Republicans Pivot Anti-Trans Rhetoric Away From Trans Kids, Declare All Trans People the ‘Root of Evil’
As Republicans turn their attacks towards trans adults, more and more conservatives are pushing to remove trans people from public life entirely. Here’s what’s been said.
For the past few years, the loudest anti-trans rhetoric has fallen into two categories—‘fairness’ and ‘protecting kids’—and the policies that have been implemented by Republican states mostly reflect this. As of right now, every Republican-controlled state has enacted a sports ban, and, with the exception of Alaska, this is also true for gender-affirming care bans. And yet, other areas, like IDs, Medicaid coverage, and even bathrooms, are much less homogenous, with some red states having moderately progressive policies on a trans-related issue while others simply don’t address it at all.
Because, for the past few years, trans adults have mostly been left alone. But this is changing: since Trump took office, Republicans have started targeting trans adults too—restricting passports to ‘biological sex,’ stripping protections for trans inmates, weaponising federal funds against trans bathroom use, and banning trans soldiers from the military.
But perhaps more concerning is the fact that transphobic rhetoric is also shifting away from ‘fairness’ in sports and ‘protecting kids from mutilation.’ Instead, in the wake of the Annunciation shooting and Charlie Kirk’s assassination, some conservatives have begun casting all trans people as a fundamental threat to society. And this extreme rhetoric is starting to gain steam.
There were glimpses of this back in September. Early in the month, it was reported that the Trump administration was exploring ways to restrict trans people from owning guns—a right conservatives typically argue is near-absolute. Then, a week later, House Republican Nancy Mace (SC-01), who is considered to be one of the most anti-trans members of Congress, screamed that “[transgender] people are violently ill and should be in a straight jacket with a hard steel lock on it” while parroting the debunked right-wing myth that a trans person was responsible for Charlie Kirk’s death. Following Mace’s comments, another House Republican, Ronny Jackson (TX-13), said this during an interview on Newsmax:
“We have to do something about this, we have to get [trans people] off the streets and we have to get them off the internet and we can’t let them communicate with one another. I’m all about free speech, but this is a virus. This is a cancer that is spreading across this country.”
The next day, news broke that the FBI was planning to create a new subcategory under the ‘Nihilistic Violent Extremists’ label specifically for trans suspects of domestic terrorism. While this won’t necessarily designate all trans people as extremists, its existence feeds into the idea of a “transgender violence epidemic” and will provide a backdoor for the FBI to harass trans Americans.
The Heritage Foundation went even further and urged the FBI to surveil anyone who believes opposition to trans rights is harmful to trans people in order to “predict future attacks.” According to the most recent information, the FBI has not acted in accordance with the Heritage Foundation’s plan. And for a few months, that appeared to be the end of this rhetoric, but now that the House of Representatives passed Marjorie Taylor Greene’s gender-affirming care ban for trans kids last month, Republicans are revisiting these attacks.
On December 18th, during a Health and Human Services press conference that saw RFK Jr. announce new federal rules that, if implemented, will almost entirely ban gender-affirming care for minors nationwide, Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services and acting CDC Director Jim O’Neill said the following:
“Men are men. Men can never become women. Women are women. Women can never become men. [pauses for applause from other Trump officials] Children are innocent and they need our protection. [pauses for more applause] It takes organized efforts to deny these fundamental truths. Sadly, we’ve seen such efforts succeed from time to time.
The denial of fundamental truths can destroy nations from within. At the root of the evils we face, such as the blurring of the lines between sexes and radical social agendas, is a hatred for nature as God designed it and for life as it was meant to be lived. This ideology does not just deny biology; it declares war against it.”
Of course, there’s nothing accidental about O’Neill’s statement. While the first part of this quote is reminiscent of the all-too-familiar ‘protecting kids’ narrative, there’s another side to it. It casts the existence of trans people as inherently immoral and in direct conflict with ‘biology’ and Christianity. But this isn’t new: for many years now, Republicans—like House Speaker Mike Johnson—have been justifying transphobic policies with religious messaging.
