Yes, it is trans genocide (a FAQ and what you can do about it today)
Hi, I would like to convince you of two things: Anti-trans politicians are engaging in genocide. They are using state power to attack trans and non binary people's rights to participate in public life, to access health care, and to keep their kids. This is not political posturing or pandering...
Hi, I would like to convince you of two things:
Anti-trans politicians are engaging in genocide. They are using state power to attack trans and non binary people's rights to participate in public life, to access health care, and to keep their kids. This is not political posturing or pandering. It's genocide.
Stopping genocide requires recognizing the early signs. The most respectful thing you can do to honor the life's work of survivors of genocides is to look out, and pick one thing you can do to help stop another genocide from occurring.
Here are some questions I've seen people ask about calling anti-trans (the term I’ll use throughout to describe things hurting trans and non binary people) laws and infringements genocide, and my best try to answer them. If you already believe me and are just looking for what to do about it, please scroll to the end of this post for concrete, little things you can do TODAY:
What is a genocide?
As with a lot of crimes (e.g. rape, terrorism, organized crime) it depends who you ask, it changes over time, there's a legal definition that sucks in specific ways, and there are experts who disagree on every part of the definition.
In 1946, the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 96 (I) said:
Genocide is a denial of the right of existence of entire human groups, as homicide is the denial of the right to live of individual human beings; such denial of the right of existence shocks the conscience of mankind, results in great losses to humanity in the form of cultural and other contributions represented by these human groups, and is contrary to moral law and to the spirit and aims of the United Nations.
Based on that early definition, the UN put together the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1948. Article 2 says::
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
That definition has two parts. (1) It has to be intentionally destroying a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. And (2) it has to have at least one of the five listed acts. I'll point out that you don't need to kill anyone for it to be a genocide. It's enough that you do terrible non-murder things to them, as long as your intent is to destroy the whole group.
What's wrong with the 1948 Genocide Convention definition?
David Lisson, "Defining 'National Group' in the Genocide Convention: A Case Study of Timor-Leste", 2008:
A difficult provision as a whole, no aspect of Article 2 has proven more vexing and controversial than its selective protection of certain groups…Problematically, the Genocide Convention does not provide definitions of the groups that it protects, and there is no universal understanding of what constitutes a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group.
The list of protected groups is too strict. The UN wrote the 1948 definition to provide a legal punishment for genocide. But they can't actually punish things that the 1946 definition and the rest of the world recognizes as genocide. So for the first fifty years after the definition was created, there were no successful convictions for genocide. The definition was created in 1948; the first successful conviction was in 1998. Here is a long sad wikipedia article describing genocides between 1948 and 1999. The criteria are too strict.
The UN had to compromise on a lot to get the definition agreed on. They left out groups who are regularly targeted during genocide: women, gay people, people with disabilities, and yes, trans people. It wasn't until the Jean-Paul Akayesu judgment in 1998 that rape was even legally recognized to be a crime of genocide.
Lots of experts criticize the 1948 definition for being too narrow for its intended purpose. See Groups Defined by Gender and the Genocide Convention or Defining "National Group" in the Genocide Convention: A Case Study of Timor-Leste or The Genocide Convention and Unprotected Groups: Is the Scope of Protection Expanding under Customary International Law? for examples. It sucks.
Why did they write the 1948 UN definition that way?
The UN needed a definition, and they compromised a lot to get it. Some factions wanted protections only for stable, permanent, or immutable groups (even though religion and nationality are changeable). Some wanted protections for political affiliation. The Soviets really didn't. They ended up trading political groups away, so they could get an international tribunal put in the Convention, and so on.
Also the Nuremberg trials set them up poorly to do an inclusive job. For example, direct testimony about rape was not included in the Nuremberg trials, and the Nuremberg trials "neither formally charged nor prosecuted for rape". When you start from a too-narrow definition and you don't update it over time, it gets real stale. That's especially dangerous when humans are so good at finding new ways to hate each other.
How do experts on genocides define a genocide?
Payam Akhavan, author of "Reducing Genocide to Law: Definition, Meaning, and the Ultimate Crime":
Is it better to not call a genocide "genocide" and do nothing, or is it better to call a genocide "genocide" and still do nothing?
There are like a million definitions, but they always have three things:
It has to be intentional,
The goal has to be destruction or annihilation, and
It has to be of a group or collective of people, not just individuals.
But this is important: groups that work to prevent genocide do not give a shit about squabbling over "this is a genocide and this is not". They focus on identifying features of genocide before they get to Legal Genocide, because you can only prevent genocide, you can't undo it. Take their lead.
For example, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention aims to "raise red flags of genocide at precisely the moment when it may be inconvenient for states and large human rights organizations to do so", because "identifying genocidal dynamics early on is important to domestic and international response". The only moral way to address genocide is by agreeing it's really happening and stopping it in its tracks.
