Content warning: The following article includes discussions of transphobic hate speech.
In September, Pete Hegseth gave a speech stating the Department of Defense would have “no more trannies, just training.” He was met with cheers. He followed this up a few days later with another speech, listing “trannies” among the kinds of people who will not be tolerated in the military. On Oct. 5, Donald Trump posted to Truth Social disparaging cisgender Democratic Senate candidate and pediatrician Annie Andrews with an anti-trans slur three times; he began his post with, “Annie ‘Trannie’ Andrews is running against our wonderful Darline Graham.”
Both statements indicate attempts by two of the most powerful people in America to normalize the dehumanization of trans people. The worst part is that it’s working.
“SNL” played a clip of Hegseth’s “just training” statement live and uncensored in its season 52 premiere, while two episodes later, Shane Gillis had to apologize for letting the f-word slip before it could be bleeped. Annie Andrews didn’t respond to Trump’s use of the slur by showing support for trans people, instead choosing to release an ad stating she doesn’t support “biological men playing women’s sports” or “gender surgery for minors,” leaving the slurs unquestioned.
The normalization of slurs is a terrifying new low for me and many other trans people, but dehumanization is nothing new. Every mass shooter is immediately labeled as trans with no evidence. We’re described as pedophilic predators, rapists and terrorists. Slurs are just the next step in a genocide against trans people that has been progressing for years now, yet the concept of trans genocide is still a radical idea. It’s plain to see that trans rights are under attack, but the idea of a full-on genocide is often met with dismissal.
Admittedly, the trans genocide perpetrated by the American government doesn’t fit most people’s understanding of genocide. We’re not being rounded up in droves like how ICE is detaining immigrants and Latinos en masse or like Jewish people and the Gestapo. That kind of genocide is modeled by Dr. Gregory H. Stanton’s “Ten Stages of Genocide,” which describes how genocides utilize direct arrests and killings of a target group. However, trans genocide in America has, so far, focused on pressuring us to kill ourselves.
The three major goals of this genocide have included limiting knowledge of trans people, removing access to spaces for our preferred genders — e.g. banning trans women in women’s sports and anti-trans bathroom bills — and removing access to vital gender-affirming medical care.
Lacking medical care is not an effective way to heal somebody. Without medical care, broken bones don’t heal reliably, cancer kills, and trans people don’t stop being trans. Gender affirming care can come in the form of medical care like hormone therapy and surgeries, but can also include everyday changes, such as new clothes, a change in hairstyle or being called by a new name. Even though small steps like these may seem inconsequential, they help us feel more like ourselves and less like what society forces us to be, and every trans person may need something different to be themselves. Without meeting that level of care, many of us fall into a depression that ends with suicide.
Anti-trans politicians support this. They want trans people to feel boxed in by our assigned gender at birth with no other way out, and by suppressing knowledge about trans people through “Don’t Say Gay” bills and book-bannings, deny many trans people the opportunity of knowing and accepting that they’re trans so that they can get the support they need. If we don’t resort to suicide, we may instead choose to detransition, or transition back to our assigned gender at birth. This, too, furthers the genocide. If there are no more trans people, whether truly or just in practice, the genocide is complete.
However, this current method of genocide may not be the case for much longer. ICE has gotten rid of medical care and sexual assault protections for trans people and has stopped providing data on how many trans people are being detained by ICE. Earlier this year, a new counterterrorism strategy was implemented by the Executive Branch, targeting “violent secular political groups whose ideology is anti-American, radically pro-transgender, and anarchist,” implicitly labelling all trans people as terrorists, which will be, “mapped at home… [and crippled] operationally before they can maim or kill the innocent.”
Knowing that a genocide is here and is only getting worse, what can be done? If you know a trans person, treat them with humanity and kindness. Advocate and protest for us, donate to charities and, most importantly, vote in the upcoming midterms.
If you act now, there may still be time to save us.