Born a biological female, Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale began identifying as a transgender man and using the name Aiden prior to her devastating attack which claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adults on March 27, 2023.
Police documents published by The Tennessee Star determined Hale was a 22-year mental health patient of Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), the home of a controversial transgender program that is reportedly considered “big money” for the hospital.
In one 2018 video, posted to the social media platform X by The Daily Wire host Matt Walsh, a VUMC staff member identified as Dr. Shayne Taylor claimed she convinced the hospital to begin offering gender affirming care because it is a “big money maker.”
“It’s a lot of money. The surgeries make a lot of money,” stated Taylor (pictured above). “Female to male chest reconstruction can bring in $40,000.”
The doctor continued, “A patient just on routine hormone treatment, that I’m seeing just a few times a year, can bring in several thousand dollars.”
Vanderbilt opened its trans clinic in 2018. During a lecture the same year, Dr. Shayne Taylor explained how she convinced Nashville to get into the gender transition game. She emphasized that it's a "big money maker," especially because the surgeries require a lot of "follow ups" pic.twitter.com/zedM7HBCBe
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) September 20, 2022
A second video, also posted to X by Walsh, seems to suggest VUMC in 2018 was concerned not all staff members would support the push to provide for transgender treatments.
VUMC, according to Walsh, “was apparently concerned that not all of its staff would be on board. Dr. Ellen Clayton warned that ‘conscientious objections’ are ‘problematic.’ Anyone who decides not to be involved in transition surgeries due to ‘religious beliefs’ will face ‘consequences.'”
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti opened an investigation into VUMC after the publication of this and other videos by Walsh, and VUMC now says it no longer offers transgender surgeries to minor patients.
While it is unclear when Hale began identifying as transgender, audio from a Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) interview with her parents, Ronald and Norma Hale, revealed that Hale presented her new gender identity to her parents after her 25th birthday when Hale was no longer covered by her parents’ health insurance.
Hale was born on March 24, 1995, which means she told her parents of her desire to become a transgender man sometime after March 24, 2020.
In the journal Hale wrote that was recovered by police from her vehicle, which was given to The Tennessee Star by a source familiar with the Covenant investigation, she almost exclusively referred to herself as a transgender man. Hale appeared to have started this journal in January 2023.
However, police documents obtained by The Star revealed Hale began receiving treatment from mental health professionals affiliated with VUMC in 2001 when she was a six-year-old.
The Star additionally learned that Hale’s first psychologist, who was previously identified to The Star, referred Hale to VUMC for commitment in 2019.
While Hale was reportedly referred for commitment, after her attack MNPD, investigators discovered a folder in the Hale family home, which seems to indicate Hale instead participated in a VUMC Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) in 2019.
When an MNPD investigator submitted his sworn statement in an affidavit to obtain a search warrant for VUMC, he sought all records related to Hale’s treatment at VUMC between April 23, 2001, and March 27, 2023.
Star News Digital Media, Inc., which owns and operates The Star, and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy are plaintiffs in the ongoing lawsuits to compel both MNPD and the FBI to release Hale’s full writings, including those sometimes called a manifesto.
Earlier this month, The Star published an FBI memo sent to MNPD Chief John Drake in May 2023. The memo “strongly” advised Drake against releasing “legacy tokens” from mass murderers like Hale, and an FBI definition appears to suggest the agency considers both the writings obtained by The Star and those sought in the lawsuits to be unfit for public release.
While the FBI declined to confirm it sent the memo in a statement to The Star, the federal agency acknowledged sending such “products” to local law enforcement in furtherance of mutual goals.
Since The Star obtained Hale’s journal and a portion of documents from the Covenant investigation, it has published more than 40 articles that include Hale’s own words or offer new details into the police response to the tragic shooting.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Shayne Taylor” by Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
So it was all about the money!
Boycott , Divest, Sanction Vanderbilt!