Everyone would be able to tell if something was a genocide. If people disagree that it's a genocide, does that mean it's not one?
No. Denial of genocide always accompanies genocide. Genocides take place over time and escalate from less to more extreme acts. See The Ten Stages of Genocide by Dr. Gregory H Stanton, Founding President of Genocide Watch. Of course if a group jumped from classification (us vs them) to extermination (mass killing), people would notice. But that's not how genocide works. It works by systematically removing the barriers that can prevent the state from eradicating a group of innocent people.
Where in the ten stages of genocide is anti-trans stuff in the US right now?
Let's look.
Classification: By nature, yes. Trans people and cis people are different.
Symbolization: Sure. But as Stanton says, "Classification and symbolization are universally human and do not necessarily result in genocide unless they lead to dehumanization".
Discrimination: You betcha. Missouri's AG just effectively stopped gender-related health care for trans citizens.(New restrictions in Missouri would make gender-affirming care nearly impossible). A trans lawmaker in Montana is being prevented from speaking on any bills. 18% of transgender youth in the US live in states that have already banned trans-related health care (Bans on Best Practice Medical Care for Transgender Youth). We are seeing this in the UK as well. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has proposed that protections and rights based on gender in the UK should be based on "biological sex". This would exclude trans people from single-sex spaces, allow arbitrary discrimination, and remove protections like equal pay from trans women.
Dehumanization: Yes. Vilification of trans people as groomers, pedophiles, child abusers, etc. is rampant in media and in legislatures. Trans people are animals. We are "demons and imps" and "mutants from another planet". Trans customers should be removed from areas where there are children. This is textbook justification for eradication of a group.
Organization: Inside the Secret Working Group That Helped Push Anti-Trans Laws. State legislatures are becoming anti-trans bill factories all working from the same playbook. Having a form where citizens report their trans neighbors or doctors providing assistance to trans people to the government (currently down, thank god) is bringing the public in on it.
Polarization: Yeah, we are certainly at hate groups broadcasting polarizing propaganda.
Preparation: We're definitely indoctrinating the populace with fear of the victim group, stripping our rights while claiming to "protect our children". CPAC Speaker Calls for Transgender People to Be 'Eradicated'
Persecution: Yes, we're here now, too. Texas has turned DFPS into a posse investigating parents of trans kids (Governor’s Letter). Florida just passed a law that would give the state custody of a child if that child transitions.(SB254). That's a bad sign in this direction.
Extermination: Not yet, thank god.
Denial: You betcha.
So yes, the US is actively engaged in most steps of genocide of trans people already.
Isn't it disrespectful to survivors of the Holocaust or other genocides to refer to what's happening to trans people as a genocide?
No.
Jack Kliger, President/CEO, Museum of Jewish Heritage:
When we say that one must never forget the Holocaust, it is because we must never forget how it began, how words gave voice to discrimination and led to genocide.
Gideon Lev, Holocaust Survivor:
Do you know what I think about this as a Holocaust survivor? Trans rights are [the] same as human rights. And I stand with the trans community
Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention:
The ideological constructions of transgender women promoted by gender critical ideologues are particularly genocidal. They share many features in common with other, better known, genocidal ideologies. Transgender women are represented as stealth border crossers who seek to defile the purity of cisgender women, much as Tutsi women were viewed in Hutu Power ideology and Jewish men in Nazi antisemitism. Trans people in general are framed as figures that threaten the wholeness of the patriarchal nuclear family as well as the strength and vitality of national communities, much in the way that ethnic and national targets of genocide are viewed as cosmic enemies of the perpetrator group. Like the religious targets of genocidal violence, trans people are often described as somehow polluted, sinful, or against God. They are blamed for a host of social problems that have nothing to do with them or with the free expression of their identities. The Lemkin Institute reminds readers that one of the first libraries to be burned under the National Socialists in Germany was the library and archive of Magnus Hirshfeld's Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin, a groundbreaking research organization studying human sexuality and gender. The Nazis, like other genocidal groups, believed that national strength and existential power could only be achieved through an imposition of a strict gender binary within the racially-pure "national community." A fundamentalist gender binary was a key feature of Nazi racial politics and genocide.
Marian Turski, Holocaust survivor:
"Don't be indifferent," he said. "That's what I want to say today to my daughter, my grandchildren and their peers, wherever they are."
"Don't be indifferent when you witness historical lies," he said. "Don't be indifferent when the past is manipulated for the sake of current political interests. Don't be indifferent when any minority is discriminated against."
There are exactly two purposes of recognizing genocide:
Preventing it from completing, and
Getting justice for the crimes that have been committed.
