Yes, the Minneapolis Shooter Was Trans. Why On Earth Does That Matter?

Taking advantage of dead kids is just about as low as one can go. That hasn't stopped transphobes from using the Minneapolis shooting to attack the trans community.

Earlier today, reports emerged of a mass shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school. Not long after, the suspect—found dead at the scene along with two victims—was identified as being Robin Westman, a transgender woman. Quickly, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem took the opportunity to highlight that fact, and now, the fact that the shooter was trans has become a central part of the story. This isn’t the first time Republicans have taken advantage of a shooting to attack the trans community either. In the aftermath of the 2023 Nashville shooting, the fact that the perpetrator was a transgender man set right-wing media ablaze.

These attempts have one goal: to create a relationship, in the eyes of the public, between being transgender and being a shooter. This scapegoating isn’t new: throughout history, minorities have been collectively blamed over the actions of a single individual. In the US, we don’t have to look too far: the last time scapegoating attitudes permeated the American public, more than 120,000 Japanese-Americans were put in concentration camps.

So, why is it happening? And how can we push back?

A Dangerous Game

In order to advance transphobic sentiments, anti-trans advocates play on fear, and because there’s no logical reason for trans people to be feared, they rely on the irrational. In this game, their weapon of choice is anecdotes. Take, for example, ads against trans participation in sports. Most of these ads only present one argument: an anecdote. Someone like Payton McNabb—who was injured while playing volleyball against a trans opponent—or Riley Gaines—who tied for fifth with transgender swimmer Lia Thomas at some point—shares their story of competing against a trans person while somber music plays in the background. After the story, their rhetoric shifts to something along the lines of ‘If trans women were banned from women’s sports, this wouldn’t have happened to me.’

In ads like this, they attempt to establish a relationship between trans people and negative outcomes for female athletes. Their argument is not rooted in statistics or logic, but in an isolated incident. And unfortunately, because much of the public is not very well informed on trans people, this negative exposure can be all it takes to change someone’s mind. This rings true for detransition-centric arguments against gender-affirming care too.

When it comes to the Minneapolis & Nashville shootings, it’s the same story. Except this time, it’s much more unsettling. By highlighting that the perpetrators were trans, those on the right create an opportunity for a relationship to be drawn inside people’s minds between being trans and being dangerous. And the proliferation of that idea can mean nothing good. Even without anecdotes backing them up, many states have passed laws restricting the bathrooms trans people can use. Now, imagine what will result from people believing that someone being trans will make them more violent.

More Than a Culture War

Aside from the glaringly hateful intentions of this rhetoric, it also serves another purpose: distracting from the fact that this country is in desperate need of gun control laws. Because even amid all this transphobia, conservatives don’t attempt to discuss any form of gun control. And if you pay attention, they don’t ask why a trans person (who they view as mentally unwell) is allowed to access an automatic weapon; they ask why a trans person is allowed in the first place.

Trans people are 1% of the American population. So, if trans people were as likely to be involved in shootings as the general population, we can expect 1 out of 100 shootings to have been perpetrated by a trans person. Except trans people aren’t as likely to commit shootings: of the 286 shootings this year alone, this is the first to involve a trans shooter. So let’s be clear: trans people do not carry out shootings because they’re trans. If a trans person does become a shooter, it’s for the same reasons (often a combination of mental health conditions, political extremism, and personal trauma) that led cisgender individuals to carry out shootings in Parkland, Uvalde, Las Vegas, and so many other places.

But even if this were the third, fifth, or tenth shooting to involve a trans shooter, the number doesn’t matter. Because we shouldn’t be wondering who the shooter is. We shouldn’t be waiting to discover if they are transgender or not. We shouldn’t be checking to see how many people died today. There’s only one thing we should be asking ourselves, no, asking our country, right now:

Why is Robin Westman the 286th person to carry out a shooting this year and not the 1st?