This photo provided by the Metro Nashville Police Department shows officers at an active shooter event that took place at Covenant School, Covenant Presbyterian Church, in Nashville, Tenn. Monday, March 27. Authorities say the suspect in a shooting at a private Christian school in Nashville is dead. (Metro Nashville Police Department via AP)

The Washington Stand, the Family Research Council’s “outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview,” lost no time in labeling the suspect in the deadly mass shooting Monday, March 27, at The Covenant School in Nashville as “a transgender activist,” despite the fact that, while the person identified by police as Audrey Hale was a transgender man, there has been no evidence made public that they were ever involved in LGBTQ activism.

An article by Ben Johnson, posted online at WashingtonStand.com on Monday quotes Congressman Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican, who told FRC President Tony Perkins, “Obviously, it’s a mental health issue, and it’s just a complete and total tragedy. I honestly feel like this is some sort of demonic possession that has gotten into our world today. And it’s become accepted.

“White House has two men who wear dresses,” Burchett continued, referring to Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary Dr. Rachel Levin and another individual who “was fired because he was stealing dresses at the airport.” (Sam Brinton, a gender-fluid former employee of the Department of Energy, was fired in December after allegedly having stolen someone’s luggage from the airport.)

Burchett also told Perkins he believes “This country needs this revival …. Burchett told Perkins. “All the laws and all the politicians pontificating back and forth are not going to solve it.”

Covenant School is a private Christian school, and various media sources have reported that the “manifesto” that police found during a search of Hale’s home appeared to indicate the attack was motivated by Hale’s anger at having been made to attend a religious school as a child. Police said documents found at Hale’s home also indicated he had initially planned to stage his attack at a different school but changed targets after deciding that security at the other school was too tight. Police have not said which school that was.

Nashville Police Chief John Drake said Monday afternoon that his department was investigating the possibility that issues related to Hale’s gender identity may have been part of the motive for the shooting, but so far police have not released any more information on that line of investigation.

That has not, of course, stopped the right-wing pundits from just assuming that was the motive. On Twitter, @Godfatherparte2 posted a photo of Hale in a shirt and tie, writing, “Here is our Nashville shooter, Audrey Hale. I ask you honestly, does this look like America has a gun problem or a mental health problem?”

Right-wing mouthpiece Candace Owen tweeted Monday, “When you play Frankenstein with people’s body parts, you can’t be surprised when they behave like monsters. A person willing to execute violence upon his/her own body will not hesitate to impart violence onto someone else’s.”

There has been no evidence that Hale had either undergone surgery or was taking any hormone treatments as part of his transition.

Another right-wing pundit, Benny Johnson, said Hale and the shooters in three other mass shootings identified either as transgender or nonbinary, adding, “One thing is VERY clear: the modern trans movement is radicalizing activists into terrorists.”

An article by Shannon Power, posted this morning on Newsweek.com, called out Johnson’s ridiculous claim, pointing out that, according to nonprofit think tank The Violence Project, 98 percent of mass shootings have been committed by cisgendered white men.