Tyler Robinson: Guns, Gaming, and Gay
Contrary to what the Mormon governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, has said, there’s not much in the information filed against Tyler Robinson that substantiates his claim that Tyler Robinson is a lefty.
Unless there’s more evidence of partisanship elsewhere, he seems to have coded Robinson’s sexuality onto political partisanship.
It is true that he is in a romantic relationship with his transitioning roommate. That is stated explicitly in the charging documents, and Robinson calls the roommate, “love.”
I am still ok my love,
[snip]
you are all I worry about love
Here’s what Robinson told the roommate (and his parents) about his motive:
I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.
And here’s what he said about the engravings on the bullets:
remember how I was engraving bullets? The fuckin messages are mostly a big meme, if I see “notices bulge uwu” on fox new I might have a stroke alright im gonna have to leave it, that really fucking sucks. …
And that’s about it.
Utah is basing its death penalty bid on an aggravated murder charge. See Adam Klasfeld for reasons that may not stick (as several of the charges against Luigi Mangione did not, per a judge’s ruling today).
Is there more of Robinson’s relationship history known to say definitely that he is gay? Did Robinson self identify as gay? He may be gay but just being in love with a trans woman does not automatically mean you are gay.
A Ken Klippenstein story quotes a friend saying he’s bi.
Ok. Still seems like an unknown until we hear from Robinson what he considers himself to be. It’s disgusting and telling that the extreme Right is making this an issue in the way they are. But since ‘trans murderers!!’ were the topic of Kirk’s gaslighting that day it’s seems there was already coordinated efforts afoot among the extreme Right to escalate their trans boogeymen wrong bathroom users into mass murders.
Personally, I was in love with someone who transitioned. It’s a very scary world out there for the trans person you love. My experience was way back before ‘trans’ became a household word so it’s much, much worse now. There’s a real and visceral and helpless fear you feel everyday for the one you love. I can imagine it’s a trillion times worse now that the extreme Right has coordinated to make trans people’s regular, going to work/buying milk lives as dangerous as possible. I hear this in Robinson’s words and in his pet name for her, “love.”
Robinson is a disturbed guy and warped by some thing/s. But the pressing fear he felt for his ‘love’ surely warped him too. If he gets a chance to speak to this at his trial I don’t think it’s a sure thing a jury will sentence him to death.
I think it is entirely possible that motive was entirely personal–love for a trans person and (although I had not seen this mentioned before)his own possible bisexuality. He could very well be devout, strongly support 2A (there’s a pic I saw of him next to some enormous weapon that would be excessive for shooting mastodons, hate govt spending, all kinds of things. Besides, of course, the Log Cabin Republicans (Bessent is gay, right? Does that make him a lib?).
Thanks, for that info, Marcy.
Exclusive: Leaked Messages from Charlie Kirk Assassin
Accused shooter’s “politics” is not what government and media say
https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/exclusive-leaked-messages-from-charlie
Ken Klippenstein Sep 16, 2025
I think this is the most important part of Marcy’s post:
Apparently Cox has never heard of the Log Cabin Republicans. Being LGBTQ+ does not immediately mean being a DFH by definition. Like every other human being, their political views run the gamut.
Yes, Log Cabin’ers are LGBTQA+, the difference is bewtwen them and Democrat LGBTQA+ is that the Log Cabin’ner will put money before who they are as a human being.
Cox also cited the parents’ opinions about Robinson’s move away from their “ideology”. The father, apparently, went full MAGA, so it probably meant Robinson just didn’t agree with them. Apparently there is no ideology to the right of MAGA, ergo….
See also: Peter Thiel
Peter Thiel is nothing special. He’s typical for a Log Cabin’er. They’re all the same and they also share the Republican guns/ bigotry / hate culture. Ironlically, Log Cabin’ers not self-loathing like the closet cases in the Republian party. I speaking to you Miss Lindsey and Moses Mike.
