Quillette Podcast Why We Need to Talk About Transgender School Shooters
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Feb 22, 2026 
Adam Zivo, a Toronto journalist and National Post columnist covering LGBT and cultural issues, discusses the Tumbler Ridge school shooting and its complex online traces. He explores anime-influenced personas, gender dysphoria amid psychiatric comorbidity, media and police handling of reported sex, and tensions between affirmation and clinical scrutiny.
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Male Risk Profile Behind Tumbler Ridge Shooting
- Male-coded risk factors dominated the Tumbler Ridge shooting despite initial reports calling the shooter female.
- Jesse Strang exhibited classic male-linked indicators: gun obsession, violent media fixation, drug abuse, and misogynistic online subcultures tied to anime.
Digital Footprint Revealed Drug Use And Anime Fetish
- Adam Zivo reconstructed Jesse's online footprint through YouTube, Reddit and archived posts to reveal drug use, antipsychotic prescriptions, and gender clinic waits.
- He found a renamed channel (Jesse UWU), anime imagery, and admissions of heavy mushroom and DMT use.
Anime Fetish Linked To Gender Presentation
- Jesse's transgender identification appeared tied to sexualized anime fantasies rather than longstanding classical gender dysphoria.
- He compared himself to petite, hypersexualized anime girls and wrote he wanted to transition to resemble them.