[ last modified: 2025-Jan-07 14:52:41 -0800 (PST) ]
Summary
Transphobia is a collection of ideas and phenomena that encompass a range of negative attitudes, feelings or actions towards transgender people or transness in general. Transphobia can include fear, aversion, hatred, violence, anger, or discomfort felt or expressed towards people who do not conform to social gender expectations.
This document discusses the rise of anti-2SLGBTQIA+ hate speech and legislation, specifically targeting transgender individuals, in the United States. It highlights the impact of conservative movements and disinformation campaigns on trans rights and the potential for harm caused by such rhetoric. The document also mentions the historical context of anti-2SLGBTQIA+ movements and the role of conservative think tanks and organizations in shaping policy. It concludes by discussing the importance of building coalitions and advocating for solutions to counteract these harmful trends.
Executive summary
We stand on a precipice. With resurgent conservative movements and democratic backsliding, 2SLGBTQIA+ ("Queer") communities face harsh funding cuts and renewed debates about what it means for us to live, love, and access health care.
Beyond these threats, anti-2SLGBTQIA+ extremist and populist movements have become more vocal and organized in lobbying disinformation and scare tactics, creating the misperception that the progress 2SLGBTQIA+ people seek in public policies - such as health care and education - are inherently harmful to the general public.
This could not be further from the truth. The significant gains that Queer and trans activists have fought for have improved health and wellness for many within and beyond our communities. When we make systems safer and more supportive for 2SLGBTQIA+ people, they become safer and more supportive for everyone.
Yet decision-makers and practitioners continue to fall for and pursue false narratives concerning gender-affirming care, sex education, substance use, reproductive care, HIV and STIs, and many other issues that deeply impact us. This has been especially true concerning trans and gender-diverse people who have been made the latest target of hate campaigns. Even those who identify as allies are turning away for fear of blowback, retribution, and condemnation.
This document details the rise of anti-2SLGBTQIA+ hate rhetoric and legislation, which is being directed as an anti-transgender wedge strategy, masked as "parental rights." Driven by well-organized and funded anti-2SLGBTQIA+ hate groups in the United States, those same ideologies and tactics target transgender persons internationally, including here in Canada.
Universal human rights and social justice for everyone!
Educate, advocate, collaborate, forge alliances.
The majority of politicians, on the evidence available to us, are
interested not in truth but in power and maintenance of that power.
To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance,
that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lies.
What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed.
-- Harold Pinter, 2005 Nobel lecture, Art, Truth & Politics
It is a sign of their disconnection from reality that these extremist
politicians and activists ... [spread] hateful and discriminatory transphobic
rhetoric rather than tackling any real issues facing our country.
Their vile, anti-trans rhetoric does not resonate with the majority of Americans who
are interested in solutions, not slander. But that doesn't mean their transphobic
hate and propaganda won't cause harm. Their words rile up far-right extremists
resulting in more stigma, discrimination and violence against LGBTQ+ people.
The rights and very existence of trans people are not up for debate. We will keep
fighting back until we are all treated equally, with dignity and respect.
-- Geoff Wetrosky, National Campaign Director, Human Rights Campaign [source]
God is good. God is great. God is good. My God is good. ...
We believe in freedom. So does God. I am not a barbarian.
I am the democratically elected leader of a freedom-loving democracy.
We are a compassionate society. We give compassionate electrocution
and compassionate lethal injection.
We are a great nation. I am not a dictator. He is. I am not a barbarian.
He is. And he is. They all are.
I possess moral authority. You see this fist? This is my moral authority.
And don't you forget it.
-- Harold Pinter, 2005 Nobel lecture, Art, Truth & Politics
For the good of society ... transgenderism must be eradicated from public life
entirely - the whole preposterous ideology, at every level.
-- Daily Wire host Michael Knowles, CPAC, 2023-Mar-04 [video]
Michael Knowles: transgenderism must be "eradicated" [CPAC: 2023-Mar-04].