Of course that’s what they’re going to do. Even if Robinson was the head of the NRA and a pastor of a Conservative Christian mega church they’d say his trips to Starbucks make him a secret lefty. Any excuse to make him a secret lefty.
Could ‘my love’ be irony? Seems to be as much a possible as anything else at this stage.
I often call people ‘darling’ but then so do lots of Brits. Sometimes ironically.
If Robinson were British, you might have a point but this is Utah and a cigar is just a cigar.
Irony and in-group language though is universal. Look at how the use of Bella Ciao was misheard as left. You needed more info than the plain text to get why that was used. Maybe it is the same here.
I need to stay away from social media, but the tweets I’m seeing calling B.S. on the text exchanges between Robinson and his roommate do seem odd. Do 20-somethings write texts like that? Using terms like “vehicle” and “circle back”? Maybe Mormon 20-somethings do.
My father was a electrical distribution engineer and his children learned about Dayton Power and Light. His father is a police officer and a hunter.
Vehicle is a police term and most animals “circle back”.
Im trans and Im still not seeing the proof that the roommate was trans outside of conservative accusations. twiggs once said in a 4chan post that they were bi mtf, but that was years ago and doesn’t have any online identifiers that they would be one of us.
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Robinson’s partner was a very frequent commenter in the 4tran subreddit. However, on September 13th, Twiggs’ profile was mostly scrubbed and the 4tran subreddit was made private. Archived conversations make clear that Twiggs’ account had commented on several threads there. One other observer noted that Twiggs’ name on another account has changed from Lance to a more feminine one.
Please cite or link a source supporting this claim. That’s a standard expectation in this community — observations of evidence require supporting documentation.
Please understand that a comment like yours could be seen as yet another effort to persuade the public this is about something other than a young man acting out violently with a gun.
Welcome to emptywheel.
As a trans femme who’s online a lot, that’s pretty thin evidence even if true. Especially with reddit as the platform.
Semi-off topic, but also not…
I had posted a while back that I was torn about whether I, as a transwoman, would attend my high school reunion in a few weeks in rural Texas. (And I was asked to give an update when I had gone/made a decision.)
Up until last week, I was leaning towards going, due to the efforts that the organizer was putting into making sure that I felt safe. But after the Charlie Kirk shooting and how it has amplified the anti-trans rhetoric, my wife asked me not to attend. So I won’t.
Let me tell you, it’s been a while since the trans community felt safe, but it’s feeling real precarious out there right now. You know it’s bad when you look back fondly on the “good ole days” of 2006, when no one much liked us, but they also mostly didn’t know we existed.
Yeah, a trans woman I follow on Bluesky talked about what a shitty thing that was for a boyfriend to do.
I don’t understand how the partner will survive, not least bc I assume they’ll be physically targeted.
The enormity of exploding your partner’s (and your family’s) life, along with the victim and his family, shows a sociopathic disregard for the effects your actions have on others, including those you claim to love. It’s a cognitive disconnect of massive proportions, and it clashes terminally with the “my Love” sentiment he posted. Has he been tripping? Is he that thick in the top?
If the prosecution doesn’t see that as indicative of collusion-cum-obfuscation I’ll be surprised, especially with the trans-vengeance-meat being tossed into the cages by Trump and Vance themselves.
My overriding fear right now is that this is the pinch point Project 2025 has been hoping for, when they say their govt takeover will be non-violent if the left lets it be so. That’s always been a statement of threat, and this kind of trigger event is likely what they’ve been hoping for.
I’m dismayed and angry that you’re probably right in the decision you made to not attend. You should be able to feel safe in this country, especially among adults who you grew up with. But you can’t. Charlie Kirk’s killing is being used to rile up even more hatred, especially against transgender people, and to normalize and mainstream many of the hateful bigoted things he repeatedly said.
