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Even murderers don't deserve to be misgendered

Even murderers don't deserve to be misgendered

There was a horrific mass shooting in Minnesota. We still can't give conservatives an inch on this issue.

Alex Galbraith
August 28, 2025

The news, in brief …

Minneapolis school shooting kills 2 children, injures 17: “These kids were literally praying”
The shooter fired through the windows of a Catholic school’s church during morning Mass. Read more.
Fox News’ Gowdy calls for gun control after Minnesota Catholic school shooting
Following the shooting, multiple hosts at the conservative network wondered if the time had come for stricter laws. Read more.
CDC Director Monarez out after less than a month on the job
She was followed out the door by several other top-level CDC officials. Read more.
DC man who threw sandwich at federal agent avoids felony indictment
A grand jury in the capital refused to indict. Read more.
Iowa Democrat wins deep pro-Trump district to break GOP supermajority: “A flash warning to the GOP”
Democrat Catelin Drey won an upset victory in a district Donald Trump carried by 23 points. Read more.
She pushed to overturn Trump’s loss in 2020. Now she’ll help oversee U.S. election security
Heather Honey has been appointed to a senior position in the Department of Homeland Security. Read more.
Watters says Fox News shapes Trump’s agenda in Cracker Barrel victory lap
Watters said Trump only threw in against the restaurant because of his network. Read more.

Make me smarter …

Fox host offers bizarre response to network’s video debunking Trump

“Who’s telling the truth?”: Fox plays proof Trump lied and then asks viewers to decide. Read more.

Zero Tolerance

On Wednesday, it was Minneapolis’ turn to suffer the United States’ peculiar tragedy.

Early reports on the shooting at Annunciation Catholic School, which left 2 children dead and 17 people injured, indicate that suspected shooter Robin Westman was transgender. Police shared that she died at the scene of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The GOP responded to this information with the same play they use whenever a transgender person is suspected of a crime (or ascends to the halls of Congress): taking every opportunity to point out that they don’t believe Westman’s gender identity is legitimate.

“The shooter has been identified as Robin Westman, a male born as Robert Westman,” FBI Director Kash Patel shared on X.

“Do you need more proof pushing transgender ideology on children is causing mental illness?” South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace asked in response.

Fox News host Kennedy managed to separate Westman’s gender identity from the crime while arguing that transgender people should be allowed to own guns for protection. She still misgendered Westman during that spirited defense of the Second Amendment for all Americans.

“This person was mentally ill,” she said on “The Five.” “It’s not the trans part; it’s the part that he was absolutely completely evil.”

Civil rights attorney Damon Hewitt on how Trump's DOJ created "an invitation to discrimination"

"The administration's aim here is to destroy the foundation of civil rights protections in this country"

The crime Westman is accused of is horrific. Their gender identity does not change that fact. Still, these are the situations where anyone who believes in protecting the rights of minority groups can’t afford to give an inch. Any leniency on the demand that transgender people be identified in the manner of their choosing will quickly spread.

It’s the same logic that underpins constitutional promises like the right to defend yourself in court. We know that some people are guilty. Occasionally, obviously so. If you were to concede that these people do not deserve their day in court, then powerful people could merely declare everyone they want to see jailed as similarly guilty. Since they’re guilty, there’s no need to prove it. Ipso facto, QED.

We don’t need to imagine a world where this sort of circular logic gets used to harm minority groups. The Trump administration has been using it for months to argue that people in the country illegally have no right to a trial. They’ve regularly deported people they suspect of being undocumented immigrants without a trial that might prove their legal residency. We know that American citizens and other legal residents have been caught up in the rush to inflict suffering.

New rules for radical resistance in the accelerated Age of Trump

Donald Trump is acting above the law — and the opposition can no longer cower in the corner

It helps to picture the GOP as the proverbial, overall-wearing mouse looking for a little snack. If you let them deport undocumented immigrants without trial, they will expatriate anyone they want. If you let them unleash the Marines in response to protests, they’ll push to take over cities. If you extend this bit of undeserved grace to them one time, they’ll soon be rocking out of a hole in the wall with the police in tow, calling you a slur and demanding your arrest.

What do you think? Is the juice worth the squeeze in this particular fight? Are slippery slope arguments real, but only when we’re talking about fascists? Click the speech bubble icon at the top of this email and sound off in the comments.