The Trans Genocide Myth and Trans Violence

Who's really at risk?

Mar 29, 2023

This is a screenshot of a tweet by the ACLU of Indiana, equating bills banning gender affirming care for minors with trans erasure and genocide.

For years, myths have gone around about a trans genocide. You hear people, particularly those who are trans-identified, say that people want to kill them. There is a targeted response towards conservatives and their views, and it is usually conservatives who are said to want to kill “trans people.” This is false, however.

In decent months, trans-identifying people have been alerting one another about “rampant transphobia” and the “oncoming trans genocide,” even going so far as to tell each other to arm themselves.

Doesn't this begin to spin a different narrative?

The truth is, conservatives don't want to kill trans-identifying people. Conservatives generally support child protection bills, which trans-identifying people have deemed “anti-lgbtq+.” This is where the tension lies.

The Lie

The lie is that conservatives and people supporting child protection bills want to erase and kill trans-identifying people.

But what is the point of the lie?

It's a fear mongering tactic used against suicidal teens to convince them that anyone not affirming them wants them dead.

When I was a suicidal teen myself, deep in the trans community, trans-identifying adults told me that anyone who did not affirm me wanted me dead.

I believed them.

I fully believed that the adults around me who did not want me to poison, mutilate, and sterilize myself wanted me to die. This is due to several reasons.

First, I was suicidal. When adults told me that other people wanted me dead, too, and not just myself, I believed them. I believed that I was such a bad and unloveable person, and so terrible at being a girl, that other people wanted me to die, too.

Second, I believed that transitioning was the cure. This has roots in another lie, the trans suicide myth, which tells children that it's “transition on suicide” and that those are their only two options. So, when people were doing what I saw as trying to keep me away from the “cure,” which was transition, I thought that it was an attempt to erase and murder me.

The Bills

Now that States are rolling out bills to protect women and children, trans people are feeling attacked and attacking back.

Recently, hundreds of trans-identifying people protested against trans genocide, and there even exists an organization to stop it. But it's not happening.

These bills are not genocide. They do not stop trans-identifying people from receiving gender affirming care, even though none of the medication if FDA approved and there are no peer reviewed studies supporting them, once they turn 18. These bills stop the sterilization of children.

Other bills are being put into place to protect women's sports. This is not genocide either. No trans-identifying male will die because he was not allowed to compete against women.

Trans Day of Vengeance

In response to these bills and the trans genocide myth, trans-identifying people have decided to have another day for and about themselves, and this time, it's “trans day of vengeance.”

Detransitioners have been told by concerned supporters to stay inside on April 1st, the ironic date chosen for this day. We have seen signs and shirts that say “protect trans kids” with imagery of knives and guns. But what this really means is, “Allow children to be sterilized or face violence.”