But this morning I heard this story from a republican-leaning city near San Diego:
https://www.kpbs.org/news/education/2025/09/15/in-escondido-a-school-board-member-changes-her-name-but-not-her-politics
Yes she’s still a republican. And some people from her church and her local republican party who knew her for decades turned on her and called her an abomination. But a majority of people came out to the next school board meeting to support her and denounce the attacks she faced the previous board meeting. Speakers didn’t like the hate speech, and didn’t want their children to learn that hate in school. And, she’s going to run for reelection using her old posters with “Bill” crossed out and replaced by “Carol”.
Too little change, too slow change, in too few places. Too many steps backward, too. But when less vulnerable, more privileged, already known & connected people can come out as transgender and be seen and accepted by their community, I think that moves the needle in the right direction. I have hope for the future in at least many communities: hate doesn’t always win.
The same occurs with Caitlyn Jenner. Everything is copacetic in Rwing world, until she breaks with Trump on a topic. Then the gloves are off at Fox News comments. Caitlyn becomes Bruce and disparaging comments follow. In Rwing world, you give to get along – you must compromise and contribute to relationships to ensure they are successful and harmonious.
Caitlyn Jenner is the epitome of a Log Cabin’er. She puts money (wants to pay less taxes) over who she is as a human being. It would not surprise me in the least bit to learn that she spouts racist and bigoted comments with friends.
Southpark lampooned it best, “Ahh, relax, guy.”
https://youtu.be/Q1xR3Xidq84
But the scarier real life version quote was from Kevin Roberts.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/04/leader-of-the-pro-trump-project-2025-suggests-there-will-be-a-new-american-revolution-00166583
Their behavior and actions are very reminiscent of domestic abusers.
At least from the Information filing, the shooter shows no remorse for having killed Kirk.
As to the mother coming from the conservative religious background, i can see why she equates, in her mind, deviation from the traditional family as becoming leftist. But the parents cared enough for the son to get him to turn himself in while, at the same time, protecting him.
They’re not paying for a lawyer (tho on a DP case I would generally trust PDs).
In my mind the parents are the ones that deviated from one of the “best” ideas in the KJV, if parents and the church actually interpret it correctly.
Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
I have come to interpret this verse as the parents understanding their child’s proclivities and basing the rearing of that child on that understanding. Some sects choose it as a “forcing” mechanism for children to conform to the beliefs that society has enforced upon them. Forcing a square peg into a round hole ends up breaking something and that appears to be the case to me.
As to the seeming callousness of the act, I find nothing out of the ordinary from those that have been indoctrinated in the hunting culture. In fact I had my big ears listening to a conversation between two young men at the University yesterday. “…went to the game on Saturday, then church on Sunday morning…Monday afternoon we went shooting…..so and so hit a prairie dog at 250 yds…felt like Chris Kyle….”
My armchair psychology analysis is his parents, probably his father and grandfather were, shall we say, less than happy with the direction their son was heading in. Would they have told him he was going to hell? I wouldn’t be surprised. He knew about Charlie Kirk, was he someone his father might have put forward as a role model? He used his grandfather’s rifle. I see it as a demented way to kill his father. The kind of trauma you experience when the world order you have been indoctrinated in your entire life blows up. Please do not interpret this as excusing him in any way. What he did was unforgivable, but it could be understandable.
My take is the parents turned him in to save themselves from prosecution for harboring etc. Also to avoid being found legally liable for their son’s actions since they likely taught and facilitated their son’s gun use and knowledge. Maybe they bought him the gun he used? IDK obviously.
He’s 22, so it would be harder to charge *them*.
Left wing ideology? Someone should ask Governor Cox whether he knows if Tyler Robinson is in favor of tax cuts, whether he knows if Tyler Robinson is against abortion, whether he knows if Tyler Robinson is in favor of deporting “illegal” immigrants, whether he knows if Tyler Robinson is in favor”drill baby drill”, whether he knows if Tyler Robinson is in favor of NATO.
As far the right is concerned, Tyler Robinson is “no true Scotsman”.
