Charlie Kirk is Dead. Here’s Why I’m Celebrating!

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Most Mondays, Assigned Media runs the news aggregation column Leading Off. With the news dominated by the death of far-right podcaster Charlie Kirk, and amidst widespread fears of violence from the far right, we chose to feature this opinion column by our founder Evan Urquhart this week instead.

We’re not supposed to say it. It is terribly taboo. According to Reuters, at least 15 people have already been fired for saying it (reporting by NBC suggests it may be many more). And yet, and yet… there’s a stirring deep inside, a wild joy lifting our hearts, an impish gleam in our eyes as we say Charlie Kirk is dead.

How could anyone be sorry? How could anyone be mournful? A man who  kept a watchlist of professors whose views he disagreed with (one that spurred endless death and rape threats), is now dead! A man who supported the January 6 rioters that chanted calls to hang our vice president is dead! A man who called for his supporters to bail out the attempted murderer of one of his political rivals is dead! A vicious and committed racist is dead!

He claimed a passage in Leviticus said gay men should be stoned to death, calling this “God’s perfect law”*—and now he’s dead! In part, I am celebrating the fact that, however much evil remains in the world, at least nothing can ever bring him back. But mostly, I’m celebrating because he’s dead and I am still alive.

In normal times, I’d work to keep my schadenfreude at the death of a terrible person under wraps. The man has children, after all, and it would be a terrible thing if they were to learn how joyful their father’s death has made the people who he hurt. That’s why, in the first 24 hours after Kirk’s death, I kept decorum. I refrained from saying anything celebratory or even negative about this awful man. (Most people on the left did the same.)

These, however, are not normal times. These are times when the right to say something the far right finds offensive is under threat. It’s  under threat by the US government and by individuals in the far right who seek revenge. If they’re compiling a list of everyone who refuses to fellate the memory of the horrid, evil, violent, moon-faced turd then it’s a list I’d rather be on than off.

I am nothing if not a free speech absolutist. Freedom of expression is central to the ability of trans people to live our lives openly, freely, and with pride. And that’s why, however tasteless, however much I’d hesitate to say it in any normal circumstance, today I am determined to join the celebrants with my full chest.

All that said, let’s take a minute to be clear: There was no hotbed of violent transgender leftism that resulted in Kirk’s murder. Our community has always been peaceful, and only recently even begun considering the need for self-defense. Even if the young, white, male scion of a deep red state had a transgender partner (a claim that remains unverified by any reliable news organization), that is as irrelevant as the fact that his parents were Republicans. Attempts to blame the trans community on this pretext would be funny—if they weren’t putting us all in deadly peril.

For my part, I certainly never wanted Kirk to be shot—honestly I didn’t think about him much, except as one of a cadre of interchangeable dead-eyed far right toads. You know, the ones embracing Nazi analogies for the modern day US that casts them as the Nazis and trans people (and Jewish people, and immigrants, and Black Americans) as the Jews?

“This is our Reichstag fire!” they cried, as Kirk lay dead. Yes, you fucking freaks, we know.

I do not want and have never wanted any of them dead. I want them to chill out and be normal for the first time in their lives.

I know that some people who would usually be on my side may look askance at my strong words. But I have concluded that strong words are the only ones suited for this day. In the first months of Trump’s second term we’ve had far too many people tempering their tones, hoping to avoid the ire of the victorious far right. Each on our own we’ve been keeping our heads down, afraid to say the wrong thing, hoping things get better or, if they get worse (which we pretend not to expect), that we’ll be able to survive. As we cower we are losing the core freedoms that we learned in school made ours a country worthy of our love. We must be brave. We must not shrink.

That’s why I’ve chosen to depart from my normally measured tone. I have always believed in an American right to free speech which includes a right to be offensive. It’s not a right I’ve often exercised myself, but it is one I value highly, nonetheless. Today, this hallowed right is teetering on the brink. I think I’ll use it while I still have it, thank you very much.