The transphobic tirade prompted horror from a variety of people, with
with many calling the comment "genocidal."
[Source: Daily Beast: 2023-Mar-04]
Genocide means an act or omission committed with intent to destroy, in whole
or in part, an identifiable group of persons, as such, that, at the time and in
the place of its commission, constitutes genocide according to customary
international law or conventional international law or by virtue of its being
criminal according to the general principles of law recognized by the community of
nations, whether or not it constitutes a contravention of the law in force at the
time and in the place of its commission.
-- Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act [Canada, 2000] | cited
Post-truthism / "Alternative facts"
Science is more than body of knowledge; it's a way of thinking.
I have a foreboding of an America ...
when people lost ability to set their own agendas
or knowledgeably question those in authority ...
unable to distinguish between what feels good & what's true,
we slide ... back into superstition & darkness
-- Carl Sagan, 1995
Background
What is transphobia?
Transphobia consists of negative attitudes, feelings, or actions towards transgender people or transness in general. Transphobia can include fear, aversion, hatred, violence or anger towards people who do not conform to social gender roles. Transphobia is a type of prejudice and discrimination, similar to racism, sexism, or ableism, and it is closely associated with homophobia. People of color who are transgender experience discrimination above and beyond that which can be explained as a simple combination of transphobia and racism.
What is genocide?
Genocide [see also @persagen@mastodon.social] is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people.
The ten stages of genocide. Genocide never just happens. There is always a set of circumstances which occur or which are created to build the climate in which genocide can take place. [Source]
What is transgenocide?
Transgenocide (a portmanteau of transgender and genocide) refers to the systematic persecution and extermination of transgender people based on their gender identity. It is a form of hate crime and a violation of human rights. The concept is derived from the term genocide, which was coined to describe the systematic extermination of a racial, ethnic, or national group. Transgenocide is a relatively new concept and is not yet recognized as an official term in international law. However, it is gaining recognition as a serious issue in the context of human rights violations against transgender people.
How is transgenocide different than transphobia?
Transphobia and transgenocide are related but distinct concepts:
The terms transphobia and transgenocide refer to different phenomena, though they are interconnected. Here's the distinction:
Transphobia
Definition: Transphobia refers to prejudice, discrimination, or hostility directed toward transgender individuals or communities based on their gender identity or expression.
-
Scope:
It encompasses a wide range of behaviors, attitudes, and systems, including:
Verbal harassment
Social exclusion
Denial of healthcare
Workplace discrimination
Legislation targeting transgender rights
-
Examples:
Misgendering someone intentionally.
Proposing or supporting laws that restrict access to gender-affirming healthcare.
Transphobia can occur on an individual level (e.g., bullying) or a systemic level (e.g., institutional policies that disadvantage transgender people).
Transgenocide
Definition: Transgenocide refers to systemic, deliberate actions aimed at erasing or exterminating transgender people and their existence, whether through physical violence, cultural suppression, or policies targeting their survival.
Scope:
It is more severe and intentional than transphobia and involves coordinated efforts or outcomes that threaten the existence of transgender individuals or communities.
Methods can include:
Physical violence: increased rates of murders and attacks against transgender individuals. For example, legislation that includes strict adherence to gender markers assigned at birth place transpersons in inappropriate, sex-segregated spaces (relief shelters; penal facilities; bathrooms) that subject them to violence. Transphobic "predators in bathrooms" rhetoric, memes, and conspiracy theories amplify this risk.
Cultural erasure: denying the legitimacy of transgender identities, banning education about them, or erasing their history and contributions.
Legislative attacks: laws banning gender-affirming healthcare, criminalizing transgender people's ability to live openly, or forcing detransition.
Societal exclusion: denial of sex and gender markers on documents limits transpersons access to healthcare, services, and participation in society (censorship).
The exclusion and eradication of trans persons from society and history is genocide.
