Parts of the Irish media have been criticised for calling a male mass-shooter, who took the lives of nine people, injuring over two dozen others, “she” despite the fact that he was a man.
CEO of The Countess, Laoise de Brún BL, claimed that despite the death toll from the deadly attack, the shooter’s “trans identity trumps all”.
The shooter, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, was reported as being female in the wake of the deadly attack which rocked the small town of Tumblar Ridge, British Columbia, yesterday.
Van Rootselaar also died during the incident, with local law enforcement saying this was by his own hand.
Van Rootselaar is reported to have begun self-identifying as female between three and six years ago, and was detained by mental health services on numerous occasions, according to Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald, commander of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in British Columbia.
“Police had attended that (family) residence on multiple occasions over the past several years, dealing with concerns of mental health with respect to our suspect,” he said.
Among the dead is 12-year-old Kylie May Smith
Kylie May Smith, RIP.
Although initial reports suggested that the shooter may have been female, it has now been confirmed that he was, in fact, male, although the national broadcaster, among others, has persisted in referring to him as “she”.
de Brún BL, criticised the media coverage of the tragedy, saying, “Gender dysphoria is never a singular diagnosis and young people who profess to want to be the opposite sex typically are very unwell mentally alongside the dysphoria.”
She cited a Danish study from 2023, saying this had “found that people who were trans identified had five times the rates of psychiatric illness than non-trans” population.
“They are often autistic, which leads to black and white thinking and fixation,” she said.
Abel Mwansa, RIP, whose father said he “loved going to school”.
“If you then take this population and feed them the narrative that they are both special and different, transphobia is everywhere, and their happiness depends on ‘passing’ even the strapping six foot 17 year old male with access to rifles, grievance and pumped full of hormones, what is the likely outcome?” she asked, referring to Van Rootselaar online expression that he wished to be “smol” sic [small] like the depictions of women and girls in Japanese anime cartoons.
“RTÉ, as supplicant to the cult as ever, has reported the story using female pronouns”, said de Brún, taking aim at local police, who described the shooter as a “gun person” soon after the events unfolded, calling the term “nonsense”.
“Even after a rampage that has almost 40 casualties, 10 dead, including family, the murderer’s trans identity trumps all,” she said.