On Aug. 27 at 8:30 a.m. local time, the lives of an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old were taken by Robin Westman during a back-to-school Mass at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis. Eighteen others were injured, including 15 children.
Westman was a 23-year-old white nationalist, a supporter of a far-right candidate running as a gun influencer and a blatant racist and antisemite; she had a long, troubling history of mental health issues. Every one of these red flags — clear indicators of potential violence — was ignored. Instead of grappling with these facts, and with the deadly reality of easy access to firearms, politicians and media figures on the far-right immediately did what they always do: Blame trans people.
Westman identified as a trans woman. And for that, she became an instant effigy for MAGA’s habitual and baseless attempt to link trans identity with mass shootings. Among others, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., tweeted: “Today’s evil church school shooter was a trans who was likely groomed and transitioned as a teenager.”
Greene’s take is not unique. It’s part of a long-standing right-wing script that is used to distort the reality of gun violence and redirect attention away from the need for stricter federal firearm limitations.
Greene’s take is not unique. It’s part of a long-standing right-wing script that is used to distort the reality of gun violence and redirect attention away from the need for stricter federal firearm limitations.
On March 27, 2023, three children and three adults were murdered by Aiden Hale at a private school in Nashville. Hale was a trans man, and that fact overshadowed every other detail in conservative commentary. Greene and other conservatives shifted the narrative away from the AR-15 used in the attack, instead questioning whether hormone replacement therapy was a “cause” of the violence.
On May 24, 2022, 19 children and two adults were killed in Uvalde, Texas, in one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. Instead of addressing the repeated failures of law enforcement and the obvious role of firearms, Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., claimed the shooter was a “transsexual leftist illegal alien.” The claim was false; the shooter was not transgender.
On Feb. 11, 2022, a woman named Gennesse Moreno opened fire inside a Houston megachurch, injuring two. Almost immediately, far-right influencers began scouring her background to see if she could be linked to the trans community. The MAGA-affiliated account Libs of TikTok blamed hormone therapy and the LGBTQ+ community for the shooting. Their rhetoric was amplified by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Donald Trump Jr. Again, the shooter was not transgender.
On April 3, 2018, three people were shot at YouTube’s headquarters in San Bruno, Calif., by Nasim Najafi Aghdam. Within hours, conservative commentators speculated about her gender identity and whether she was trans, suggesting that it played a role in her motive. Once more, the shooter was not transgender.
The repetition here matters. In all of these cases, two truths hold. First, guns were the weapon that enabled the rapid, brutal loss of innocent life. Second, the political right skipped immediately over the bullets and zeroed in on the trans community. Ironically, most of these cases did not involve a single trans person. This is also the case for virtually every single mass shooting on record.
The data makes the right-wing’s transphobic narrative fall apart even faster. Between 2018 and 2023, among shootings with four or more victims, 2,826 of the shooters were cisgender. Just three happened to be transgender. Statistically, there is no foundation to connect trans identity with mass shootings.
If the far-right insists on making a connection between trans people and violence, it should acknowledge this reality: Trans people are far more likely to be the victims of gun violence themselves. The number of trans people murdered annually has nearly doubled in recent years. In 2023, there were at least 35 homicides of transgender or gender-expansive people, 80% of which were with a firearm. And even more generally, trans people face higher risks of intimate partner violence, property crime and sexual assault.
The only consistent connection between trans people and violence is that trans people are disproportionately on the receiving end. They are not behind the trigger; they are the ones most often staring down the barrel.
The weaponization of trans identity does not begin or end with shootings. Most recently, MAGA leaders have turned their focus to trans athletes. The Trump administration has pledged to withdraw federal funding from universities that allow trans athletes to compete in collegiate sports. The rhetoric suggests a widespread issue, that thousands of trans athletes are flooding women’s sports. The truth? Fewer than 0.002% of college athletes are trans.
Want more sharp takes on politics? Sign up for our free newsletter, Standing Room Only, written by Amanda Marcotte, now also a weekly show on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
This obsession is not new. During the 2024 election cycle, the Trump campaign and Republican groups spent more than $222 million on anti-trans ads. Hundreds of millions of dollars were poured into vilifying a community that makes up less than 1% of the U.S. population. The formula is simple: Take a single trans person, or a handful of trans people, and inflate their existence into a supposed national crisis that threatens to silence the very existence of an entire community, even in terms of something as basic and necessary as where a person can use the bathroom.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., introduced a bill to ban transgender women from using bathrooms that don’t correspond with their sex assigned at birth — and she conflated fears of rape and sexual abuse as justification for this legislative pursuit. Mace’s distorted reality does not consider the facts about bathroom bills. They don’t keep anyone safe. In fact, they actually lead to higher rates of harassment and violence against trans people.
That energy — not to mention that money — could have gone toward proven solutions to prevent violence. Instead, it continues to be funneled into fearmongering and scapegoating that does nothing for community safety. Valuable time and resources are being poured into an anti-trans war that punishes people for existing. Instead of solving real issues, elected leaders manufacture a trans crisis that they then spend countless hours and dollars trying to resolve. The real resolution is to focus on the weapons of war and the conditions present in mass shootings, rather than obsessing over a group of people who have nothing to do with the culture of violence these elected leaders continue to ignore.
In place of pushing political propaganda, conservatives should look at gun ownership itself. Mass shootings have risen steadily in the U.S. for years, and so has gun ownership. That is not a coincidence. According to data from the Small Arms Survey, the U.S. has more civilian-owned guns than people — about 120 firearms for every 100 residents. No other country comes close.
At the same time, GOP lawmakers have moved in the opposite direction of evidence-based prevention. In January and February alone, nearly 30 Republican-backed bills were introduced to weaken gun legislation at the federal level. While most developed nations have responded to mass shootings with stronger restrictions, the U.S. has only loosened access.
We need your help to stay independent
Every public health expert who studies the issue agrees: More guns mean more gun violence. The American Public Health Association has repeatedly called firearm violence a public health crisis. Yet Republicans have doubled down on expanding access to weapons while spending enormous political capital vilifying marginalized groups.
There are evidence-based ways to reduce gun violence. Expanding access to mental health care. Funding local community intervention programs that interrupt cycles of violence before they escalate. Passing “red flag” laws that allow courts to temporarily remove firearms from people who pose a danger to themselves or others. Enforcing safe storage laws that keep children from accessing guns in their homes.
These are not radical ideas. They are policies already working in states across the country. They save lives — but they require politicians willing to confront the real cause of mass shootings. Instead, conservatives continue to distract the public with attacks on trans people. Every time leaders make and amplify these false and dangerous connections, they add fuel to the fire of harassment, discrimination and violence faced by trans communities.
The Annunciation school shooting is tragic, disgusting and heartbreaking. But the cause was not trans identity. It was a gun in the hands of a person with extremist, far-right views and a history of instability.
As long as the national conversation remains focused on trans scapegoats rather than real solutions, gun violence will continue to be a uniquely American sickness — and the trans community will continue to bear the brunt of unwarranted hate simply for existing.