Recognizing genocides in progress before they are completed is the only way to prevent crimes against humanity.
Gatekeeping calling something a genocide does nothing to help a group who is facing annihilation. It also does not honor the memories of people who have been victims of genocide. It lets genocide continue to happen without opposition.
How could a law that restricts trans participation in women's sports be an act of a genocide?
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:
In the first six years of Adolf Hitler's dictatorship, Jews felt the effects of more than 400 decrees and regulations on all aspects of their lives. The regulations gradually but systematically took away their rights and property, transforming them from citizens into outcasts. Many of the laws were national ones issued by the German administration, affecting all Jews. State, regional, and municipal officials also issued many decrees in their own communities. As Nazi leaders prepared for war in Europe, antisemitic legislation in Germany and Austria paved the way for more radical persecution of Jews.,
In the first four months of 2023 alone, 46 anti-trans bills have passed, and 359 more are currently active. Genocide never starts with death camps. Laws like this get a foot in the door. They make it law that transgender people are invalid and do not exist, because there is only "biological sex" or "birth sex". It's how you start to isolate a group. You claim they aren’t a legitimate group. You blame them for societal ills. You isolate them from public view, from economic opportunities, from groups you previously belonged to, from positions of respect, from a good life.
Restricting rights of a group to participate in aspects of public life is essential to the genocide playbook. It is based on a made up fear that we are "taking opportunities away from real members of society". It eliminates trans people's rights by falsely claiming to protect women. The actual goal is to set a legal precedent that transgender identity does not legally exist. When you want to prevent a group from existing in society, you first make a law that says "you aren't real to the laws that govern the rest of us".
Lawmakers do not care about women's swimming. They know the public feels something icky by seeing a photo of Lia Thomas next to a smaller swimmer. They feed on stereotype and bigotry wherever they can get it. They are legislating the thing they can get away with. Sadly, sports restrictions on trans women usually end up banning or hurting more cis women than trans people anyway.
Okay, if it's a genocide, what do we do about it? What can I do personally about it?
Assume your action will make a real difference, because every bit of support truly does. There are lots of different levels you can act on to prevent genocide.
I’ll start with IrishNinja’s excellent links to directly help trans people build mutual aid networks:
IrishNinja said:
trans asylum seekers support network, trans resistance network and numerous others are working to build safe networks around the US, providing asylum, transportation and any number of services that at-risk trans folks need
please support your local mutual aid networks, they need it far more & do a lot more with your efforts & donations than the same failing avenues that helped get us here
hachikoma also provided the following info on orgs that can use help:
Equality Federation - EF is the national organization whose express mission it is to support state trans and LGBTQ work. Through technical support, training, re-granting, and coalition-building, EF is the national queer group with the most direct engagement at the state level as well as the connecting tissue between state and federal advocacy.
Trans Justice Funding Project [trans-led] - TJFP's model is community-led direct no-strings-attached grants to trans-led groups around the country.
National Center for Transgender Equality [trans-led] - NCTE is the country's primary trans policy advocacy group. NCTE holds most federal-level engagement, but also supports state work.
Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund [trans-led] - TLDEF is a trans-led litigation org.
Lambda Legal [cis-led] - Lambda is one of the movement's tentpole litigation organizations. They are the national queer org leading the challenge to MO's all-ages healthcare ban.
National Center for Lesbian Rights [cis-led] - NCLR the movement's other large litigation org.
Athlete Ally [cis-led] - LGBTQ advocacy org focused on inclusion in sports.
National Women's Law Center [cis-led] - NWLC, though primarily a women's rights org, is nonetheless extremely active in queer and trans work. They often produce the federal-level formal comments on proposed regulations for the movement orgs to endorse.
You can contribute to groups that prevent genocide, like the Lemkin Institute. That would include donating, promoting awareness, partnering if you're part of a group that might be able to work with them, etc.
You can contribute to groups that are working to overturn these genocidal laws, like https://transgenderlawcenter.org or https://transgenderlegal.org. You can volunteer to text bank from home (https://www.mobilize.us/). That may sound not fun, but it's pretty easy, very low commitment, and you 100% will change some people's minds and make it easier for people to access their voting rights. I've done it, it's not that bad. You can volunteer with the Trevor Project, they're very low on counselors and wait time can make a big difference to a trans person in crisis.
You can use 5calls' templates to tell your lawmaker that you want them to oppose anti-transgender legislation. You can take your pick of trans-supportive organizations in the UK to support. I like Mermaids.
You can give to Global Action for Trans Advocacy, because jeez there are other countries out there too, and trans people need help in all of them.
You can google "how can I help trans people" and take 10 minutes out of your day to look at the top few entries and pick a thing you can do.
You can do a lot, but even one thing will help.
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