Systemic neglect: policies or conditions that lead to disproportionately high rates of homelessness, suicide, or incarceration among transgender individuals.
Examples:
State-led efforts to outlaw gender transition entirely.
Suppression of transgender culture or history through censorship.
Coordinated physical attacks on transgender communities.
| Key Differences between transphobia and transgenocide. | ||
| Aspect | Transphobia | Transgenocide |
| Nature | Bias, discrimination, or hostility | Systematic destruction or erasure |
| Severity | May include harmful actions or rhetoric | Involves existential threats to a group's survival |
| Scale | Individual or systemic | Coordinated, systemic, and large-scale |
| Intent | Can be implicit or explicit | Explicit effort to erase or destroy a community |
While transphobia is widespread and contributes to the marginalization of transgender people, transgenocide refers to an escalation where societal actions and policies lead to the literal or cultural extermination of transgender people.
How do we respond?
By coming together, building coalitions, and making noise, we can better recentre ourselves in conversations about our health and wellbeing to help correct the narrative. By taking back control of our community's narrative and care, we can uplift and celebrate each other, and bring joy to work that often exhausts so many of us.
We need to find new ways to synergize and propel forward our intersecting movements: anti-racism, anti-colonialism, disability justice, and more. And we need to champion new, creative ways of reaching the members of our communities with health solutions - and generating innovative solutions.
This is not just about holding the line. We want to advance our position, making life better for all 2SLGBTQIA+ people. Defiance must be met with innovation, and frustration with optimism.
Acknowledgment: the material above is paraphrased from the Summit 2024 program guide for Community-Based Research Centre's Summit 2024: Vigilance & Vision.
🏳️⚧️ Transgender rights advocacy 🏳️🌈
Hello, my name is Victoria Stuart (she/her/hers) - a mature trans woman 🏳️⚧️ dedicated to the pursuit of truth and determined to make the world a better place.
I transitioned in the late 2000's, gradually stepping back from 2SLGBTQIA+ / transgender rights advocacy as I went about my life. However, resurgent conservative movements, ecological destruction, climate change, growing inequality, and democratic backsliding more recently motivated me to initiate my Wealth, Power, and Influence project and advocacy.
I am particularly alarmed by conservative and Christofascist ideologies that seek the eradication of transgender persons and culture: transgenocide.
Consequently, this page - Transphobia and Transgenocide - introduces my revitalized and invigorated, independent and community-based research in defense of 2SLGBTQIA+ persons.
The demonization of transpersons is a wedge tactic, well-honed through countless iterations and revisions. Denial of services and liberties is the first step toward broader conservative societal limitations and control. Denial of medical services, such as gender-affirming healthcare, denies the fundamental right to self-identity and self-determination, including reproductive health.
Attacks on trans women are a harbinger growing sexism, paternalism, and misogyny (anti-feminism). Strict enforcement of male-female binaries satisfies Christofascist interpretations of society (theocracy).
Misinformation, disinformation, culture wars, cultural and social stratification, unrestrained capitalism, political and judicial corruption, and post-truthism exacerbate existential threats that affect all of us: ecological destruction (e.g. microplastics; endocrine disruptors), climate change (aridification; extreme weather), and international conflict (supply chains; nuclear war).
Vision
I envision a world in which all people live in harmony with one another and sustainably within their environment. A world replete with universal human, social and environmental rights and practices - free of disease, poverty, hunger, discrimination, and inequality.
Mission
My mission seeks to address pressing issues and challenges, including misinformation and disinformation, divisive rhetoric, polarizing ideologies, wealth concentration and inequality, unsustainable economic practices, climate change, and ecological destruction.
Approach
My aim (purpose) is to identify and document socially harmful practices, and to identify and advocate solutions to those practices.
In our post-truth age, I seek to curate factual information so that global citizens may seek, find, and understand the issues they face, and to identify ways to address those issues.
