Renee Nicole Good should still be alive today. Last week, the 37-year-old wife, poet and mother was killed by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis. Her death sparked nationwide protests against ICE over the weekend.
A video shot on Ross’s phone shows that just after killing Good, the ICE agent spat out two words. Those two words may have been the last thing Good ever heard on this Earth.
“Fucking bitch.”
Almost instantly, Trump administration officials and their state media allies in the right-wing influencer sphere kicked into overdrive to justify the murder. Head of Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem called Good a “domestic terrorist.” President Trump, at first, made claims about the chain of events leading to the shooting that did not match what was readily apparent from footage and then over the weekend changed his tune, saying Good was disrespectful of law enforcement, as if that warrants a death sentence.
“It was highly disrespectful of law enforcement. The woman and her friend were highly disrespectful of law enforcement,” he told reporters Sunday. “Law enforcement should not be in a position where they have to put up with this stuff.”
Curious, that phrasing. “The woman and her friend.” Queer people instantly understand the implication he’s making, and all of the underlying social messaging baked into that turn of phrase.
Good was queer, and was married to a woman named Becca Good, who was in the car with her and who Trump was referring to as her “friend.”
The couple had very recently moved to Minneapolis after having left Kansas City, Missouri, for Canada after Trump won the 2024 election, according to a friend of the family. The two said they were looking for a safe place to exist as a queer couple and thought Minneapolis would be that.
Then the Trump administration killed Renee and shattered Becca’s life.
Since then, the mainstream media has mostly glossed over Renee Nicole Good’s queer marriage, instead calling her a widow (the father of Good’s youngest son had previously passed away) and emphasizing that one of Good’s three kids is “an orphan” now. The erasure of Becca and their son together in the stories of Good’s life has been painful for queer Americans who personally understand the instinct to flee red states in the Trump era.
The whole incident has also prompted conservative influencers and politicians to make grand declarations of hate against Good and queer women like her. One conservative activist shared a picture of Good with the comment “I feel like I’ve been condescended to by a woman who looks like this a thousand times.”
Granted I’m biased but I actually don’t think that looking like a lesbian should justify summary executions.
— Moira Donegan (@moiradonegan.bsky.social) January 10, 2026 at 4:40 PM
Another conservative questioned why a lesbian would choose a masculine-presenting partner like Becca.
51k "likes" for this, & over 160k followers. I can assure you this man has NO "lesbian homies"; he cannot stand that women choose not to choose men, & he's curious as to the reasons why. Like many men, he worries the answer is in the mirror; but the real terror is that it's nothing to do with you.
— FinnMackay (@finnfox.bsky.social) January 11, 2026 at 2:18 AM
Professional conservative loser pundit Matt Walsh threw a tantrum online over Good and her queer relationship, declaring them both “enemies of the people.”
Advertisement"Men are afraid that women will laugh at them; women are afraid that men will kill them"
— Gillian Branstetter (@gbbranstetter.bsky.social) January 10, 2026 at 2:10 PM
We can’t ignore the outright misogyny and homophobia baked into this incident—and yes, erasing Good’s wife from the story of her life and death is also misogyny and homophobia. The same homophobia that drove Good and her wife from Missouri is the same homophobia on display all over conservative social media today.
The message is clear: looking wrong to a conservative, speaking wrong to a conservative man, not bowing and scraping to conservatives, or even just loving the “wrong” gender, means you are an enemy. An enemy that should be put down.
This is the process of unpersoning a political enemy on full display. But all of it hides one simple and profound truth.
Good was murdered by conservative America. It was likely conservative political hate that drove her family out of Missouri, given Becca’s statement that the family was looking for a safer place to live; it was conservative hate that sent ICE to her neighbourhood and it was conservative hate that led that ICE agent to shoot the “fucking bitch.” It is conservative hate that is now justifying Good’s murder.
Having demonstrated their lethal threat against perceived enemies, ICE has started threatening others who are willing to stand up to these fascists. A string of filmed incidents over the weekend featured ICE agents telling protesters or even just regular motorists some flavour of: “Haven’t you people learned yet?” White House border czar Tom Homan went on national television and blamed “rhetoric” like calling Agent Ross a murderer for all of this, and implied that there will be more murders if the people keep opposing ICE.
Late last week, Vice-President JD Vance called Good a “deranged leftist” whose death was “of her own making.” Vance explained that he believed she was “brainwashed,” a conservative euphemism frequently used in reference to queerness or leftist politics.
The threat is clear. Their actions are clear. They would probably justify putting us all down like a “fucking bitch” if they could. There’s only one side here with guns and a proven willingness to use violence.
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