Over the past five years, the United States has seen more anti-trans legislation proposed than in the previous two centuries combined. While hostility toward gender nonconformity and trans existence is far from new, the forms of contemporary transphobia have shifted marked by an unprecedented surge in paranoia and repression. Historically, trans communities often faced extralegal violence or were subsumed within broader attacks on gay and lesbian people. But in the 2020s, anti-trans sentiment became increasingly formalized, with transphobia codified directly into law.

During this decade, religious, political, medical, and educational institutions worldwide launched a relentless series of legal and cultural assaults on trans lives. In response to these highly coordinated and strategic efforts, trans studies scholars Eagan Dean (postdoctoral fellow at the Clayman Institute), Ava L.J. Kim (assistant professor at UC Davis), and Susan Stryker (historian and Clayman Institute distinguished visitor) joined Clayman Institute Director Adrian Daub for a panel titled “Trans Persistence Under Attack.” The conversation explored the historical patterns and present-day manifestations of anti-trans ideologies, highlighting the long-standing mechanisms of gender regulation and the renewed urgency of resisting them.

Panelists emphasized that trans persistence means continuing to live and exist in defiance of the social, legal, and economic systems designed to uphold rigid gender norms. Today’s anti-trans movement not only targets trans individuals but also aims to erase trans history itself. Daub and Stryker described this as part of a larger assault on “expertise,” where trans identity is cast as a recent invention an effort Stryker characterized as a “politically forced amnesia.”

This erasure, however, is not without precedent. Nearly a century ago, the Nazis destroyed Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin one of the world’s first research centers for trans and queer life. Daub drew parallels between today’s anti-trans rhetoric and the Nazis’ appeals to “common sense” and the “common people” as a justification for authoritarian control. Likewise, today’s anti-trans groups have created pseudo-professional institutions like the American College of Pediatrics, which mimics the name of the more established American Academy of Pediatrics to lend credibility to their transphobic agendas, as noted by both Kim and Stryker.

A key difference between past and present, the panelists observed, lies in the explicitness of today’s anti-trans rhetoric. In earlier decades, trans people were vilified as “strange,” “promiscuous,” or broadly “queer,” with laws targeting behaviors like cross-dressing, public sex, and perceived moral disorder. These laws disproportionately impacted poor, racialized individuals and anyone outside the normative nuclear family. Today, however, anti-trans legislation directly targets trans identities banning discussions of gender transition, access to gender-affirming care, and recognition of trans existence itself.

One factor behind this shift is the growing visibility and vocabulary surrounding trans lives in the 21st century. Anti-trans actors now exploit this visibility to repackage older homophobic narratives, portraying trans people as threats to children, women, families, and even societal stability. Dean remarked that what’s particularly new is how ordinary people have begun acting as self-appointed enforcers of gender norms moving from passive observers to active gatekeepers in schools, clinics, and everyday public spaces.

Media portrayals have evolved too. As Dean explained, early 20th-century press coverage of trans individuals often treated them as sensational oddities, blending scandal and spectacle. Today, the focus has turned more ominously toward regulation and punishment, with anti-trans figures attempting to police gender expression both online and offline.

The panel underscored the importance of understanding both the historical continuity and the novel dimensions of current anti-trans efforts. Recognizing these patterns is critical, especially as modern transphobia increasingly calls into question the effectiveness of a purely rights-based framework for inclusion. Rather than relying solely on state recognition, the panelists advocated for building resilient, interdependent communities where trans lives are affirmed and protected regardless of shifting legal landscapes.

Source: https://gender.stanford.edu/news/continuities-and-developments-anti-trans-efforts-and-resistance