How The GOP Trying To Enact Knowles's Trans Eradication

Michael Knowles got a lot of negative attention for his genocidal comments, but lets not forget that it is the Republican Party pushing forth his vision through legislation seeking eradication.

It has been a busy week. The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), a major conservative gathering, featured numerous notable speakers who spoke out against transgender rights and advocated policies that directly target transgender people. Michael Knowles, who called for transgender eradication, garnered the most media attention. However, it is important to recognize that Michael Knowles words are fully backed by the actions of the Republican Party. Transgender eradication is not a slogan - it is an active effort underway in over 20 states.

To recap the circumstances around the current media coverage of attacks on the trans community, just this weekend in front of a packed crowd, Michael Knowles stood on the stage and stated his intent: “for the good of society… transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely.”

Erin Reed @ErinInTheMorn

Just casual genocidal language about "eradicating transgenderism from public life" from Michael Knowles at CPAC. How about we eradicate fascism from public life instead.

Within a moment, stories went up nationwide decrying the comments. Stories shot up to the top of Reddit and major media outlets rightly pointed out that he was calling for the eradication of trans people - something he claims that “transgenderism” bafflingly does not count as. He was condemned widely. The backlash was so strong that we even saw a prominent contributor to The Daily Wire, Christina Buttons, resign from the organization over the increasingly cruel policies espoused by leaders at the organization.

Although Michael Knowles’ CPAC speech was perhaps the most widely heard by the general public, I have been tracking increasingly genocidal comments by political commentators at The Daily Wire and other major conservative organizations for quite some time. Just a week before Knowles speech, I released an article detailing the long history of violent rhetoric coming out of places like The Daily Wire, Turning Point USA, and other organizations. Charlie Kirk at Turning Point USA, for instance, called for men to “take care of” trans people “like they did in the 50s and 60s,” a clear call to violence. Matt Walsh has repeatedly declared war on trans people. There are many more examples.

In fact, the very reason the genocide discussion which spawned Michael Knowles’ “eradication” comment is because Matt Walsh, also at the Daily Wire, created a video attacking me directly over how activists have been pointing out their genocidal tendencies:

Erin Reed @ErinInTheMorn

Matt Walsh just did a segment on me where he tried to say that they’re not intending on genocide, then closed off by declaring war on me, the rest of the trans community, and stating that “he wasn’t close to done yet.” Neither are we, Matt. Neither are we. Follow your leader.

Michael Knowles a couple of days later made similar remarks a day later.

While much of the media coverage has focused on Michael Knowles comments, very little has analyzed the way in which the Republican Party is currently enacting the eradicationist philosophy of the Daily Wire. In fact, later in the same conference, Marjorie Taylor Green announced that she would be re-submitting her national bill, the “Protect Children’s Innocence Act,” for consideration this year. This bill would ban gender affirming care for trans teens and force their medical detransition, ban insurance coverage nationwide for adult trans healthcare, and would even ban higher education organizations from teaching transgender healthcare. It would ban EMTs from learning how to care for transgender people, bar psychology programs from teaching to recommend care to trans people, ban medical schools from teaching surgeons about our care, and more - I detailed the many ways this bill targets the community in a thread last year. Marjorie Taylor Green’s bill and presentation at CPAC only received a small amount of coverage - her bill would result in an actual eradication of transgender people.

One does not even have to go as far as Marjorie Taylor Green to show how there is active cooperation within the Republican Party to enact The Daily Wire’s vision of transgender eradication. The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh has been extremely active in lobbying for anti-trans legislation. In fact, the very first bill of the 2023 legislative cycle that targets transgender people was announced by Matt Walsh, who lives in Tennessee. He was one of the first to see the bill, which bans gender affirming care for all trans youth in the state and even bars telehealth:

Matt Walsh @MattWalshBlog

BREAKING: I’ve just been shown a draft of the legislation banning ‘gender transition’ procedures for minors in Tennessee. Drugging and mutilating children will be banned and victims will be given the chance to seek compensation. A huge win for sanity and basic human decency.

Matt Walsh @MattWalshBlog

The legislation will be filed November 9th. Extremely grateful to @WilliamLamberth and @SenJohnson for getting this done.

Tennessee has also passed a drag ban on people in drag performing publicly that has similarly been espoused by Matt Walsh. Walsh is now calling for a “federal ban on drag.”

There are currently 421 bills targeting the trans community nationwide. The kinds of policies we have seen this year:

• Forced medical detransition for trans youth with methods for doctors to do it spelled out.

• Bans on drag that include transgender people, that also state anybody “impersonating another sex” is guilty of a crime if they “excite lustful thoughts” in a cop or prosecutor.

• Complete writing of trans people out of the law and banning of IDs and birth certificates.

• Fines of $35,000 for calling somebody transphobic.

• Forced detransition of incarcerated transgender adults.

• Bills allowing people to kidnap trans kids and the kids of trans parents.

• Effective bans on clinics providing gender affirming care through policies making the clinics impossible to operate.

• Students in schools being given the right to bully trans kids by using their old name and pronouns.

• Drag bans that could ban Pride.

• Bills and policies that would charge parents with child abuse for gender affirming care.

• Bans on any books with trans characters or gay characters, regardless of how family friendly they may be.

• Adult bathroom bans that would charge trans adults with sex crimes.

These are a few ways transgender individuals are targeted for eradication just this year. While Knowles and Walsh may talk about transgender eradication, state legislatures in the United States are enacting such measures through far-right members of the Republican Party. It is impossible to go through life without using the bathroom, singing karaoke in front of friends, criticizing bigotry, or taking prescribed medication. The Republican platform in numerous states explicitly focuses on eradication.

Going into 2024, the Republican Party appears to be ramping these efforts up. Both of the frontrunners for the Republican Party’s nomination for president have espoused policies like these. Donald Trump recently released a video calling for the national bans on gender affirming care for trans youth and bans on support for that care for all ages. He also espoused writing transgender people out of the law entirely at the federal level. Meanwhile, Ron DeSantis is changing curriculums nationally for including queer people in AP coursework. He used his executive authority this year in selecting members to the statewide medical board that banned gender affirming care for trans youth and banned Medicaid coverage for trans adults.

Looking at the national level, you can see how attacks on transgender people have materialized. Imagine looking at this map, pulled from my anti-trans legislative risk map, and trying to decide the best route to travel across the country as a transgender person knowing that states in red are enacting laws to target your existence in public:

Map of anti-trans legislative risk in the United States.

Transgender people have been aware that they are targeted with policies meant to erase them from public life for a long time and many have tried to raise awareness of the encroaching legislative assault. When Senator Clarke Tucker of Arkansas stood last week to speak against a criminal bathroom ban for trans adult, he said that “this bill is an unprecedented step to criminalizing being trans in America.”

When Michael Knowles speaks about transgender eradication in America, it is Republican policies that will attempt to accomplish his vision. When Matt Walsh declares war on the transgender community, the battle lines look like broad splashes of red on a map of states that seek to make it a crime for transgender people to obtain medication and perform basic bodily functions. Transgender eradication is not a slogan for the people who spoke at CPAC and the organizations who support them. Transgender eradication is a battle plan hatched between far right organizations and the Republican Party. This battle plan poses a serious threat to real lives, and mere condemnation of such rhetoric is not enough. Those who support or fail to condemn the spread of anti-trans legislation are complicit in this effort.