Michele Fiore, a Las Vegas city councillor, has won the Republican party nomination to become Nevada’s state treasurer. In a gun-control debate on 5th June following the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on 24th May, where 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos murdered 19 primary-school-age children and two teachers, Fiore said, “You know what we have to ban? We have to ban the pharmaceutical companies that are giving these individuals pharmaceutical psychotropic drugs” before adding that Ramos was “on a lot of different medications from transgendering, so his mind was quite defective.”
There is no evidence that Ramos was trans, was on any sort of medication used in the treatment of trans people or that any such medicine causes a “defective” mind. In contrast, most psychiatric experts believe that treating gender dysphoria causes a reduction in mental health problems.
Despite this lack of evidence, Fiore’s claims have been repeated by many on the American right, including by Arizona Representative Paul Gosar, who labelled Ramos was “a transsexual leftist illegal alien”.
US press agency AP is projecting a two-to-one win for Fiore: with 65 per cent of votes already counted, Fiore sits on 71, 434 votes while her Republican party rival Emanuel Kess is currently languishing on 34, 531 votes.