I’m not sure whether polygamy is considered a conservative or liberal practice by Utahns. I understand that it is technically illegal, but it was historically approved by LDS and Mormon founder, Joseph Smith. So, if adhering to a religion is considered conservative, then it seems reasonable to think that at least some Utahns think of polygamy as conservative.
Also, interestingly, Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were shot and killed by members of an angry mob. Hyrum was shot in the face.
I mention these two things because I’m wondering about the impact that religious education might have on a common frame of reference and language. And if or how that might influence thoughts and choices.
It’s the fundamentalists who want polygamy (and child brides). The main LDS is still officially against it.
Regular LDS folks used to have a label for those guys. They called them “pligs.”
Polygamy is the reason that Utah was not admitted to the Union until long after there was enough population to bring them in. Once polygamy was dropped by the main LDS church, UT joined the Union. However, as noted above there is the Fundamentalist LDS offshoot based in UT, Northern AZ and Northern Mexico mostly that does insist on continuing polygamy. Think Warren Jeffs.
There were normal marriages (with sex, of course) and spiritual ones intended to ensure the ladies were married since under the early LDS it was necessary for salvation. LDS would also spiritually marry after death for the same reason. I’m not sure that is still continuing.
The decision of the mainstream LDS church to drop polygamy can easily be viewed as a cynical one. Joesph Smith supposedly had a revelation from God that plural marriage was necessary for salvation “if God commands it,” and that revelation was promptly put into the “Doctrine and Covenants,” which is a text inferior only to the Bible and Book of Mormon in the church. D&C 132 is still there in the book.
Given that Utah would not be admitted to the Union as a state unless plural marriage was no longer practiced, Church President Woodruff issued a “manifesto” in September 1890, which is now also in the D&C as “Official Declaration 1”:
“Inasmuch as laws have been enacted by Congress forbidding plural marriages, which laws have been pronounced constitutional by the court of last resort, I hereby declare my intention to submit to those laws, and to use my influence with the members of the Church over which I preside to have them do likewise.”
In other words, it’s not that God says polygamy is wrong or that Joesph Smith was wrong – it’s that the laws of men prohibit it, and we’re going to submit to those.
BTW, I’m not a Mormon. My brother is, and so in an effort to understand, I have become familiar with many of the deeper aspects of LDS teachings. Now, I am damned to hell because I won’t buy it, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles I guess.
Some words of support, brother Snowdog – No religion has the “power” to send you to their version of Hell. That’s reserved for the adherents/believers of that religion. You’re not a Mormon so to you, in effect, there is NO Mormon hell. Breathe easy.
The online issues are only going to get worse. Witness this news report today in Law360.
A chatbot maker with ties to Google was hit with three lawsuits in federal court Monday by the families of minors who blame the companies for their children’s suicide, suicide attempt and exposure to sexually explicit material.
In New York, the parents of a girl say that the platform’s chatbots engaged in “sexually explicit role play” with their daughter even though she had provided her age. When her parents attempted to prevent her from accessing Character.AI, she attempted suicide, their suit says.
In the first lawsuit in Colorado, the parents of a minor claim that despite numerous safeguards they set up on their daughter’s smartphone to prevent her from using Character.AI, she still got access to the chatbot and engaged in sexual conversations with it, including graphic conversations about fetishes.
Ini the second, parents claim that Character.AI engaged in sexually explicit conversations with their daughter, despite her having told the chatbot that she was a child. The parents say the platform did nothing to prevent Juliana from taking her own life in 2023, even though she had told the chatbot of her suicidal thoughts numerous times. The complaint said Character.AI “manipulated, sexually abused, and isolated her via their meticulously designed [large language model] and AI products, leading to her mother finding her dead … on a Wednesday morning in November — when she should have been getting ready for school.”
This isn’t online “radicalization” or gaming, but still.
So he was 17-18 during the pandemic, when much (more) of life moved online.
