Right-wing commentators and politicians are cynically exploiting the horrific shooting of children in a Minneapolis catholic school to vilify the LGBTQ community.
On Wednesday, 23-year-old Robin Westman allegedly opened fire through a window of the Annunciation Catholic School in south Minneapolis.
Westman fatally shot two children, aged eight and ten, and wounded 14 other children and three older parishioners inside the church before taking their own life. The killings have shattered families and devastated the city’s broader community.
Focus on Gender Identity
Amidst the grief and shock, some have chosen to fixate on Westman’s reported transgender identity and use it to attack the broader trans community.
Initial reports suggest that Westman legally changed their name from Robert to Robin in 2020 and may have identified as a transgender woman.
American right-wing commentator, author and podcast host Matt Walsh told his nearly four million followers on X that Westman’s gender identity was the cause of the attack.
“Every trans person is dangerously delusional. They are all mentally sick and doctors should be legally barred from affirming their mental illness in any way. Adult or child. Everyone knows it. Now innocent children are dying because so many people were too cowardly to speak up.”
These views were echoed by others on social media as well as conservative politicians and media outlets that highlighted Westman’s gender identity.
Far-right Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene quickly joined the anti-trans chorus, writing:
“Gender dysphoria is a mental illness and children are being targeted by the multi billion dollar medical and pharmaceutical industry. If they are willing to destroy themselves and how God made them then they are willing to destroy others and we saw that happen today.”
Elon Musk also pushed an anti-trans perspective on the killings, sharing a post about the shooter’s gender identity and commenting, “There is a clear pattern here.”
Not an opportunity for hate
In response, the Mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, condemned efforts to spread hate against the LGBTQ community.
“Those using this tragedy as an opportunity to vilianize the trans community, or any community, have lost sight of our shared humanity,” said Frey. “Children died today. We shouldn’t be operating out of a place of hate for anyone. We should be operating from a place of love for our kids.”
Critics argue that scapegoating the transgender community distracts from urgent calls for improved gun control in the United States. The country continues to suffer from levels of mass shootings unprecedented anywhere else in the world.
Others have also pointed out the hypocrisy of targeting the trans community over this incident, given that the overwhelming majority of mass shooters in the US are cisgender men. According to Statista, of the 155 mass shootings between 1982 and August 2025, men were responsible for 149. In 2024, the Gun Violence Archive also found that just 0.11% of suspects in mass shootings were transgender.
