Gender Ideology Extremism,” “Radical Indoctrination,” and “Junk Science”: Anti-Trans Scapegoating and the Second Trump Administration

• In Event: Crime, Law, Justice and the Trump Administration 1: Punishment, Impunity, and Corruption

Abstract

Transgender and nonbinary people have emerged as particular scapegoats and favorite targets of the far-right, with state legislatures introducing increasing numbers of bills intended to curtail trans people’s rights. These actions, while widespread, have mostly taken place locally. However, within weeks of taking office, Donald Trump’s administration made targeting trans people a central priority, issuing executive orders prohibiting gender changes on federal documents, criminalizing educators who support trans students, mandating trans women be housed in men’s prisons, and instituting a broad federal ban on funding or researching gender-affirming care for anyone under age 19. While some face legal challenges, the central message these orders convey is that transgender people are fundamentally deviant and must be legally and administratively erased from social life. These intensified efforts at restricting and criminalizing transgender people have far-reaching repercussions, including: 1) expanded criminal penalties for trans people and their allies such as educators and healthcare practitioners; 2) increased harm to transgender people already involved with carceral systems; and 3) stochastic terrorism and the proliferation of hate violence. In this presentation, I detail the context and outcomes of the current wave of anti-trans institutional violence and suggest further considerations for how criminologists might examine these topics.

Author

• Max Osborn, Villanova University