Don’t kid yourself — Robinson was likely deeply online well before the pandemic because that’s where nearly all America’s boys and young men have been since the rise of popular MMORPG like World of Warcraft in 2004. That’s nearly all of Robinson’s lifetime.
Most American parents over the last 3 decades have simply thought of it as gaming, even those who’ve grown up in it. There hasn’t been adequate public education informing parents and their kids that gaming platforms are a form of social media which can screw with players’ perceptions and beliefs the same way Facebook can screw with teen girls’ self-esteem.
Include “recommender systems” in that can screw with your head critique. The YouTube side bar being an example. The purpose is to keep you channeled once the algorithm fits you into a profile, a lower dimensional you. Then hold onto the web presence attentional direction because it generates cash flow from targeted advertising.
If some regulatory body were to dig into the algorithms do you expect they’d find an orderly and sensible world, or if Trump and Charlie were heavily used by person X feed person X more of the same. There used to be a feature to tell a search engine to not profile you, but to only focus upon your search terms of the moment, but that got dropped. At a guess the algorithms are not friendly to open mindedness. It is almost a cliche that the Internet polarizes, but it does, and some humans are forming the algorithms with narrow goals and limited thought to distant consequences.
Rayne, try a websearch = problem using AI output to train AI programs
Will the tons of money and electricity and Nvidia chips put into AI reach a point where we don’t need real Charlies and Tylers, by reaching a point where it can all be AI generated to keep the ball rolling? Real gaming only needed to train a next generation of drone pilots until AI gets better at that too? Grok that. Elon’s got the biggest machine with the most chips and the biggest electricity bill, but Memphis subsidizes that and provides cooling water.
No. The entire point of social platforms is the society attached to it. AI =/= not society.
Elon and his techbro kindred are using AI to harvest from society. It’s like the model in the movie The Matrix: plug in human bodies to power the system.
re. not kidding myself: Like you, I don’t actually know. I only meant to point out that he was at a pivotal age during the pandemic, which was an incubator if not an accelerant for a lot of people’s (yes) pre-existing habits — including of course unhealthy amounts and/or variants of “screen time”.
I may not know *exactly* what Robinson’s formative years online were like, but I have a 27-year-old son. His first experiences online were playing Neopets circa 2005-2008. By 2010 he was in World of Warcraft moving on to League of Legends by 2012. There were certainly many other games he tried; we had a lot of discussions about gaming content and violence as well as influence operations explicit and implicit — even the role of USDoD in approving certain games with military component.
But I’m not most parents. I know his friends’ parents were pretty clueless in spite of better than average education and income (“They’re just games, how nice they still play together all these years later”). I also know my son has had to step away from gaming with these same friends a number of times over the years because they’ve become increasingly intolerant of LGBTQ+ persons and more obnoxious about women. Gaming platforms have become insular and reinforce right-wing beliefs; this may explain the widening gap political gap between men and women in the US, since MMORPG demographics skew male.
The text messages exchange was posted (DailyKos) and it doesn’t read as if it was written by a 22-year old with one semester of college – full sentences, capitalization used correctly. Kind of weird — it’s certainly possible that he was grammatically attentive while texting, but that is not the ‘usual’ for people in their 20s (or the graduate students I teach). Any thoughts?
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Allison Gill with some thoughts re: those “text messages”:
https://bsky.app/profile/muellershewrote.com/post/3lz527nqxfs2f
September 18, 2025 at 3:06 PM
It’s also been noted that there’s a lot of “cop speak” in those messages, and it really doesn’t sound like a 22-year-old, or anyone else who’s been online for more than a few weeks.
More from Alison Gill:
https://bsky.app/profile/muellershewrote.com/post/3lza74zeh6c2o
September 19, 2025 at 9:12 PM
Asha Rangappa responds:
https[:]//bsky.app/profile/asharangappa.bsky.social/post/3lzahn3clws2o
September 19, 2025 at 11:44 PM