Senator Ted Cruz misquotes one of the bullet engravings in the Kirk shooting and then misattributes it as a meme from the trans community.

(TW for Ted Cruz saying "do you see my bulge")

WATCH: On MSNBC, @translash.org's Imara Jones details the relationships between anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, violence, and rising authoritarianism.

At the same time, pundits are also using gay marriage to bolster their attacks on no-fault divorce. The concept of a "covenant marriage" -- a special designation for heterosexual couples with a much higher bar for divorce -- is becoming increasingly popular.

Throughout 2023 and 2024, right-wing media fully evolved into outright denying existence of gay marriage.

May-June 2022: SCOTUS overturns Roe v. Wade, claiming the nearly 50-year-old right to abortion was “not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history.” Right-wing pundits can't decide between maintaining their denials, or outright calling for the 7-year-old Obergefell ruling to be overturned as well.

What may come as a surprise is that anti-LGBTQ televangelist Pat Robertson said in 2013 that he didn't believe being transgender was a sin. But he changed his tune just months after the Obergefell ruling, calling transgender people "frauds."