To accomplish this, I am building a nonprofit educational and advocacy organization - Persagen.org - that includes:
an ebook: Wealth, power, and influence: Issues and solutions, readily accessible to all persons;
a textual knowledge base: Pg-Solr, with advanced search capabilities
an ontology: Eureka!, for categorical placement and understanding of key entities: persons, organizations, ...; and
a knowledge graph: Leibniz, which allows discovery and understanding of semantic relationships among entities.
Links
- Our team (small but mighty! 😀)
I've been posting on @persagen@Mastodon.social since 2023-May-28.
[toggle] Links
• Persagen.org :
• Pg-Solr search / knowledge engine
• FAQ
• Notes on sources of information
• Persagen.org creator Victoria Stuart, Ph.D.
• Social media:
Land acknowledgement
I acknowledge with gratitude that I live and work on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples - the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
Across Canada, we operate on the unceded, stolen and treatied traditional territories of hundreds of diverse Indigenous nations, which include Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ Indigenous communities. If you are unsure on whose lands you are currently working on and living on, please refer to Native Land Digital to learn more.
Lastly, as an ally inform yourself on the historical trauma - e.g. the Canadian Indian residential school system and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (Wikipedia) | Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (Government of Canada)), treaty violations, colonialism - and persistent institutional (systemic) racism and structural violence perpetuated upon Indigenous peoples.
Kathleen DuVal's excellent 2024 book Native Nations: A Millennium in North America provides a scholarly (U.S.-centric) overview of Native American civilizations and societies pre- and post-European colonialization.
2SLGBTQIA+ affirming legislation in the United States
First, the positive. Post-World War II American society saw broad advances in individual civil rights and liberties including desegregation, universal suffrage, and the civil rights, womens' rights, and gay rights (2SLGBTQIA+) movements.
Bowers v. Hardwick (1986) is a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) that upheld, in a 5-4 ruling, the constitutionality of a Georgia sodomy law criminalizing oral and anal sex in private between consenting adults, in this case with respect to homosexual sodomy, though the law did not differentiate between homosexual and heterosexual sodomy. It was overturned in Lawrence v. Texas (2003), though the statute had already been struck down in 1998 by the Georgia Supreme Court.
Lawrence v. Texas (2003): the U.S. Supreme court held that a Texas statute criminalizing same-sex conduct is unconstitutional. Seventeen years after Bowers v. Hardwick (1986), the U.S. Supreme Court directly overruled its decision in Lawrence v. Texas, holding that anti-sodomy laws are unconstitutional. In Lawrence v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed the concept of a "right to privacy" that earlier cases had found the U.S. Constitution provides, even though it is not explicitly enumerated. The Supreme Court based its landmark decision on the notions of personal autonomy to define one's own relationships and of American traditions of non-interference with any or all forms of private sexual activities between consenting adults.
Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) is a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that held that same-sex couples have the fundamental right to get married. It ruled that state laws may not abridge that right, therefore legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.
Bostock v. Clayton County (2023) is a landmark U.S. Supreme Court civil rights decision in which the court held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects employees against discrimination because of sexuality or gender identity. The decision held that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity is necessarily also discrimination "because of sex," as prohibited by Title VII. The ruling has been hailed as one of the most important legal decisions regarding 2SLGBTQIA+ rights in the United States, along with Lawrence v. Texas (2003) and Obergefell v. Hodges (2015).[
Conservative backlash: Rise of anti-2SLGBTQIA+ movements
- While content in this section focuses on the U.S. anti-2SLGBTQIA+ movement, the same issues affect transgender persons here in Canada.
Trump1 administration
The first presidency of Donald Trump (Trump1, 2017-2021) eviscerated trans rights. Roger Severino joined The Heritage Foundation in 2015, where he served as the Director of the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society. In 2017, Severino was appointed as Director of the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by President Donald Trump.
