The Campaign to Destroy Renee Good

Renee Good was a poet, a parent of three, a wife. Within hours of her death, arsenic acold arsenic the authorities was concerned, she was a home terrorist.

On January 7, ICE cause Jonathan Ross changeable Good done her car windshield and model successful Minneapolis. She appeared to person 4 gunshot wounds, according to The New York Times, which cited a Minneapolis Fire Department report. Hours aft the shooting, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused Good of “(weaponizing) her vehicle.” President Donald Trump claimed the 37-year-old had “violently, willfully, and viciously ran over” the cause who killed her. Vice President JD Vance called her decease “a calamity of her ain making.”

Bystander videos showed thing different: Good trying to thrust distant erstwhile the shots were fired. Minneapolis politician Jacob Frey called the self-defense communicative "bullshit."

Despite the video evidence, blimpish media fell successful enactment immediately. Good was “100 percent to blame” for her ain death, according to Matt Walsh of the Daily Wire. Megyn Kelly said it “was her ain doing.” The verdict felt unanimous: She deserved it.

But the reasons utilized to warrant her decease circles person gone acold beyond what she did oregon didn’t bash with her car. Much of it has centered astir Good’s individuality arsenic a queer woman.

Walsh called Good a “lesbian agitator.” Ian Miles Cheong, a right-wing commentator with millions of followers, called her a “rug munching leftist.” On Fox News, Jesse Watters noted that Good “leaves down a lesbian partner” and highlighted that she had “pronouns successful her bio,” seemingly successful notation to her Instagram profile.

Good was successful a narration with Becca Good, and the 2 had precocious moved to Minneapolis looking “to marque a amended life" for themselves, according to a connection Becca released aft her death. They near Kansas City, Missouri, for Canada pursuing Trump’s 2024 predetermination triumph earlier heading backmost stateside, Xtra reported.

A mates days aft Good was killed, footage that appears to beryllium from Ross's cellphone leaked to blimpish Minnesota outlet Alpha News. It shows the moments earlier the shooting. Good is down the wheel, and calmly tells the idiosyncratic filming, “I’m not huffy astatine you.” Her partner, Becca, is extracurricular the car, confronting Ross. Becca appears to beryllium defiant and unafraid, telling the idiosyncratic down the camera, “Go get yourself immoderate lunch, large boy.” As Good tries to thrust away, Ross fires respective shots. Then, conscionable earlier Good’s car crashes, a dependable is heard saying: “Fucking bitch.”

Whoever leaked that video could person edited the slur out. They didn't. And judging by reactions from right-wing influencers, they didn't request to.

“There's a existent consciousness of disgust with women successful the mode that blimpish media is talking astir these kinds of protests,” says Courtney Hagle, probe manager astatine Media Matters for America, who has tracked the right-wing effect to Good's death. “They're intelligibly precise aggravated astatine the beingness of women, and particularly achromatic women, wide women.” The video, arsenic Hagle puts it, “confirmed for them that this is not a quality being that they should attraction about.”

Some of the commentary, including references to Becca arsenic Good's “so-called wife” besides felt similar an insidious mode to delegitimize the Goods’ relationship.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, President Trump repeatedly referred to Becca Good arsenic Renee's “friend.” “The pistillate and her person were highly disrespectful of instrumentality enforcement,” helium said. Leigh Finke, a Minnesota authorities legislator and the state's archetypal openly trans elected official, says this benignant of erasure sends a message. “All that they volition represent it arsenic is disrespectful lesbian women who are not obeying men successful power.”