Trans Activist Leading NAU’s Newspaper Calls for Gun Violence Against ‘Right-Wing Extremism’

A student leader at Northern Arizona University’s student newspaper is arguing that gun violence is the answer to right-wing extremism.

Taylor Herving, a transgender activist and copy chief for The Lumberjack who goes by Marcel Xavier Herving, published the opinion piece in response to the Tucson shooting at a gay bar last month that resulted in the murders of two men.

The two victims, Vincent Anthony Siqueiros, 42, and Cameron Davis Capara, 33, were killed in a murder-suicide by suspect Ousman Ceesay, 44. Law enforcement have stated that Ceesay didn’t know either Siqueiros or Capara, but did discover a note expressing hatred toward LGBTQ+ persons and a list of LGBTQ+ establishments at his residence.

One of Ceesay’s family members has stated in media interviews that Ceesay was a practicing Muslim. Ceesay had moved recently to Tucson prior to the shooting.

The Tucson Police Department is investigating the shooting as a hate crime.

In response to the tragedy in Tucson, Herving argued that it was necessary for the government to address white supremacy in order to solve mass shootings.

“Instead, it’s time for America to look inward and realize that ring-wing extremism is the real threat, not a gun,” said Herving. “Marginalized people are positioned in the victim-perpetrator paradigm and subjected to generational trauma physically, mentally, and emotionally at the hands of fascism. To escape this lens of victimhood, the oppressed are left with one other option: to respond with violence.”

Herving characterized violence perpetrated against the marginalized by “the settler colonial state” as going beyond the criminal acts that constitute the traditional sense of the term, to include “soulless publishing of [marginalized people’s] pain for profit.”

Herving says she has begun weight training and considered purchasing a firearm.

“Truthfully, I didn’t want to resort to these drastic methods of self-protection. However, when society consistently treats the lives of the marginalized as disposable, I can’t help but respond to violence with violence,” said Herving. “Whether it is the Pulse nightclub shooting, the mass shooting in a Buffalo, New York grocery store filled with Black patrons or the Florida State University shooting, tragedies of this caliber will continue to happen unless there is an end to right-wing extremism.”

In another opinion piece published last semester, Herving made the case for embracing the practice of gossip as a defiance to “rigid Eurocentricism” and actualization of her identity as a left-leaning individual who aligns with socialism and Pan-Africanism.

Herving, a senior at NAU, is also a research assistant for NAU’s Women’s and Gender Studies department.

Herving’s LinkedIn identifies her as the assistant to Dr. Souksavanh T. Keovorabouth’s research project on the experiences and expressed needs of indigenous, queer, transgender, and two-spirited Arizona residents.

According to Herving, the aim of the research project is to provide scholarship, artistic, and healthcare opportunities to those populations.

Herving is on financial aid with NAU, but recently crowdfunded on GoFundMe to pay for her rent and avoid eviction. Herving reportedly prioritized paying for hormone replacement therapy and medication in addition to groceries and other living expenses.