Participating in Moral Panic and Enabling Authoritarian Power: A Qualitative Study of Anti-Transgender Advocates

• In Event: Sociology of Culture Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): 21. Intimacy and Gender

Abstract

Although the concept of moral panics has been used to understand recent anti-LGBT movements, there is a lack of explicitly sociological research on how anti-transgender discourse operates as a moral panic. Drawing upon interviews with supporters of anti-transgender policy, I use a sociological lens to analyze what broader structures and meanings are utilized to legitimate anti-trans hate. Specifically, this study focuses on the rationalizations and frameworks of individuals who are actively participating in the anti-transgender moral panic. Analysis of individual justifications and motives exposes the underlying processes of consenting to and legitimating authoritarian measures, offering a more concrete consideration of power. According to Pew Research Center, from 2022 to 2025 there was a 5% increase in both Republicans and Democrats who said they would favor or strongly favor laws or policies that restrict transgender people. These policies include discriminatory regulations for trans athletes, public bathrooms, and school districts. This increase of support for anti-trans policy runs parallel to the similar increase in both passed and proposed anti-trans legislation from 2021 to now. The pattern regarding anti-trans legislation suggests an increased nationwide structural focus on controlling and regulating transgender and genderqueer bodies. The pattern in public opinion signals renegotiation of perspectives regarding transgender people, with the population on average trending more critical and less favorable in their views. These political opinions are not simply attitudes regarding policies but are junctures in the process of individuals choosing to accept and support increasing levels of regulation, surveillance, and other authoritarian or anti-democratic measures.

Author

• Amanda E. Jane, Boston College