So far we only know bits and pieces about the strange and isolated life of Robert Lewis Dear, the alleged shooter who murdered three people and injured many others after holing up in a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic yesterday afternoon.
We know that he had numerous run-ins with the law and with his neighbors, that he was accused in the past of domestic violence, that he lived in a small shack in the woods.
While Dear didn’t leave behind a manifesto, the fact that he targeted Planned Parenthood seems to be a rather large clue as to his motivations. Indeed, the mayor of Colorado Springs told reporters that they could make “inferences” about Dear’s motivations “from where [the shootings] took place.” Meanwhile, NBC is reporting that Dear talked about abortion after he was arrested, making reference to “baby parts,” according to NBC’s law enforcement sources.
Apparently embarrassed by the actions of yet another white male terrorist, some right-wingers are trumpeting a bizarre claim: that Dear is a trans woman.
The claim seems to have originated with the blog Gateway Pundit, which posted voter registration information for Dear that labeled the alleged shooter as “female.”
To Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoft, this isn’t just an innocent mistake on the part of some government clerk; it’s proof that Dear “Identifies as [a] Woman.”
Naturally, others picked up on the bizarre claim. Rich Hoffman, who blogs as Overmanwarrior, treated this “news” as a giant “gotcha.”
Guess what, Obama, MSNBC, CNN, Hillary Clinton and all the rest of the knuckle dragging losers of progressive politics? They thought they finally had a white middle-aged Republican man who committed a terrorist act—so that they could propose more gun control.
Never mind that most of America’s terrorists are in fact white men.
Sadly for them, the shooter—Robert Lewis Dear—the lunatic who shot up a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic on November 27th 2015 appears to be a cross-gender loving pervert who shared much more with Obama’s LBGT community than the NRA loving American traditionalists.
Never mind that the only political activism anyone says they’ve seen Dear ever engaging in was handing out anti-Obama leaflets.
According to early reports from The Gateway Pundit shown below indicate Robert Lewis Dear identified as a woman, not as the man that he is. Bet you won’t hear that on the news networks.
Probably because it’s not true.
Dear sounds like a cast member of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. That would explain his appearance.
Apparently Hoffman has never actually seen Rocky Horror.
Hoffman continued on — and on:
This is just further proof that liberals make most of the problems in our society. They feed anger toward Planned Parenthood with immoral justifications then they create a loose society full of perverts, peeping Toms, and losers who are men who think they are women and women who want to be men. USA Today almost had an orgasm when they saw the pictures of the suspect, but quickly put on the brakes once the stories of this idiot became clear. They reported that the motive was unclear so the hard reporting will probably die now that Robert Lewis Dear has turned out to be a Bruce Jenner clone—a woman in a man’s body. Perhaps Dear was jealous that real woman were able to get abortions for casual sex while he was not able to commit such a vile crime—so he went on a shooting spree. That conclusion is just as valid as Obama’s early comments regarding the push to use gun control as a way to keep more idiots like this loser free to peek in our windows all in the name of a more “progressive” society of morally loose punks and general depraved nut cases. Gun control laws obviously didn’t work with this confused person. Robert Lewis Dear was a Obama kind of guy—a bewildered mess who didn’t know what he was.
Naturally, Hoffman isn’t the only one crying “gotcha.” On Twitter, right-wingers are spreading the “news” of Dear’s imaginary status as a trans woman; they sound positively giddy.
https://twitter.com/AuroraStargazer/status/670676592809545729
Democrat. Trans. BOOM!https://t.co/nVZkgqUwu4
— MelDoyle (@meldoyle9) November 28, 2015
https://twitter.com/ThomasWictor/status/670535763575087104
Official records show shooter identified as a female! A trans-terrorist?… https://t.co/yRs0AuKLnq
— Family Policy WV (@FamilyPolicyWV) November 28, 2015
https://twitter.com/GotharReichart/status/670722140723945472
https://twitter.com/US395/status/670651383301951488
https://twitter.com/Gregory__Adams/status/670640296963743744
Naturally, some couldn’t keep themselves from indulging in transphobic jokes:
The runner up for Caitlyn's Trans-ESPY award did not take the snub well. #PlannedParenthood https://t.co/E3kJPc3a47
— HaleStorm (@RealTJHale) November 28, 2015
@THEREBELTV According to his voter reg Robert Lewis Dear identifies as woman.
"She ain't perfect she's my brother"— Jones (@Sanerfpta) November 28, 2015
A man who thinks he's a she⏩ RT @exposeliberals: Who is Robert Lewis Dear? https://t.co/HoAz921RN0 #tcot #tlot #tgdn https://t.co/UNIXDNY2FL
— Patty 🌻🇺🇸🌵 (@littlebytesnews) November 28, 2015
#trans #PPShooter MO: Identifies as #FEMALE,So,HeWantedAbortion &PP WouldNot GiveHimOne? #LGBT #celebrities #TMZ https://t.co/SMP1YR828z
— sara hall (@sarahal15586515) November 28, 2015
Do any of these people actually believe that Dear is a trans woman, or are they deliberately spreading disinformation to amuse themselves and muddy the real issues?
