TWO Warns Against Scapegoating Transgender People
Delray Beach, FL – Details are quickly emerging on the horrific Minneapolis school shooting today that killed an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old in the pews and injured 17 others at Annunciation Catholic Church. Our hearts go out to the families who endured such tragic losses and are suffering immeasurably.
Conservative media sources are reporting that the mass shooter, Robin Westman, was transgender. The National Review reported in an article headlined, “Minneapolis Catholic School Shooter Identified as Trans-Identifying Man”:
The shooter who opened fire at a Catholic school and church in Minneapolis on Wednesday has been identified as Robin Westman, a 23-year-old transgender-identifying man.
Documents show Westman applied to change his birth name from Robert to Robin in January 2020 at the age of 17.
The Tampa Free Press reported:
According to court documents filed by a mother named Mary Grace Westman, “Minor child [redacted] identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.”
Additional right wing online hate groups, including Libs of Tiktok, have reported this information. Interestingly, they are not reporting that Westman reportedly praised right wing extremist shooters Anders Behring Breivik and Brenton Tarrant.
If the past is any indication, extremist groups and right-wing influences will act quickly to exploit the situation to try to slime all transgender people as dangerous and mentally ill. Truth Wins Out regrets having to move quickly before all the facts are in. But since the anti-LGBTQ industry wasted no time demagoguing the situation, we felt it was important to speak out early.
“Let us be perfectly clear: this monstrous act of violence was committed by one profoundly disturbed individual,” said Truth Wins Out Executive Director Wayne Besen. “It is both defamatory and dangerous to use this tragedy to smear transgender people as a whole. The shooter’s gender identity played no role in these horrific murders. Westman was a deranged lunatic, not a representative of an entire community that already faces disproportionate levels of stigma, violence, and discrimination.”
Besen emphasized that efforts to weaponize Westman’s gender identity only serve to distract from the true crisis. “The issue we should be alarmed about is how someone this deeply unhinged was able to procure an arsenal of deadly weapons. That is the story—not the fact that the suspect identified as transgender. America’s children are dying because mentally ill people can easily access firearms.”
While mass shooters in America overwhelmingly share one characteristic—they are men, responsible for 97–98% of attacks—their political ideologies, racial backgrounds, and personal circumstances vary widely. Yet each time a transgender person is linked to violence, anti-LGBTQ activists attempt to spin the event into a broader indictment of an entire marginalized group.
The Minneapolis massacre is a devastating reminder of the urgent need for reform. The suspect’s arsenal, extremist propaganda, and clear signs of mental instability all point to systemic failures in preventing gun violence.
Stand Against Scapegoating and Propaganda
Truth Wins Out called on journalists, community leaders, and policymakers to exercise restraint and integrity in their coverage and public statements. The group warned that singling out the shooter’s gender identity feeds into a larger climate of anti-trans rhetoric that has already fueled discriminatory laws and rising hate crimes.
CONTACT:
Contact Wayne Besen, Executive Director
Email: wbesen@truthwinsout.org