A social conservative and devout Catholic, Roger Severino has often been criticized for being anti-2SLGBTQIA+. The Human Rights Campaign described Severino as a "radical anti-LGBTQ activist." In 2018, Severino called the Obama Administration's expansion of sex to include gender identity "radical gender ideology." In an op-ed co-written by former U.S. Senator Jim DeMint, Severino said that "transgender rights supporters see sex as 'merely a placeholder' assigned at birth."
As Director of the HHS Office for Civil Rights, Severino was instrumental in the removal of nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people established in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.One of the rules issued by Severino's office provided "conscience" protections for health care workers with religious or moral objections to certain types of care. The provision healthcare providers to deny care based on a patient's sexuality or gender identity.
The Trump1 presidency spawned the manifestation of transgenocide ideology. An October 2018 New York Times article, "Transgender" Could Be Defined Out of Existence Under Trump Administration [non-paywalled access], described nascent attempts by the Trump1 administration to restrict gender to a strict male/female binary sexual definition - assigned at birth, and immutable.
The Trump1 presidency and the following years saw an intensification of anti-trans rhetoric, weaponized as parental rights moral panic, as the U.S. Republican Party tightened it's grip on state legislatures, school boards, and the conservative dividends from the U.S. Supreme Court conservative supermajority - whose egregious decisions rolled back abortion rights (Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, 2022), ended affirmative action, eroded transgender-affirming health care (below), guaranteed presidential liability (including, ostensively, sedition), eroded environmental protections, anti-bribery protection, allowed state control of sports betting, criminalized homelessness, and strengthened anti-union advocacy.
A highly damaging legacy of the Trump1 administration - spearheaded by ultraconservative legal activist Leonard Leo - was the appointment of three conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court. With a conservative supermajority in place, the U.S Supreme Court has been increasingly hostile to non-white U.S. citizens, women, 2SLGBTQIA+ persons, and especially transgender persons (particularly trans women).
Trump1 aftereffects
Post Trump1, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (U.S. Supreme Court, 2022) overturned both Roe vs. Wade (U.S. Supreme Court, 1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (U.S. Supreme Court, 1992). That decision, rendered by the SCOTUS supermajority, was the culmination of a years-long effort by the conservative Christian legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) - that works to expand Christian religious liberties and practices within public schools and in government, outlaw abortion, and oppose 2SLGBTQIA+ rights.
During the Obama administration the Alliance for Defending Freedom (ADF) brought five successful cases to the Supreme Court to give more weight to religious faith and challenged previous case law on the separation of church and state. After Trump's inauguration, the ADF and the Federalist Society reportedly began working in secret with Christian and conservative politicians and lawyers to establish a network to push challenges to Roe vs. Wade, while introducing state legislation (model acts) to reduce the period for abortion to 15 weeks or less (heartbeat bills).
Leonard Leo - who worked with Trump to appoint conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, is a former executive vice president of the Federalist Society. Likewise, 5 (perhaps 6) of the 9 sitting SCOTUS justices are members of the Federalist Society - as are numerous U.S. federal judges.
The U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision is fundamentally a Christian right-engineered attack on the right to bodily autonomy and the right to self-determination. Likewise, in retrospect Bostock v. Clayton County (SCOTUS, 2023) - which held that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity is necessarily also discrimination "because of sex" - should be interpreted as reducing the self-identity and self-determination rights of 2SLGBTQIA+ persons to legal definitions of sex, not gender. This interpretation is supported by the pending (2024-Dec-24) U.S. Supreme Court case United States v. Skrmetti on whether bans on transgender medical procedures (including puberty blockers and hormone therapy) for minors under the age of 18 violate the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. During oral arguments (2024-Dec-04) Several of the conservative justices signaled an openness to creating a carveout (legal loophole) from sex discrimination protections, under which such discrimination via government authority would be constitutional in a medical context. That is, the U.S. Supreme Court appears likely to uphold bans on gender-affirming care, and may gut the rules barring all forms of sex discrimination in the process.
