The Campaign to Destroy Renee Good

Renee Good was a poet, a mother of three, a wife. Within hours of her death, as far as the government was concerned, she was a domestic terrorist.

On January 7, ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot Good through her car windshield and window in Minneapolis. She appeared to have four gunshot wounds, according to The New York Times, which cited a Minneapolis Fire Department report. Hours after the shooting, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused Good of “(weaponizing) her vehicle.” President Donald Trump claimed the 37-year-old had “violently, willfully, and viciously ran over” the agent who killed her. Vice President JD Vance called her death “a tragedy of her own making.”

Bystander videos showed something different: Good trying to drive away when the shots were fired. Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey called the self-defense narrative “bullshit.”

Despite the video evidence, conservative media fell in line immediately. Good was “100 percent to blame” for her own death, according to Matt Walsh of the Daily Wire. Megyn Kelly said it “was her own doing.” The verdict felt unanimous: She deserved it.

But the reasons used to justify her death circles have gone far beyond what she did or didn’t do with her car. Much of it has centered around Good’s identity as a queer woman.

Walsh called Good a “lesbian agitator.” Ian Miles Cheong, a right-wing commentator with millions of followers, called her a “rug munching leftist.” On Fox News, Jesse Watters noted that Good “leaves behind a lesbian partner” and highlighted that she had “pronouns in her bio,” seemingly in reference to her Instagram profile.

Good was in a relationship with Becca Good, and the two had recently moved to Minneapolis looking “to make a better life” for themselves, according to a statement Becca released after her death. They left Kansas City, Missouri, for Canada following Trump’s 2024 election victory before heading back stateside, Xtra reported.

A couple days after Good was killed, footage that appears to be from Ross’s cellphone leaked to conservative Minnesota outlet Alpha News. It shows the moments before the shooting. Good is behind the wheel, and calmly tells the person filming, “I’m not mad at you.” Her partner, Becca, is outside the car, confronting Ross. Becca appears to be defiant and unafraid, telling the person behind the camera, “Go get yourself some lunch, big boy.” As Good tries to drive away, Ross fires several shots. Then, just before Good’s car crashes, a voice is heard saying: “Fucking bitch.”

Whoever leaked that video could have edited the slur out. They didn’t. And judging by reactions from right-wing influencers, they didn’t need to.

“There’s a real sense of disgust with women in the way that conservative media is talking about these kinds of protests,” says Courtney Hagle, research director at Media Matters for America, who has tracked the right-wing response to Good’s death. “They’re clearly very angry at the presence of women, and especially white women, liberal women.” The video, as Hagle puts it, “confirmed for them that this is not a human being that they should care about.”

Some of the commentary, including references to Becca as Good’s “so-called wife” also felt like an insidious way to delegitimize the Goods’ relationship.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, President Trump repeatedly referred to Becca Good as Renee’s “friend.” “The woman and her friend were highly disrespectful of law enforcement,” he said. Leigh Finke, a Minnesota state legislator and the state’s first openly trans elected official, says this kind of erasure sends a message. “All that they will portray it as is disrespectful lesbian women who are not obeying men in power.”