Mick Hartley

Woman kills man. Er, no. Man kills woman. It's so confusing:

A trans-identified male is being investigated by Norwegian authorities for the brutal murder of his partner, a trans-identified female. Initial media reports which had previously identified the suspected killer as a man were altered soon afterwards to describe him as a “woman” despite him being biologically male, with the victim, a biological female, being described as a “man.”

On the evening of November 27, 2023, a 22 year-old female who went by the name Oliver Ravn Rønning was beaten to death with a baseball bat at her apartment in Porsgrunn, which she had just moved into days before with her partner. Rønning is a female who identifies as a man, while her partner is a male who identifies as a woman….

While the murder itself has shaken Norway, the way in which national media has approached the case has left readers confused.

Many news reports have altered language used to refer to both the victim and suspect, or have described the case as one in which a man was allegedly murdered by his girlfriend, obfuscating the sexes of those involved completely.

Østlandsposten referred to the female victim as a “young man” who was said to have been “afraid of his girlfriend, a teenage boy, 18, who wants to be referred to as a woman.” Meanwhile, police prosecutor Odd Skei Kostveit told news outlet Telemarksavisa that law enforcement intends to “refer to the two involved as they themselves wanted.”

In official records, the deceased 22-year-old victim is registered as a woman, while the 18-year-old accused of murder is registered as a man.