” We don’t allow elective removal of healthy organs for any other mental disorder. States must extend bans from minors to adults.
- End Medicaid coverage. Ten states — Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, andTexas — already bar taxpayer funding for transgender procedures. The rest must follow.
- Restore biological truth on birth certificates and licenses. Only a handful of states refuse to indulge gender fantasies. All must.
- Purge government agencies of transgender dogma. Eight states — Florida, Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Idaho, Utah, Kansas, and Iowa — restrict pronouns and gender ideology across schools and bureaucracies; that number needs to multiply.
- Keep bathrooms separate. Most red states ban men from girls’ sports, but fewer ban them from girls’ bathrooms. Florida, Texas, Idaho, and Arkansas lead; others lag.
- Criminalize drag shows for minors, including “story hours.” Public indecency is not a “right.” Only four states have laws on the books, and most are tied up in courts. Legislatures must strengthen them.
- Ban gender ideology in schools. Thirteen states restrict it, but half the red map still allows children to be indoctrinated daily. Aside from Florida, only Indiana, Kentucky, Montana, and Ohio police such instruction in all grades.
- Forbid rainbow flags and sexual propaganda on government property. Public streets, buildings, and bridges should not be billboards for sexual ideology. Six states have acted; more must.
- Ban transgender adoptions. We would never place children in homes where parents suffer from schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Gender delusion must be treated the same.
- Mandate coverage for detransition care. Those who pushed mutilation must pay to undo the damage. Texas has already led with SB 1257.
Taken together, these reforms would begin dismantling the edifice of lies. Yet outside of banning child surgeries and men in women’s sports, most red states remain shockingly passive. They nibble at the edges while leaving the structure intact.
RELATED: How gay ‘marriage’ made today’s gender madness possible
This is not a matter of “live and let live.” Transgenderism spreads not through DNA but through culture, propaganda, and peer contagion. It advances because we permit it. And as long as we permit it, children will be mutilated, killers will be radicalized, and families will bury loved ones.
Scripture is clear on the task before us: “And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place” (Deuteronomy 12:3).
This is the new abolition. Just as our ancestors eradicated slavery, our generation must eradicate transgenderism. To compromise is to invite more funerals. To delay is to betray the next generation.
The time has come. Tear it out, root and branch.
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Zohran Mamdani: NYC's pimp mayor
My friend and journalist Ben Kawaller went cruising the streets of Manhattan for "sex workers."
To talk to. Just to talk.
You can tell that Mamdani truly believes that sex work is work, because, like actual work, you can’t find any on his resume.
In a video filmed for the New York Post, Ben gets a stripper, an OnlyFans model, and some hookers — see, there’s a spectrum of sex work — on camera to give their thoughts on mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s support for the decriminalization of sex work. (Stripping 'round the pole and on screen are already legal, so what we’re really talking about is decriminalizing prostitution.)
The video is worth the watch, but if you don’t have two minutes and 52 seconds to spare, spoiler alert: The sex workers Ben spoke to will be voting for Mamdani.
No Cuomo
I don’t know how many members of the skin trade are registered to vote in the five boroughs or what their johns will do at the polls — like, are you allowed to vote against your dominatrix? — but it doesn’t bode well for Andrew Cuomo’s mayoral campaign.
Cuomo can take off his shoes in every mosque in the city and attempt to publicly shame Mamdani for holding supposedly contradictory fundamental beliefs in Islam and the “fundamental belief that sex work is work,” but I don’t think it’s going to harm Cuomo’s 33-year-old opponent.
When it comes to delivering this message of hypocrisy to the faithful, Cuomo is no Angel Jibrīl. No, Andrew is a heavily flawed politician, who looks like a successful funeral director who decides to open a diner.
Forget the blood he has on his hands from the COVID years. On the issue of sex work, Cuomo is the New York governor who “signed a repeal of a prostitution loitering law,” which made it easier for streetwalkers to set up shop on the corner than hotdog vendors.
What’s ironic is that while Cuomo never paid with money for his scandals of inappropriate touching, he paid big-time with his career. And unfortunately, New Yorkers are going to pay an even bigger price when their city is under the control of Mamdani, the comically “African-American" chic communist who wants to seize the means of production and pimp the most productive members of society like cheap whores.
Collectivist 'em all
I’m not the one to make an argument for or against sex work, but I am the one to imagine Mamdani’s future New York City, where sex work is legalized and his collectivist policies are written into law.
Let’s be honest: The goal of decriminalization is eventual legalization — just like the goal of socialism is communism. Mamdani might call himself a Democratic Socialist on "The View" — and the ladies are dumb enough to fall for the rebranding — but we all know that Democratic Socialism is simply socialism on Lupron.
You can tell that Mamdani truly believes that sex work is work, because, like actual work, you can’t find any on his resume. Now while I don’t see him joining any brothel co-ops, decriminalization will lead to more taxpayers for the government to squeeze, and thanks to the world’s oldest profession, no one will have an excuse to be unemployed. If you have a body — in whatever condition it’s in — no doubt there’s a freaky customer out there for you.
But with all the new sex workers, competition will be tight (or loose?), so I see sex work becoming yet another genital in the gig economy. In addition to migrants zipping down avenues on e-bikes for UberEats, you’ll now have them delivering flesh takeout against traffic. Just think what this will mean for congestion pricing!
RELATED: Socialist Mamdani’s $65M plan to turn NYC into ‘gender-affirming’ sanctuary for ‘transgender youth’
Breast equity
But the expanded tax base could help fund Mamdani’s promise to provide $65 million in funding for gender-affirming care. That means prostitutes of all gender identities can get the bodies they need to better serve the public. But to maintain NYC's breast equity, top surgeries and breast implants will have to balance out.
Phasing out the city’s gifted-and-talented programs in government schools is going to hurt public education, and replacing the school-to-prison pipeline with a school-to-whorehouse pipeline is going to make for some awkward conversations between educators and students.
Imagine being a high-school guidance counselor having to break the news to a student, “You don’t have the grades for college or the work ethic for trade school — but there’s always the corner.”
The barriers to entry are low to nonexistent in sex work. For now. But when the state seizes the means of reproduction, licensing will ultimately follow, and in order to combat corporate greed, there will need to be price controls. Your body, your choice — except when it comes to price-gouging.
Laid off
Until Mamdani decommodifies housing, you’ll be able to exchange sex for rent, right? But the specifics will have to be ironed out to protect tenants’ rights. No one wants to be evicted from their home because a landlord snuck a kissing clause into the lease.
The first time I heard “sex work is work” was in a sex-and-gender studies class I took as an undergrad at NYU. Supporting sex work between consenting adults has been the hip stance to take. But any time I offered minimum wage to a date sympathetic to the cause, she’d get offended. Even though I agreed to pay for the full hour — even if I didn’t use it all.
I also learned that marriage is a form of sex work — which I didn't stop believing until I actually got married. In short: There are so many things I put up with with my wife that I would never put up with a ho. Neither a pimp nor a john I be. Plus, no guy has ever thought, “I really want to get this hooker pregnant!”
My family and I no longer live in New York, but I come in often to work. It’s an expensive commute, and I may need to take on a side hustle to afford it. As the saying Karl Marx popularized goes, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”
If sex work is work, then the same applies. And under Mayor Mamdani, everyone is f**ked.