"We Must Ban Transgenderism Entirely" - Republican Operatives Increasingly Say The Quiet Part Out Loud
Political violence and eliminationism targeted towards the transgender community is on the rise. Many of the most famous right-wing figures are now explicitly calling for genocidal policy.
Content warning: The following content may be disturbing to transgender people and those who care about us due to the language used by these prominent figures. It is my opinion that this language needs to be addressed head on, but please prepare yourself before moving forward with reading and watching.
The escalation of anti-trans rhetoric has coincided with a rise in anti-trans legislation. This rhetoric has become increasingly eliminationist and violent. While the idea of eliminating transgender people was once only heard in obscure far-right podcasts from pastors such as Mark Burns, rhetoric advocating for the wholesale destruction of "transgenderism" and thus transgender people, is now espoused by some of the leading figures in the Republican Party. Matt Walsh has "declared war" on the transgender community, while Candace Owens has referred to trans people as "demonic" and expressed a desire to "beat them with a cane." Charlie Kirk has suggested that transgender people should be "dealt with by men like in the 50s and 60s." Just today, Michael Knowles called for a complete ban on transgenderism, arguing that transgender people are “not a legitimate category of being and therefore cannot be the target of genocide.” This dehumanization represents a significant shift in rhetoric that must be acknowledged and condemned.
A surge in eliminationist rhetoric coincides with the advancement of nearly 400 anti-transgender bills in state legislatures throughout the United States. These bills range from banning drag in public to prohibiting gender affirming care for transgender youth. Some measures also effectively ban transition care for transgender adults. A few proposals are even more extreme and yet are still seeing votes and movement. One Montana bill, which was heard last night, seeks to remove transgender individuals from the law entirely and revoke their right to change any identity documents, including driver's licenses. During the hearing, Republican Senator Molnar referred to transgender people as "fraudulent" and claimed their documents were also fraudulent. At the same hearing, Ezekiel Cork spoke out against the bill and all anti-trans bills proposed this year, likening them to "bullets being fired out of House and Senate chambers nationwide."
It is this extreme slate of bills that have had some people, myself included, starting to call the wholesale attempt at eliminating transgender people an attempt at genocide. For those uncertain about the term, the UN definition of genocide is as follows:
And although transgender people are not part of a “national, ethnic, racial, or religious group,” UN res 96/1 also includes “political” and “other” human groups in the definition. It is hard to look at these factors and think that they are not present in the treatment of transgender people - the banning of our medical care, banning of us from public spaces, banning our identity documents, and intentional targeting of us both legislatively and physically seems to match. The policies they are putting into place will absolutely increase suicide rates that are proven to be lowered by things like gender affirming care and identification documents. The rhetoric will cause more violence against us.
The increasingly eliminationist rhetoric combined with bills that target transgender people in every aspect of public life in ways that harm us directly needs to be confronted similarly directly. After addressing it as such (and please read the thread if you have time in order to see how these definitions map to current events), conservative figures jumped and attacked me. In doing so, they proved my point entirely. For example, Matt Walsh called me out by name and laughed at the idea, but then closed off by stating that he has “declared war” on me and the trans community, and that “we have seen nothing yet.”
See this clip:
Matt Walsh knows what the point of this rhetoric is. He knows that “declaring war” in and of itself has violent implications. Given that we have bills moving through the country that are targeting adults, withdrawing people from medical care, charging trans people with sex crimes just for being in bathrooms, Texas agents investigating people for child abuse and threatening to take children, and making dressing in drag illegal… it’s hard to imagine what “more” can be done until you realize he truly does want an elimination of transgender people entirely. He has explicitly stated he wants gender affirming care banned at any age, for instance.
He’s not the only one that has called for extreme measures against transgender people. Candace Owens has repeatedly called transgender people “demonic” and used dehumanizing language to talk about transgender people. She’s even said she would beat her trans grandchild with a cane if she ever had one. Just a month ago, Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA called for what can be interpreted as violence in response to transgender people in sports - stating that “someone should just go take care of it the way we used to take care of things back in the 1950s and 60s.”
Perhaps most explicitly eliminationist, Michael Knowles at the Daily Wire has begun calling for “ban of transgenderism entirely.” When confronted with the fact that this is a genocidal statement (explicitly so), he doubled down by stating that transgender people “are not a legitimate category of being” and thus “cannot be a target of genocide.”
The dehumanization is extreme in this statement. Watch his clip:
These are not insignificant people in the Republican Party. Matt Walsh was behind the very first gender affirming care ban introduced in 2023. In 2022, Matt Walsh met with Representative Lamberth, author of the Tennessee gender affirming care ban HB1, and was the first person to announce a 2023 anti-trans bill. Michael Knowles at works at The Daily Wire. The Daily Wire’s annual revenue is over $100 million and its reach within the Republican Party is extensive. These are the people who Republican legislators listen to when drafting their legislation - legislation, I might add, that is becoming increasingly cruel every single day.
The United Nations has recognized the need to highlight how hate speech from powerful groups leads to genocide, and has actively and repeatedly called for an end to hate speech against many categories of people, including gender and other identity factors. United Nations Special Advisor Adama Dieng pointed out that no genocide ever starts with murder, but rather, the seeds of it starts long before. He stated, “We have to bear in mind that words kill. Words kill as bullets.”
Now, those words are increasingly being used by people that seek to end transgender people entirely. Political commentators know precisely what they are doing by "declaring war" on the community and its leaders. They understand the significance of harkening back to an older era in which men “took care of us.” By calling us "demons" and erasing us completely as "not a category of people" while treating us as subhuman and a danger to children, they are dehumanizing us, a necessary step to bringing about that elimination. They are now saying the quiet part out loud, assuming that no one will call them out on it. We cannot remain silent and allow them to pave the way for the elimination of transgender people.
I don't know how you can call targeting a group of people by systematically withholding life saving medication anything short of genocide.
I just hope people who say they are allies understand that soon because anyone with a heart should be incredibly pissed right now.
what is the most effective tool to stop these whacked people? I struggle with this. For the amount of harm they are doing, I dont see enough people, allies, trans and cis fighting this. Am I missing something because I am ready to see what more we can do.