Therapist Lisa Tensmeyer Hansen said she reviews about 1,000 notes from client sessions every month. Hansen is CEO and clinical director of Flourish Therapy, a nonprofit mental health clinic serving LGBTQ+ communities across Utah.
In the past few weeks, she said nearly every note mentioned mental health impacts following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
“We have seen an increase in fear in our clients in a sense of doom as they recognize that people around them might be seeing them as responsible directly or indirectly for societal ills in general, if not the violence itself,” Hansen said.
Violence is a tragedy for all, Hansen said, and scapegoating is how some people understand it. But she said recent claims are putting marginalized groups in danger.
Kirk, a conservative political influencer and known critic of the transgender community, was shot and killed Sept. 10 as he spoke at Utah Valley University. Authorities identified his alleged shooter as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson from Washington City, Utah.
Robinson faces seven charges in Kirk’s death, including a first-degree felony for aggravated murder. Prosecutors point to Robinson’s political views as a potential motive.
The indictment states Robinson’s mother told authorities that he had become more left-leaning and focused on gay and trans-rights over the past year. Prosecutors also say she confirmed Robinson was in a romantic relationship with his roommate, who court documents identify as a “a biological male who was transitioning gender.”
Anti-transgender discourse has spread with the release of these details, with far-right influencers referring to the transgender community as terrorists on social media, and two members of Congress calling for the institutionalization of people who are transgender.
Heather Holmgren, a licensed marriage and family therapist and founder of Simple Modern Therapy, a mental health care organization with special support for LGBTQ+ individuals, said the current situation is making transgender Utahns feel unstable. She said she’s seen greater demand for counseling services and more consistent appointments.
“We're moving in a direction as a country where they're no longer able to exist in a way that feels safe to them,” Holmgren said. “What has come with that has been a lot of anxiety, suicidal ideation, a sense of internal chaos.”
Holmgren said many of her clients who are part of the LGBTQ+ community already felt unsafe and uncertain in the state, and violent language compounded those concerns. She’s worried for the future as people in power make blanketd statements about specific groups.
“When we reduce people to ideologies and political positions, we're dehumanizing them,” she said.
Hansen added that distress has prompted some of her transgender clients to move out of the country, as the “us vs. them” rhetoric from political and social leaders causes worry that they don’t belong.
“When our marginalized community does poorly, the whole community does poorly,” Hansen said.
She hopes Utahns can change the conversation from “us vs. them” to “us together.”