That said, even when compared to other Trump officials’ comments on trans people, the tone of O’Neill’s rhetoric is significantly more dangerous. It doesn’t only justify the actions being taken by the CDC against trans minors; it lays the groundwork for future attacks on trans adults. In fact, it already did: during the same press conference, the FDA also announced it had issued warning letters to a dozen manufacturers of chest binders over what it deemed to be “illegal marketing.”
Even worse, there’s no tangible legal difference between the rule the HHS is proposing now (which conditions being able to accept Medicaid and Medicare on not providing gender-affirming care to minors) and a hypothetical, expanded version of the rule that applies to gender-affirming care for all ages. So, if the proposed rule is eventually upheld by the Supreme Court, there being a nationwide transgender healthcare ban will effectively be left to whether or not the HHS decides to implement one. And as the second most powerful health official in the United States, Jim O’Neill will have much influence over that decision—and he’s already made his stance abundantly clear.
And it wasn’t just O’Neill either. The next day, conservative political commentator Benny Johnson, in a speech at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest in Phoenix, escalated even further while speaking about Charlie Kirk’s death:
“The person who pulled the trigger is part of the demonic transgender ideology that warps the minds of our young children, that poisons them, that is antithetical to creation itself. God called on us: I maketh you, man and woman. God doesn’t make mistakes. Transgenderism is a lie from the pit of hell and I’m sick of seeing transgender violence and murderers in my country!”
After receiving a standing ovation for these remarks, Johnson again, without evidence, alluded to the “trans shooter” myth before continuing:
“Now it’s time to kick in doors, right? Come on, FBI, do some door kicking. Round ‘em up! The violent Antifa members, the ‘Trantifa’ members—it’s time, okay?! Use [Charlie Kirk’s death] as a moment—that should’ve been the moment, but we didn’t have that moment, sadly, because there was too much tearing at the seams. It’s time to focus, ladies and gentlemen, on what’s truly ripping—the true evils, demonic evils that are ripping this country apart.”
Following this, Johnson played the beginning of Jim O’Neill’s speech for the crowd, celebrating the fact that O’Neill had the “full weight of the American federal government behind him.”
It’s important to note that there are two things that can be done with the “kids are being groomed” rhetoric. The first is turning it towards “stopping the grooming,” which is what Republicans have mostly been running on. But there’s another way it can be weaponised: towards retribution against the “groomers.”
Think of it like this: right now, the focus is on removing what Republicans believe is making kids become trans—to take away trans people’s “tools.” But when they’re done with that, the messaging they’ve employed throughout the decade ensures they won’t be able to simply run on maintaining that status quo. That’s why, right now, they’re actively laying the groundwork to run on punishing the “groomers” (read: trans people) for what they “did” before Republicans stopped them.
And as such, in many of the states where Republicans have passed the anti-trans policies they ran on, they’ve quietly implemented other restrictions. Yet, they don’t advertise these moves as much as they do their actions to “protect kids” because the rhetoric simply hasn’t gotten there in the eyes of the electorate. Should Republicans start running on restricting trans adults, it’s possible that it’ll backfire. Because, despite what Republicans think, few voters are actually swayed by transphobia, and when they are, it’s usually because of wanting to “protect kids.”
But if people like Benny Johnson and Jim O’Neill get their way, Republicans may try making attacks against trans adults the centrepiece of their campaign in this year’s midterms. It’ll be up to voters to put a stop to it.
"This ideology does not just deny biology; it declares war against it.”
“Now it’s time to kick in doors, right? Come on, FBI, do some door kicking. Round ‘em up! The violent Antifa members, the ‘Trantifa’ members—it’s time, okay?!"
These two quotes really stand out, a designation of being transgender as an "ideology" "at war" with conservatives beliefs, and a direct call for violence against trans people.
This by definition is stochastic terrorism against trans people.
“Men are men. Men can never become women. Women are women. Women can never become men.”
Yes, indeed. This is why we need G.A.C. to be universally available, because people should not be forced to live as the incorrect gender. To be clear in what I mean— a trans woman is and always was a woman. A trans man is and always has been a man. He was so close with this quote, and yet, so far from actual understanding.