Acknowledging the Relationship Between Transgender Identity and Violence | The American Spectator

The heartbreaking shooting yesterday at a Minneapolis Catholic Church that killed two innocent children ages 8 and 10 and injured 17, was just the most recent mass shooting perpetrated by a self-identified transgendered individual. The suspect, Robin Westman, has been identified in the media as a “transgender person in their early 20s.”

Westman, a 22-year-old biological male named Robert, who identified as female, left a detailed manifesto in a spiral-bound notebook as well as a series of YouTube videos to help explain his plans to murder the children. The New York Post published photos of the pages from Westman’s manifesto, which included a chilling diagram of the Ascension Catholic Church where the shooting took place. Drawing the altar as well as the place where the children would be seated, the shooter even included the holy water font at the entrance of the Church. According to The Post:

In one of the videos by the alleged Minneapolis shooter, a hand slowly turns the pages of a red notebook, which is laid out on top of what appears to be schematic gun diagrams. Each page is filled with inscrutable handwritten scrawl, and an occasional plume of smoke is seen from the bottom of the screen as the person turning the pages coughs and occasionally maniacally giggles.

The motive for the Minneapolis shootings has not been revealed, but the Post has reported that Westman’s mother had been employed by the Annunciation Church and School for five years prior to her retirement in 2021. Westman’s manifesto will provide more clues to his motives, but it is unclear whether the Minneapolis police or Governor Tim Walz will release this information.

Unfortunately, in the past, the police and other government officials have been reluctant to release information about school shooters when the perpetrators are revealed to be transgendered. And even when the police might initially release that information, as in the Christian Covenant mass shooting, the media has been even more reluctant to report it. Finally, with this latest shooting, it will be harder to deny the pattern of these mass shootings.

Recent Transgendered Mass Shooters

In 2023, Aiden Hale, a biological female who was transitioning to become a male, killed three 9-year-old children and three staff members at the private Christian Covenant School in Nashville. Aiden, who had been born a biological female named Audrey, was described in the New York Times following the shooting as “being treated for an emotional disorder.” There was not a word in the lengthy Times article about Aiden/Audrey being transgendered.

In 2019, one of the two perpetrators at the STEM School Highlands Ranch identified as transgendered.  Maya (Alec) McKinney was one of the two Colorado students charged and convicted in the shooting that killed four. McKinney, who was a juvenile at the time of the shooting, was sentenced as an adult and faced a mandatory sentence of life in prison. Born as a female, but identifying as a male, few media outlets — except CBS were willing to report that she was transgendered. Most legacy media like ABC refused to acknowledge the transgender identity of the shooter in their reports at her sentencing — choosing instead to describe the shooter as “Alec” instead of her given name.

The year before, in 2018, a few media outlets reported that a transgendered individual fatally shot three people and injured three others at a Maryland Rite Aid warehouse. The Harford County Sheriff’s Office revealed the identity of the shooter as Snochia Moseley, age 26, as being a “transgender African American of Baltimore County who was a temporary worker at the facility.” Moseley shot herself in the head and later died of her wounds at the hospital. But, of course, CNN was unable to be straightforward in its coverage of the event and instead, published an article with the headline: “Why Maryland’s Shooter’s Gender is so Confounding.” Claiming that since most mass shooters are male, it was puzzling why Snochia could have done such a thing.

The transgender link is clear in each of these shootings. Yet, few in the media or the public will acknowledge this. And when there is a shooting in which the perpetrator’s gender is ambiguous, everyone seems to be afraid to even ask questions about their gender identity. This occurred following the Houston megachurch shooting in 2024 when a shooter was identified as transgender by some conservative media outlets, but the Houston police contradicted those reports by confirming that the shooter, Genesse Moreno, was indeed a woman and did not identify as transgender — even though she used a male alias and called herself “Jeffrey.”

There was a time when we could openly analyze sociological data and draw conclusions. But with protected categories of individuals within the transgender community, we are discouraged from making those kinds of conclusions. With this latest Minneapolis shooting, even the mainstream media can no longer deny these disturbing connections between transgender identity and violence.

READ MORE from Anne Hendershott:

AI Chatbots Are Not the Answer to Alleviating Loneliness for Young People

’90s Heroin Chic Is Back … For Boys

Sydney Sweeney Ad Means America Is Hot Again