Fuck Charlie Kirk, and fuck you, if you don’t like me saying fuck him. I’m not afraid to say I’m glad I’m still alive at 47 while he is dead at 31.

While I still can, I feel like celebrating.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story stated that Leviticus calls for gay men to be stoned to death. While it calls for gay men to be executed, the Bible does not specify a method. Kirk was misquoting the Bible when he stated his beliefs about gay men.

Evan Urquhart is the founder of Assigned Media.

273 thoughts on “Charlie Kirk is Dead. Here’s Why I’m Celebrating!”

  1. "I do not want and have never wanted any of them dead. I want them to chill out and be normal for the first time in their lives."

    Wouldn’t that be a lovely day?

    I cannot celebrate violence for the sale of violence, but I cannot find it in myself to do anything but shrug at the death of someone calling for my erasure.

    And that it was done by someone who thought this tool wasn’t fascist enough? As he touted his "accept gun deaths as lart of our freedom to own guns" line? The levels of dramatic irony are off the damn charts.

    • When I’d heard he died, at first, I thought I was happy. Then I watched the video and I started sobbing. It’s not true happiness. It’s relief. Like a weight lifted off my shoulders. This man full of hatred and lies who thirsts only to see that my life and the life of my loved ones is made miserable can’t fight anymore for a bad world where the weak and needy suffer while he points and condemns them. Then I felt rage. Rage that he devoted his life to hating others instead of just loving his two beautiful children. Fury that he could never love his little daughter enough that if, God forbid, someone violated her at ten that he wouldn’t toy with her life by denying her an abortion. It wasn’t enough for him to have a wife and two beautiful children, he hated other people so much he wanted to crush and control them, force them to be Christian when Christ never asked for him to do any of that. Life’s beautiful and strange and full of all kinds of people worth knowing and loving, and I’m so thankful I didn’t turn out like Charlie Kirk.

  3. A supporter of political violence became a victim of political violence. Cry me a fucking river. If we can be glad bin Laden is dead, then we can be glad Kirk is dead

  5. You’re fucking sick and completely out of touch about what Kirk was about. The human race is doomed with so much hate. Wow how disgusting.

  7. i for one think it’s hateful to celebrate the death of someone who shared my values and tried to make them real in the world. we should all feel ashamed that we’ve lost someone who worked hard at something I believe in. the laughter of my hateful enemies rings in my ears and turns my mouth to copper.

    anyhow none of the applies to Charlie Kirk, super happy he’s toast

  9. Jesus died on the cross for all our sins and rose from the dead 3 days later defeating Satan, all sin and more. I pray for you and your family to leave this darkness and come into the light!

  10. You all are sick this world is doomed. He had a wife and two kids, and only wanted the best for this country, to celebrate anyones death is pure evil, but it’s ok you guys don’t realize what you’ve done🙏💯💯

  11. This is the most awesome post on the subject of that little Nazi’s death that I have seen. Wonderful. I too am SO freaking happy that Kirk is now sucking dirt. I would piss on his grave if I knew where it was. What a complete horrid "human being". He got what he deserved. I am LOVING this.

  12. Hello 🙂
    I’m not here to judge ….. I try to live without hate. You have every right to say what you want, but the way you celebrated someone’s death and expressed yourself was really upsetting to read. Happy, grounded people don’t spend their energy spreading that kind of hate. To be honest, you just come across as a very unhappy person — no one who is content or surrounded by love would express themselves that way.

    It also struck me how much time you put into saying something so cruel. That tells me you probably don’t have a lot going on in your life right now. I just happened to stumble across your comment, and I felt compelled to respond even though it cost me 15 minutes I’ll never get back.

    I’m writing this honestly and from my perspective, and hopefully you won’t try to find me and shoot me for it because sadly, too many people are hypersensitive and try to use violence to solve problems.

    This isn’t the kind of energy or person I want around me. I truly hope you find some healing and surround yourself with better people.

    • "Happy, grounded people don’t spend their energy spreading that kind of hate."