I suspect that it is largely the latter. Either way, it is not a shining moment for them.
H/T — Thanks to yutolia, who tipped me off to this development in the comments here.
I sincerely apologize for offending anyone. I didn’t understand this was a sort of private gathering I should not react to in text. It wasn’t my intent to cause an impression of insult, but to support the idea that the story was obviously false. I have no criticism against others for misunderstanding what I (unwittingly) did not make clear, or expressed poorly. But I am not your enemy. No one checked my blog to see what my politics are, what kind of things I publish, or how my life is spent. You made an assumption based on two lines, hit back blindly, and it was indeed hurtful to me, so all who have been calling me a bigot and a troll can celebrate your victory in doing that. You might have taken the opportunity to educate me further and/or improved my level of sensitivity (thanks, erica), but I guess not everyone is considered worth the effort. I do try to treat even bigots (ESPECIALLY bigots) with understanding, kale. Wars don’t work as well as compassion, in my experience.
I won’t waste any more of your time trying to bridge this gap. I’m sorry we could not achieve a useful understanding of each other’s views. I still appreciate being made aware this bogus story is out there.
I don’t use that acronym, @Fnoicby, and the radical fauxminist, in enforcing the same tired shit as MRAssholes and white Christian fundamentalists and calling it “feminism” claims to be a feminist but doesn’t seem to bother with the radical notion that women are people.
I don’t use that acronym, because there’s nothing feminist about that set. You can’t paint patriarchy gold and call it gold…it’s still patriarchy.
So…you want to talk about actual radical feminism? That’s the notion that all women are people and patriarchy needs to be destroyed. Pointing out that the radfaux enforces the same things as the MRAsshole (Cathy Brennan and JacKKK Barnes both have ties to far-right forced-birther org Pacific Justice Institute, for example) is pointing out a truth that may not be very palatable, but the endgame for both Ms. Brennan and Mr. Barnes is my annihilation.
That’s why radical fauxminists came up. You don’t want to deal with the dirty reality of the leaders of that movement, from Elizabeth Hungerford (who was a Young Republican back in college and all) to Cathy Brennan (supporting fecking forced-birthers), maybe we need to circle our wagons as radical feminists to address the problem that we’ve been infltrated by people who are claiming our mantle so as to harm other women.
Because I’m pretty sure nobody who cooperates with forced-birthers is all that feminist. It’s “My Body, My Choice”, not “My Body, Cathy Brennan’s Choice.” But, hey, if you really believe being complicit with the far-right is feminist, I can’t wait for a world in which Greg Abbott and Marco Rubio try to occupy that moral high ground.
There’s nothing feminist about radical fauxminism. There’s nothing feminist about dominion over women’s bodies. There’s nothing feminist about working actively to harm other women.
Very bad not-pology. I will now change my stance to “shut up, Woody”.
Goes to show how much they know about transition, you have to take quite a few difficult steps before they will change your IDs from your birth gender to your actual gender. They don’t just let anyone change their IDs, or birth certificates. Its a complicated process, you have to prove yourself, it’s not like you’re buying a gun, they need to make sure you’re mentally stable enough to change your M to F.
Dhag85
♥️Awwww!!♥️ Soooo cuuuute!!
@Invisible Mikey Look, I’m going to assume you’re posting in good faith for now because you seem a little more sincere/subtle than most trolls, just sort of clueless, so here’s the thing: when the subject under discussion is trans women, it’s pretty rude to come in with a comment about how this person can’t be a woman because they’re too tall, which is… only sort of applicable to birth-assignment gender, and not applicable at all to gender identity. I understand that you were trying to say “Yeah, I don’t think Dear is a woman either”, but you either completely skipped the context or don’t really understand what being trans means.
That’s why people reacted badly, not because this is a private space you need to know the secret passwords to or because we’re all evil meanies who go around being mean to outsiders for kicks. (Also, I’m sorry, but I’m not going to do in-depth research on everyone I run into online before replying to them. Come on.)
Perhaps it wasn’t “a private gathering” and more of the fact that you said something really gross and then got whiny when we took offense.
I’m glad your intention wasn’t to insult those among us who are trans. But you did, and you’re making it very clear you don’t want to apologize for your transmisogyny.
Intention isn’t magical, Mikey. You can intend to not step on my foot, but it can still happen. When it does, you back off and apologize, not continue to step on my foot and get whiny when I don’t politely ask you to step the fuck off.
And boy did you express that poorly. You could have just come in here, condemned the false information, and left without dropping your transmisogyny all over the place.
Instead, you made a gross transphobic comment, and on an article that centers around people advocating for violence against trans people.
Why should any of that matter? You made a transphobic comment, you were called out for it. Hell, I’m well-known in this little community, and had I said what you had said, I would have gotten the same fucking treatment, and rightfully so.
