Tuesday of last week saw the massacre of eight people, including several children, in Canada. The lack of clarity in what had happened began with the police.
A police active alert said “the suspect was described ‘as female in a dress with brown hair’” while a later briefing “referred to the suspect as a ‘gunperson in a dress’…”
Despite reasonable suspicions about the shooter’s sex, The Irish Times reported on Wednesday that “a woman opened fire at a high school in western Canada”. The Examiner said the Canadian police had identified Jesse Van Rootselaar “who had prior mental health calls to her home”.
A day later the Irish Daily Mirror and Irish Daily Star both said “authorities said the shooter was a brunette woman in a dress”. The Irish Daily Mail reported a “transgender shooter” who was born male. Reporting that a “‘Female’ school shooter kills 8”, The Irish Sun added he was “someone cops initially described as ‘female’” and that he’d been born male.
“We identified the suspect as they chose to be identified in public and on social media,” said a Canadian police deputy commissioner when asked if it was being hidden that the killer was transgender. “I can say that Jesse was born as a biological male who approximately…six years ago began to transition to female and identified as female both socially and publicly”.
However, two days after the murders, and despite the police explanation of his sex, both RTÉ and The Irish Independent were still using female pronouns for “an 18-year-old woman with mental health issues” who killed his mother, brother and six others and injured 25 others before turning the gun on himself.
By contrast, The Telegraph’s report on the same day used male pronouns to describe the 6-foot-tall young man with a history of mental health issues, drug use, fondness for guns, as well as a desire to be a petite woman. The UK Times carried quotes from his mother about “my oldest son Jesse Strang”.
By Saturday, The Irish Independent carried a report which referred to his “gender identity” with female pronouns yet quoted a local resident who called the shooter “he”. It took columnist Brenda Power in the Sunday Independent to describe him clearly as the man he was, pointing out that.
“Human beings cannot change sex, and indulging confused children in the belief that they can do so is arguably abusive.”
A day earlier, 12 out of 14 Irish MEPs voted for a European Parliament recommendation which includes “the full recognition of transwomen [men] as women”.