      I agree. Charlie Kirk must have been a very unhappy man. It’s very sad his legacy is one of such misery and anguish, especially since people whose lives he sought to ruin for no reason can now live on with the happiness he can’t attack them anymore for just living their lives as Black airline pilots, or gay people getting married, or trans people living as the gender that fits them, or immigrants to the USA working odd jobs to earn their way, or Disabled people receiving Medicaid, or Muslims peacefully worshiping their God.

      Makes me wonder, though… what’s going on in your life that you’re here to wag your finger and judge? You mustn’t be very happy yourself if your thesis that those who chastise are miserable is true.

  13. my thing is he literally said gun deaths and violence was worth it to protect our 2nd amendment right… so like he should be happy? like this is what he advocated for, this is what he justified.

  14. I woke up to the news he was truly gone and it hit me like a brick wall and filled me with a gratitude I couldn’t even begin to express. Every day is a fight for my life against crippling incurable disease while men like Kirk push for policy that insists, as he did, that "healthcare isn’t a right". That my community doesn’t owe me the responsibility of ensuring that my body isn’t ravaged in agony from a disease I did nothing to cause, earn nor deserve, but simply was the quirk of my genetics meshing badly with stress and my immune system trying to kill me.

    Kirk believed I didn’t have a right to not shit blood while my skin peeled off in red, angry flakes. He believed I didn’t have a right for my joints not to swell ’til they were immovably stiff. He liked our system of healthneglect where so many die and thumbed his nose at programs like Medicaid that keep young crippled folks alive. He sneered at empathy for people like me, and it’s a relief to know he can’t fight anymore for a world that’s working hard to see me dead.

    Hooray for life. Hooray for healthcare. Hooray for everything beautiful and wonderful and kind that Kirk sneered at, because goodness will outlive his vapid, hateful heart.

  15. To celebrate a man’s death because of delusions you believe in your own mind is truthfully disturbing. The notion that you might be informed just the slightest tells about your mind state alone as you continue on your remarks couldn’t hold an argument no facts, no structure just your own mental instability. your own confusions driving you mad and clouding your judgement . People like you would have been afraid to walk up to his microphone . Internet warriors… it ain’t cute.
    God Bless Your Soul. I guess the world wouldn’t function without its npc’s .

    • What I like about this comment is that anyone reading it will also have read my piece, which neatly refutes it.

  17. He is evil and full of hatred! I feel no happiness for his death, but a little Karma!! She is a bigger bitch than me!! There are so many of these people out there that got brave when Dirty Don became President! It is time to impeach and for Dems to do what they always do and bail out the Republicans! It happens every time people vote for this evil crap! Rest in your hate for the innocent! He will not be missed!

  18. Thank you. Youve proven his point. I AM CHARLIE KIRK! PRAISE JESUS, IN THE NAME OF THE SON JESUS CHRIST I CALL UPON YOUR POWER AND REBUKE THESE UNPURE SPIRITS. SET THEM FREE AND BE GONE! DO NOT RETURN! JESUS CHRIST.

  19. Karma. 2026 will be the biggest. We must infiltrate the media and push anti maga and anti Trump information. We must stop being kind to Republicans, fascists, Right wingers. We must push the blue vote. Drag these non voters in to vote. Voter apathy is what brought this past election into the disaster we are in now.

    • Thanks for the comment, I looked it up and made a small correction to make it more clear that Charlie Kirk was misquoting the Bible.

      • Yeah, ’cause you only replicated what you saw online without verifying. I don’t blame you, though.

        Everyone, myself included, are just sheep spreading things online; we share what resonates with us and condemn what we disagree with.
        People are misquoting Charlie all over the internet and taking his words out of context. On the other hand, I’m sure the right is doing the same thing to defame the left.

        This whole situation can basically be summed up as:
        “Fuck you, you’re mentally ill.”
        “No, fuck you, you’re even more mentally ill.”

        I’m happy for Charlie, ’cause he’s in a better place now and doesn’t have to deal with this fucked-up world we live in.

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