The Attack on the Trans Community

As the years pass, positive social changes have grown exponentially as race, gender, sexuality, and general identity acceptance have heightened around the world. With this trend, however, comes the inevitable backlash of those who refuse to accept change for one reason or another. A concerning trend is growing in red states like Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri, with new bills surfacing that target trans youths and attempts to take freedom of expression from the hands of the individual. As of April 17th, a staggering 497 anti-trans bills have been introduced in the US. That is more than double last year’s total, all amassed in little more than three months. (linked here is an active tracker for these bills) It seems that as support for trans rights in the US grows, so does the unnecessary and scathing clap back in the legislature. These bills claim to be protecting youths from predation and indoctrination but truly are just a last-ditch attempt by the growing number of right-leaning representatives in our government to claw at and break down the safe, accepting community that newer generations are attempting to build. 

A Quiet, Legal Genocide

Gregory H. Stanton, President of Genocide Watch, an international anti-genocide movement, has laid out a 10-step process of genocide (genocide watch ten stages of genocide), detailing how it begins and how people may be manipulated into not interfering. This is a summarization of all 10 steps.

1. Classification – The differences between people are not respected. There’s a division of ‘us’ and ‘them’ which can be carried out using stereotypes, or excluding people who are perceived to be different.

2. Symbolisation – This is a visual manifestation of hatred and singling out. For example, Jews in Nazi Europe were forced to wear yellow stars to show they were ‘different’.

3. Discrimination – The dominant group denies civil rights or even citizenship to identified groups.

4. Dehumanization – Those perceived as ‘different’ are treated with no form of human rights or personal dignity.

5. Organization – Genocides are always planned. Regimes of hatred often train those who go on to carry out the destruction of a people.

6. Polarization – Propaganda begins to be spread by hate groups. 

7. Preparation – Perpetrators plan the genocide. They often use euphemisms such as the Nazis’ phrase ‘The Final Solution’ to cloak their intentions. They create fear of the victim group, building up armies and weapons.

8. Persecution – Victims are identified because of their ethnicity or religion and death lists are drawn up. Genocidal massacres begin.

9. Extermination – The hate group murders its identified victims in a deliberate and systematic campaign of violence. Millions of lives have been destroyed or changed beyond recognition through genocide.

10. Denial – The perpetrators or later generations deny the existence of any crime.

It is apparent that the United States as a whole is currently in stage 7, whereas some red states are even further down the list, with the attorney general of Missouri even putting up a website where people can report their neighbor for suspicious (harmless, gender-affirming) activity (this website has since been taken down after being spammed with false reports and other such things, but here is an article summarizing it when it first was put up). Here’s the list again, up to step 7, with descriptions of the United states’ actions in the past years.

1. Classification – Trans people are singled out by United States legislators as the “other”, despite the fact that only 1.4 million people over 12 identify as trans. That is slightly over .04% of America.

2. Symbolization – Trans people are labeled, with new laws in many states forcing teachers to expose closeted trans youths to their parents. 

3. Discrimination – Trans people in many states are denied gender-affirming healthcare, and many are forced to detransition due to the unbridled hatred for trans people in American society.

4. Dehumanization – The trans community is made to be lesser. They are pinned with disgusting criticism and slurs and are kept in a bubble of shame by legislature and society.

5. Organization – While there is no current regiment or group being set up currently to specifically eradicate trans people, republicans clearly and blatantly lay out their plans in many legislative hearings; that being a quick spread of anti-trans legislature that would completely bar any gender-affirming healthcare and serve to silence all who dare step out of line.

6. Polarization – Trans people are pinned as the enemy. One main talking point of the anti-trans crusaders is the “spike in mass shootings committed by trans people”. This could not be further from the truth and is simply dogma used to spread fear. There have, as of writing, been 199 mass shootings in the United States just this year. Since 2009, there have been 4 mass shooters that identify as trans or nonbinary. If you run the numbers, trans people, in the past 14 years, have committed only 2% as many mass shootings than mass shootings that have occurred just this year. 

7. Preparation – Bills begin being passed. Hate groups begin forming. Neo-nazis hoist signs at an Ohio drag brunch that read “There will be blood”. And let’s remind ourselves why this is all happening. Because .04% of the United States population wants to express their preferred gender.

But Who Will Save Us?

Genocide is an undeniably heavy word and concept. When you hear the word genocide, you likely think of something like the Holocaust or the Armenian genocide. While these examples are both genocide and while there have been many trans people killed in the US, as dictated by the UN, genocide is not restricted to the extermination of a group. There are, in reality, five separate guidelines that classify a genocide, and in my opinion, the attack on the trans community falls under all of them to some extent. Let’s go over that list now, with more examples from the past couple of years.

Killing members of the group – As of November 16th, at least 38 trans people were killed just in 2022 (many may have even gone unreported). While these are not mass killings, they still matter, and cannot be looked over. (source)

Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group – Societal norms and shame are deliberately pushed on the trans community by harsh legislation and in school and home environments. This has caused depression and suicide rates to spike in trans and gender-nonconforming communities. (NLM study on trans suicide rates)

Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part – In many states, trans people are denied gender-affirming healthcare and are shamed into detransitioning, slowly causing the trans community to shrink.

Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group – While not exactly births, the trans community, as mentioned in the previous point, are barred from gender-affirming healthcare, which prevents many trans people from actually transitioning. The Floridian “Don’t Say Gay Bill'' (house bill 1557) prevents any discussion of LGBTQ+ topics in the classroom to prevent “indoctrination” and to keep the classroom clean (though straight relationships and topics are still discussed). This keeps students, even those in high school, in a bubble where they are not allowed to or simply do not know about the LGBTQ+ community as a whole. Luckily, this bill is currently only in action in Florida.

Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group – Florida Lawmakers have proposed a new bill (senate bill 254) that would allow trans youths to be taken from their parents’ custody, and put under the custody of the government. This would also allow any doctor that performs gender-affirming healthcare to be arrested. 

The US has not taken action yet against any of these points. As dictated by Article I of the UN’s Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), any country that is a part of the UN is obligated by international law not only to punish but prevent any and all of these different descriptions of genocide. That means that, due to US legislation’s passing of these anti-trans bills, America is currently in violation of the UN’s CPPCG. 

Therefore, as protests and strikes at the community continue, the UN, as mandated by their own genocide convention, should take action. This could mean that, if the US chooses to continue if they are warned, they could risk being expelled from the organization (as dictated by Article VI the membership chapter of the UN charter).  In a perfect world, it would have never been a problem in the first place.

Conclusion

It is hard to have to witness some of the atrocities that happen in the United States, and it is even harder to watch them go unpunished. The US is meant to be a just society in support of free expression, but as the years go on it just seems to stray further and further away. No person, LGBTQ+ or not, should have to go through what many Americans go through; their families, society, and even their government treat them as an “other” and push legislation that oppresses them. 

As citizens, there is sadly not much we can do to directly change the minds of many government officials, but that does not mean we should give up. Educate yourself, protest, and most importantly, do not be afraid. Fear is what these bills prey on, and compliance only serves to empower them. As Americans, we cannot and should not live in fear of our own government, it goes against the basic principles of a democratic society, and chips away at the foundation of America.

 If Americans keep fighting for their rights, this will all be resolved soon. Stay safe, and please remember that there is always a way to fight for your rights, and no situation is ever hopeless.