At least six of the justices on the U.S. Supreme Court - like Leonard Leo - are Roman Catholics; it is unclear whether Neil Gorsuch considers himself a Catholic or an Episcopalian. Although not known to be a member of the radical Catholic sect Opus Dei, Leonard is a known associate of Opus Dei, both of whom orchestrated the conservative takeover of the U.S. Supreme Court. Opus Dei completely penetrated Washington D.C.'s conservative Catholic ranks, recruiting and converting the Republican elite, and becoming a prominent force among Christian nationalists now dominating the Republican political agenda.
2020s anti-LGBTQ movement in the United States
The 2020s anti-LGBTQ movement in the United States is an ongoing political backlash from social conservatives against LGBTQ movements. It has included legislative proposals of bathroom use restrictions, bans on gender-affirming care, anti-LGBTQ curriculum laws, laws against drag performances, book bans, boycotts, and conspiracy theories around grooming. Between 2018 and 2023, hundreds of anti-LGBTQ laws were considered, with more than one hundred passed into law.
The backlash has been described as a moral panic, and part of a larger culture war in the United States. Scholars have cited rising anti-LGBTQ attitudes and policies as an example of democratic backsliding. The backlash has been connected to similar conservative developments in Europe, as well as the Middle East.
As a result of the culture war in the United States since the mid-2010s, transgender rights in the United States have come under attack from conservative groups including the Republican Party and evangelicals. Since 2020, many states with Republican-led legislatures introduced bathroom bills and bills to limit transgender schoolchildren from participating in sports, and while many were defeated or challenged legally, there was public support for these bills in those states, leading the Republicans to further their efforts to limit transgender rights as part of their platform as to draw in support from religious groups.
Every major medical association in the United States has opposed these bans. In June 2023 the Endocrine Society released a statement opposing such bans whose signatories included the American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Urological Association, American Society for Reproductive Medicine, American College of Physicians, American Association of Clinical Endocrinology, and the American Medical Association (AMA).
Top-down anti-2SLGBTQIA+ strategies include infiltration of governments and judiciaries (federal and state) by ultraconservative ideologies, and bottom-up through grass-roots anti-2SLGBTQIA+ advocacy. Examples of the former include the stacking of the U.S. Supreme Court with a conservative supermajority, and conservative think tanks (e.g. the American Legislative Exchange Council, The Heritage Foundation, ...) that flood state legislatures with libertarian and anti-2SLGBTQIA+ model acts (templated legislation). Examples of the latter include parental rights movements - thinly veiled transphobic / transgenocidal hatred. Throughout the decades, conservative movements have iteratively implemented and refined their tactics, including in contemporary culture wars couching anti-trans discrimination (noting trans rights are broadly popular) as parental rights issues and trans participation in womens' sports.
Project 2025
Trump's Agenda 47 and The Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 share many similarities. Project 2025 outlines four main aims in Mandate for Leadership: restoring the family as the centerpiece of American life; dismantling the administrative state; defending the nation's sovereignty and borders; and securing God-given individual rights to live freely.
Opposition to transgender rights appears to be The Heritage Foundation's primary raison d'être. Project 2025's anti-2SLGBTQIA+ ideology and aims include the following items.
Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts claims that "... children suffer the toxic normalization of transgenderism with drag queens and pornography invading their school libraries."
Federal healthcare providers should deny gender-affirming care to transgender people.
Public school teachers who want to use a transgender student's preferred pronouns would be required to obtain written permission from the student's legal guardian.
The Mandate for Leadership in part "makes eradicating 2SLGBTQIA+ people from public life its top priority.
Roberts also adds that pornography is "manifested today in the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology and sexualization of children", suggesting that he [The Heritage Foundation / Project 2025] may define "pornography" much more broadly than is typical - that he may view any attempt to explain or teach about trans people as worthy of outlawing and imprisonment.
