Liberal and corporate media outlets referred to Robin Westman, a trans-identifying male who killed two children on Wednesday, by his preferred feminine pronouns in their coverage about the Catholic school shooting in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Westman, 23, killed an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old and injured 17 others after he opened fire through the window of the Annunciation Catholic Church during a school Mass service. The Washington Post, NBC News, The Daily Mail and other outlets referred to Westman as a “she” and “her” to accommodate the shooter’s trans identity.
The Post used these pronouns and referred to Westman as his mother’s “daughter” while covering his name change in 2019. Court records show that his mother, Mary, had to sign off on Westman’s name change from Robert to Robin because he was still a minor at the time, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune.
“At the time, Robin was 17. Mary Westman wrote in court documents that her daughter did not have a felony record,” the Post originally wrote. “Robin Westman’s parents were divorced in 2013. She is the youngest of three siblings, according to court records. The family lived in Hastings, Minnesota, at the time of the divorce. Court records indicate all three children attended private school.”
The Post has since edited this section of the story without appearing to add a note.
NBC News described the shooter as a person in “her early 20s” who had posted multiple disturbing videos on YouTube “that referenced suicide.” Westman’s videos also included messages calling to kill President Donald Trump and stated that “6 million wasn’t enough,” an apparent reference to the six million Jews killed during the Holocaust.
ABC News immediately highlighted that Westman’s driver’s license identified him as a “female.”
The Daily Mail also used feminine pronouns to describe Westman and referred to him as a “transgender woman” in its article titled, “Minneapolis school shooter Robin Westman revealed as transgender and anti-Trump as Democrats call for shooting to be de-politicized.”
“According to court papers filed in Dakota County, Minnesota, Westman asked the court to change her name to Robin,” the Daily Mail wrote. Westman had her mother Mary sign the application for a name change as she was still a minor at the time … It has since emerged that her mother was an employee at the school before she retired in 2021.”
Newsweek, NBC affiliate KARE 11, the Hindustan Times and Times Now all referred to Westman as a “her.”
Hours after children were killed, Democrat Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey spent an entire minute lecturing people not to “villainize our trans community.” Earlier in the day, he told Christians to not offer their “prayers” since the children were already praying when the tragedy occurred.
The media similarly twisted itself into knots over its coverage of Audrey Hale, a female school shooter who used male pronouns, after she killed children inside a Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee. Outlets like CNN and USA Today edited its articles to remove the word “woman” and correct the record on her identity.
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