I had never heard of Ava Tyson before reading this story. This lends some support to Moore's point: trans people aren't collectively responsible for everything any trans person ever does. (Trans people don't even know all the other trans people's names!)
What trans people should do as a community is take reports of abuse seriously and prioritize the needs of victims, regardless of the identity of the aggressor (trans or cis). That behavior is ultimately what reflects well on a community, not the sins (alleged or proven) of someone who shares a trait of most of the members of the community (i.e., being trans).
Many "bad actors [are] making a living out of exploiting horrific allegations," writes Mallory Moore. In "the arena of true crime trauma porn," they put on a show of transforming "real world acts of abuse into a Punch and Judy show." But doing so won't "help anyone, or achieve trans liberation." That's "a strong justification for rejecting this framing and refocusing on the material concerns of victims and survivors."
— Mallory Moore, "No, the allegations against Ava Tyson aren’t a 'problem for the trans community'," Medium, Jul 30, 2024
What makes your community look good, and actually be good, is not that no one in it (individually) ever does anything wrong, but how the community (collectively) addresses the incident.
Do good work first. Worry about optics later.
People who oppose your existence will say what they're going to say anyway. They'll do their worst. They aren't waiting for you to give them a bad-trans-optics excuse to do so.
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