We’re not going to waste time double checking to see if you pass some sort of “good person” political test, we’re going to call you out on that shit as soon as we see it, reputation be damned. What you have done in the past is no excuse and no “free pass” for what you did here.
It’s not our job to educate you. It’s not our job to tell you “hey, transwomen deserve to be treated like people!” and to sit you down and tell you exactly why what you said was gross. You’re literally one of the thousands of people that internet-visible transpeople have to deal with on a regular basis who expect transpeople to give them all the sordid details of their life and teach them everything.
However, we did try to. We told you “Hey, this is transphobic/misogynistic because of x, y, and z, could you not?” and you drop this tone policing bullshit in response.
So, no, you’re not going to get “educated”. Not because we don’t want to teach you, but because you obviously don’t want to learn. You’d rather martyr yourself on the hill of Tone Policing instead of listen to what people have to say. You doubled down, whined that we were mean to you, and now you’re flouncing. Good fucking riddance then.
“I’m sorry you couldn’t compromise with me and just let me say really gross transphobic stuff and treated my fee-fees really gently, and then I would have pretended to listen to what you have to say.”
Also: brain bleach cats.
http://45.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lpa08zJ3qA1qe8xq0o1_400.gif
Now for an entirely different kind of brain bleach. Daesh is known for being pretty good at online recruiting. So, just this once, 4chan is doing A Good Thing — very much in the WHTM tradition of mocking the horrid-terrifying-gnarly scumbags of the world.
Photoshopping …terrorists become rubber duckies, guns become toilet brushes.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/28/isis-fighters-rubber-ducks-reddit-4chan
Oh FFS, didn’t we even have a Mikey ages ago? Who, iirc, lived RIGHT ON THE BEACH? I can’t even with this shit.
I called it last night about blaming us crazies, I’m used to being implicitly blamed for violence, I did not see this one coming though. Fuck, is it “blame any marginalized people we can name” day? Cuz I’d have sworn that that was every day and today was “give a tortoise a bath” day! (Is it wrong that I think he’s adorable when he shits? His little head goes alllll the way up and his back legs go flat and it’s just the cutest thing…and then I get to clean up after him, less cute that part)
@Invisible Woody
You could have supported the idea that this story is false without saying a bunch of stupid transphobic and ableist bullshit. Did you ever think of that? Of course you didn’t.
@Fruitloopsie
🙂
@Paradoxical Intention
I was going to say that but now I don’t have to. 😉
@erica, ascendant – since when is Cathy Brennan a “leader” in the radical feminist movement? That you say this as if she is some kind of widely known and respected radfem leader is really problematic to me. I would guess she’s far more familiar to the transgender community than she is to radfems. Look, I don’t know what you meant by “radical fauxminist” and perhaps I misinterpreted – but taken along with the subsequent comment by someone else it seems a bit much to me – why are we looking for secret feminists behind the scenes? Women, as usual, are easy targets.
Just putting this here.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZlXdw8gML8&w=560&h=315%5D
Replace “helped write that joke” with “the shooter is trans” and “ego” with “political zeal”.
I actually did take a look at IM’s blog, but… it doesn’t really change much, since liberals aren’t all perfect people who are immune to being bigots or saying bigoted things.
Or, apparently, flouncing.
Also: hi! I am returned! *wavewave*
Andiexist
:waves:
@kale:
This. So this. It reminds me of the people who attempt to disown the nazis by claiming that they were all LGBT.
@dhag
Yeah, I meant Lisa. If Fingie’s the cat in your icon, I can see the resemblance between him and Lisa, but I swear, those other two are long-lost twins.
(Also comparing how cats look is much more fun than thinking about the topic of this post.)
@Hyatt
Here’s the twist though. THIS is Fingie’s (late) brother, Messi:
http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo188/dhag85/669_zpsqghgmhb6.jpg
And their mother, Frida:
http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo188/dhag85/682_zpsa801swsf.jpg
http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo188/dhag85/508_zpswnwdvm1b.jpg
Their father is a deadbeat neighbor cat. :p
@Fnoicby Because Transexclusionary Radial Feminists spew just as much hatred and bile at trans women as right wingers?
Not all radical feminists are Transexclusionary of course, I don’t mean to imply that.
Crappy crap pic of our newest resident —
http://oi68.tinypic.com/r2s41v.jpg
@Argenti
Interesting face! 🙂
It’s really fucking hard to take a photo of a mostly black calico under basement lighting without a flash, but that thing under her is one of those waterbed pads from the 80s, we have to fold it over itself to keep her claws from going into our skin. But it’s okay, because she’s not attacking or anything, she just sees having hands on her as reason to get all “I make the bread!” The cuteness of kneading is directly proportional to the pain caused, hence the padding (and why I’m getting Soft Paws on her as soon as I find the damned clippers)
It’s all too easy to draw parallels between TERFs and the new right, but I’ve seen precious few examples of them actually working together. But that’s just me.