Shannon Fyfe (Washington and Lee University School of Law) has posted State Legislatures and Trans Genocide (?) in the United States (Tennessee Journal of Race, Gender, & Social Justice, volume 14, issue 2, 2025) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
For trans* young people, accessing gender-affirming care is crucial. By allowing individuals to align their physical body and/or their social presentations with their gender identity, gender-affirming health care contributes to both physical and mental health. However, thirty-nine percent of trans* youth in the U.S. live in a state that has enacted a law and/or policy that limits their access to gender-affirming care. Legislators claim that young people will grow to regret both permanent and temporary health care decisions that involve gender-affirming care, even when they are indicated by medical professionals. Some have argued that preventing trans* youth from accessing gender-affirming care is an attempt to destroy the trans* community, as such. Either trans* youth will lose their trans* community, or they will die of suicide before they become trans* adults.
In this article, I analyze legislative attempts to limit access to gender-affirming care for trans* youth in the U.S. and consider whether they might constitute a genocidal campaign against the trans* community. I conclude that while they likely do not meet the legal definition, we must take the wrongdoing of legislators and the harm to trans* youth seriously.
