Jo Ellis holds one of her firearms in her apartment in Richmond, Virginia, on February 12, 2025. Gingerly placing a gun on her kitchen counter, American trans pilot Jo Ellis said she no longer leaves her apartment without a firearm after false online claims about her involvement in a fatal air crash triggered a deluge of threats. The career of the Black Hawk pilot in the Virginia Army National Guard hangs in limbo after a Pentagon memo last week revealed that transgender troops will be purged from the military unless they obtain a waiver on a case-by-case basis. President Donald Trump has signed a series of executive orders targeting the trans community -- a flash point in the so-called culture wars roiling the United States -- including barring them from women's sports and instructing the government to recognize only two sexes, male and female. Tens of thousands of social media posts falsely identified Ellis, 35, as one of the pilots of the army helicopter which collided with a passenger plane in Washington late last month, killing everyone aboard the aircraft. (Photo by Agnes BUN / AFP) (Photo by AGNES BUN/AFP via Getty Images)