Republican-driven transphobia and transphobic legislation
Concurrent with each of those social justice achievements were social conservative movements (based in large part on white supremacism, and Christian dogmatism) steadfastly attacking those newfound liberties. Throughout this period, The anti-2SLGBTQIA+ approach involved divisive rhetoric, weaponization of language, misinformation / disinformation, and polarization via wedge strategies and tactics.
Conscientious objection arguments
Kennedy v. Bremerton School District
Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (2022). In a 6:3 decision the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects individuals engaging in a personal religious observance from government reprisal; the Constitution neither mandates nor permits the government to suppress such religious expression. [Kennedy v. Bremerton School District legitimizes conscientious objection to providing goods and services.]
303 Creative LLC v. Elenis
303 Creative LLC v. Elenis (2023). In a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court validated conscientious objection as free speech and religious liberty in denying goods and services to 2SLGBTQIA+ persons - a setback for 2SLGBTQIA+ rights, and an assertion of discrimination as a type of free speech.
United States v. Skrmetti
United States v. Skrmetti is a pending (2024-Dec-24) United States Supreme Court case on whether bans on transgender medical procedures (including puberty blockers and hormone therapy) for minors under the age of 18 violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Background. On 2023-Mar-22 the Tennessee House of Representatives passed Tennessee House Bill 1 (2023) amending the Tennessee Code prohibiting certain forms of gender-affirming care for transgender minors with a diagnosis of gender dysphoria. This includes puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgeries (though the ban on the latter is not at issue in the case). The bill does not restrain the use of puberty blockers and hormones for other medical purposes such as the treatment of precocious puberty. As of December 2024, 23 other states had similar laws in place which could be affected by the Supreme Court's decision in this case
Amicus briefs. On 2024-Nov-21 it was discovered that four of the doctors that were testifying in favor of Tennessee's ban, namely Paul Hruz, Michael Laidlaw, James Cantor, and Stephen B. Levine, had previously been reprimanded by various courts across the country as "conspiratorial, deeply biased, far off and deserving very little weight", three of them had never provided healthcare to transgender youth, and who 2SLGBTQIA+ advocates and trans healthcare experts say repeatedly peddle misinformation about transgender health care. Additionally, an analysis of the amicus briefs by SPLC found that 19% of them had been filed by designated anti-2SLGBTQIA+ hate groups and another 10% had been filed by "groups and individuals associated with a network of anti-2SLGBTQIA+ pseudoscience purveyors.
Trump2 administration
The second presidency of Donald Trump (Trump2, set to begin in 2025 and run through 2029) - allied with far-right and Christofascist organizations including The Heritage Foundation / Project 2025, Family Research Council, trans healthcare propagandists American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds), and extremist groups such as the Proud Boys, Libs of TikTok, and Moms for Liberty - will likely see renewed attempts to secure the total evisceration of transgender persons, transgender rights, an perhaps trans history from U.S. society. [More here on transgenocidal_hate_groups.]
U.S. Republicans ramped up anti-trans messaging in the 2024 campaign. According to a report by AdImpact, the Republican Party spent $222 million USD on anti-trans ads during the 2024 presidential campaign; overall ad spending by the Republican Party totaled $993 million USD.
Recent polling shows that 76% of Americans say they support nondiscrimination laws for LGBTQ communities. And, yet, on the issue of transgender athletes, polling also indicates that a large majority of Americans, around 70%, say they should be allowed to compete only on teams that match their sex assigned at birth. Donald Trump returns to the White House at a time when half of all U.S. states ban transgender people under 18 from receiving gender-affirming health care. Twenty-six states have restrictions on transgender students participating in sports consistent with their gender identity, according to Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit think tank that tracks LGBTQ-related laws.
Project 47
See also Project 2025.
The landing page on Donald Trump's website (donaldjtrump.com) prominently features Agenda 47 platform, which details policies that would be implemented in the second Trump presidency including attacks on 2SLGBTQIA+ rights. The Wikipedia entry (accessed Sat 2024-Dec-07) states that Agenda 47 would:
Terminate all types of gender affirming care for minors.
