Culture

I Was a Closet Conservative Until My Friends Celebrated Charlie Kirk's Murder

I didn't learn that Charlie Kirk and I shared a birthday until the day he died. The black-and-white in-memoriam pages revealed that we were the exact same age, down to the day.

By Taylor Fogarty3 min read
Getty/Joe Raedle

The afternoon that Charlie was shot while hosting one of his hallmark open dialogues at Utah Valley University, social media flooded with information, with threads of hope weaving their way through despair and anxiety. For several hours after the initial shooting, theories and motives filled the internet until the worst was confirmed: Charlie Kirk had been assassinated. I never knew or had even met Charlie, but his death felt deeply personal, not just to me, but to millions.