We have to stop scapegoating trans people

This Wednesday, on the 67th anniversary of Harry Truman’s executive order integrating the U.S. armed forces, President Trump abruptly announced on Twitter that “the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.”

….Transgender individuals to  serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming…..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

Trump’s tweets signaled the apparent reversal of the 2016 decision allowing trans people to serve openly — as thousands now do. Trump’s twitter outburst has yet to be followed by an actual order to the Pentagon, furthering suspicions that this is an attempt to deflect public attention from Congressional floundering on healthcare legislation or the ongoing investigation into his campaign’s links to Russia. But it’s a mistake to call Trump’s sudden attack on trans service members a “distraction” — it’s part of a larger and frightening pattern of scapegoating trans people for political gain.

{mosads}A wave of anti-trans legislative proposals has swept statehouses across the country in the past few years. Lawmakers in at least 21 states have tried to pass some form of anti-trans legislation, from so-called bathroom bills, which prevent people from using bathrooms and other facilities that accord with their gender identity, to bills that limit access to gender-affirming healthcare and restrict trans students’ rights in public school.

The most notorious of these was North Carolina’s House Bill 2, signed into law in 2016 and partly repealed this year amid nationwide boycotts and protests. But this week, the Texas state senate just passed a bathroom bill of its own, and there will be more to come.

We’ve seen this movie before. The recent rash of anti-trans bills echoes the wave of laws and constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage that served as a partisan rallying point throughout the 1990s and 2000s, from the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act to the passage of Proposition 8 in California in 2008. The Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy kept LGB people from serving openly in the armed forces until 2011.

North Carolina’s HB 2 hearkened to a decades-long pattern of state legislatures seeking to block local anti-discrimination ordinances. But the culture wars have begun to wane. DADT is history, marriage equality is the law of the land, and growing majorities of Americans support these changes. As a result, right-wing activists, donors, and politicians are seeking a new wedge issue to mobilize their base. They think they’ve found it in us.

Targeting transgender Americans is a deeply cynical political move — after all, Trump himself promised at the Republican National Convention to “do everything in my power to protect our LGBT citizens.” Trump justified his decision by calling trans people are a burden because of “the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail”— but the armed forces spend five times as much on Viagra as they do on trans healthcare. His argument is as flimsy as those made in support of bathroom bills, which portray trans people as potential predators despite the fact that they are overwhelmingly the targets of violence.

These policies aren’t based on actual evidence. What they all share is the narrative that trans people pose a threat — to military cohesion, to the safety and privacy of your children, to the national purse— that justifies singling us out for discrimination and abuse.

Scapegoating minorities has long been a popular tactic for authoritarian-minded leaders. The recipe for demagoguery is simple: find a group marginalized enough to attack safely, whether that’s refugees, religious minorities, or queer people, and make them into a problem that needs to be solved by decisive action.

Many countries have targeted LGBT people in this manner. Russia has seen a barrage of homophobic legislation over the past decade, including 2013’s “gay propaganda” law, which essentially bans any public support for LGBT rights or lives. Same-sex relationships were already illegal in Uganda, but that didn’t stop its parliament from passing the 2014 Anti-Homosexuality Act, which increased the penalty to death (later changed to life in prison), in the wake of a campaign portraying LGBT people a threat to the family and the nation. These campaigns have exacerbated homophobia and transphobia, and are often accompanied by a rise in homophobic violence.

By scapegoating trans people, Trump and his supporters are playing with fire. These policies will do real harm if they are implemented—but they’re doing real harm already, by increasing the stigma that trans people face and sending the message that discrimination is justified. Trans people in America already face devastating levels of trauma and violence, especially trans women of color.

Trump’s reckless tweets, like the bathroom bills, will just amplify the hate. That’s why it’s crucial for Americans to resist — just as many have resisted similar efforts to target Muslims and immigrants. Trump’s tweets have already been met with widespread outcry, and even some Republican senators have indicated opposition to reinstating the ban. Trans people and our allies will continue to fight back against discrimination and defend our right to healthcare, and we will win. But we don’t deserve to be scapegoated just for trying to live our lives.

Wiktor Dynarski is a program officer with the Open Society Public Health Program, where they focus on trans and intersex health and rights.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.