Instruct every federal agency to cease all programs that promote the concept of sex and gender transition "at any age," stopping federal funding for all gender-affirming procedures, and declaring that any hospital or healthcare provider participating in gender affirming care for minors will no longer meet federal health and safety standards for Medicaid and Medicare, terminating them from the program.
Create ways to sue physicians who have performed those procedures, and directing the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate pharmaceutical companies and hospitals to determine whether they have covered "horrific long-term side-effects of 'sex transitions' to get rich at the expense of vulnerable patients," and whether they have illegally marketed hormones and puberty blockers.
The U.S. Department of Education will inform states and school districts that if anybody suggests to a child that they could be transgender, they will face potential civil rights violations cases for sex discrimination, and elimination from federal funding.
Pass a bill establishing that the only genders recognized by the government are male and female, and they are assigned at birth.
Among Agenda 47's items:
Item #16 Cut funding to schools that teach "radical gender ideology;" and
item #17: "Keep men out of women's sports."
Transgenocidal hate groups
Eagle Forum (Phyllis Schlafly)
American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds: anti-trans healthcare propagandists)
Transgenocidal extremist groups
Libs of TikTok (Chaya Raichik)
Opus Dei
A central Opus Dei figure in a second Trump term is Kevin Roberts, who is head of The Heritage Foundation and the architect of the fascist, anti-2SLGBTQIA+ / transgenocidal Project 2025. Roberts is a regular at the Opus Dei hub in central Washington (the Catholic Information Center), and gets his spiritual direction from the priests there. Roberts is largely funded by Leonard Leo, who sits on the board of the Catholic Information Center. Equally concerning, a December 2024 Politico article details how Catholics appointed by Donald Trump to key positions in his Trump2 administration show a close alignment between many Trump2 policies and Catholic social teaching, which goes far beyond abortion.
As a proto-theocracy, the Trump2 administration seems poised to focus on promoting marriage and having children, giving parents wide discretion on everything from school content to health care, and empowering non-governmental institutions like churches and nonprofit organizations for social support. "Parental rights" represents thinly-veiled anti-2SLGBTQIA+ rhetoric; the U.S. Republican Party - which is mired in conservative ideology, dogma, conspiracy theories, post-truthism, and fascist policies - is more akin to QAnon than a political party: a proto-religion. Current transphobic "moral panic" in the United States (indeed, Canada) has metastasized to Christofascist genocide - transgenocide, aided and abetted by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Likewise, the obrogation (authoritarian redefining) of gender/gender identity to a rigid male/female binary based on sex determined in utero or at birth is a retrograde lays the foundation for broader Christian right attacks on womens' rights. During the Reagan administration, radical conservative Catholics opposed women's equality under the law - particularly the Equal Rights Amendment. Rick Perlstein's 2020 book Reaganland: America's Right Turn 1976-1980details (pp. 11r14-114) describes the Christian conservative exhortations for total subservience of women to men, and their perception of the Equal Rights Amendment as an existential threat to Christofascist values. Those pages introduce Phyllis Schlafly (deceased, 2016), who held paleoconservative social and political views, opposed feminism, gay rights, 2SLGBTQIA+ rights, and abortion, and campaigned against ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Phyllis Schlafly was a contemporary of the powerful and outspoken opponent of 2SLGBTQIA+ rights, Anita Bryant - who, with anti-2SLGBTQIA+pastor Jerry Falwell and the use of polarizing rhetoric helped overturn legislative gains in 2SLGBTQIA+.
The resurgence of Christian conservatism in the U.S. Republican Party is the culmination of a well-funded, well-planned and -executed, decades-long conservative movement determined to establish a Christofascist state.
Additional reading
For more on transphobic attacks, anti-trans hate groups, and anti-trans legislation see my slide deck (comment: slightly dated, last update 2023).
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