Transgender MMA fighter Alana McLaughlin got falsely accused for an old photo holding firearms days after Nashville shooting

Transgender MMA fighter Alana McLaughlin has courted controversy ever since her MMA debut in 2021. Now, an old photo of her holding a gun has made her a victim of false accusations after the recent Nashville shooting.

In the wake of the school shooting, a Twitter post featuring an old photo of McLaughlin with a gun started going around. The post shows a picture of the 39-year-old sporting body armor, pink hair, and shirt, holding an AR-15-like rifle. It also features an additional Glock pistol with an extended clip on her waist, with the pride flag in the background.

As per a report by A.P. News, the fake tweet's caption advocated violence against Christians and included aggressive verbs, including kill, behead, roundhouse, slam dunk, crucify, defecate, and launch.

The screenshot of the tweet captured the public eye after the shooting, where law enforcement confirmed that the shooter was transgender.

Many social media users insinuated that the tweet was proof that the MMA fighter was planning to attend or was organizing an event called 'Trans Day of Vengeance' on April 1 outside the U.S. Supreme Court.

However, Alana McLaughlin has since confirmed that she neither authored the tweet nor had any idea of such an event, and the account which tweeted the false news has since been suspended.

Furthermore, Noah Buchanan, co-founder of the organization hosting the event, confirmed to A.P. News that the MMA fighter had no connection to the protest while clarifying that the event was peaceful and not meant to incite violence.

Alana McLaughlin's image used in the post is an old photo featured in a 2020 Huck Magazine article talking about her and others in the LGBTQ community who have armed themselves amidst rising violence towards them.

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Was transgender MMA fighter Alana McLaughlin in the army?

Transgender fighter Alana McLaughlin served in the U.S. Army for six years and is the recipient of eight distinguished service medals.

According to a report by The Guardian, she is an ex-Special Forces medical sergeant and was part of a twelve-man elite squad that served in Afghanistan in 2007. McLaughlin ended her tenure in the army in 2015 and later surgically transitioned to a woman in 2016.

The 39-year-old has been a fan of MMA since the early 2000s and finally made her pro debut at Combate Global - Perez vs. Roa in 2021, where she secured a second-round submission win against Celine Provost.

Since her debut, many in the fight community have voiced their disapproval of allowing transwomen to compete against their cisgender counterparts in MMA.