We’re Barreling Toward Stage Nine of Trans Genocide

Thanks again, Florida.

Trigger warning: discussions of suicide, death penalty, sexual assault of minors.

I wrote about how Republicans are trying to implement trans genocide in America a few weeks ago, and oh man have they escalated. First off, in my home state of Missouri, the legislature and Attorney General are in the process of banning or limiting gender-affirming care for all residents, not just children.

That is wrong on so many levels, not least of which because it will drive numerous trans youth and adults to suicide, but that’s the point, I suspect. The modern Republican party is built around unfettered cruelty to all who are unlike them, and this is just a piece of it — the push for trans genocide by any means necessary. If they just so happen to take their own lives, that’s one less person to execute in the genocide.

Speaking of execution, though, Florida is attempting to implement the death penalty for child rape. This is an interesting issue because I think we can agree that people who rape children are just the worst. I do not agree with the death penalty in any case, but child rapists are possibly worse than murderers in my book (and many people agree). They are also trying to change the law so that only eight of 12 jurors need to recommend the death penalty to implement it.

That said, there is a lot of case law that states that the death penalty is only for murders and to issue it otherwise is unconstitutional. Regardless of whether I disagree with the death penalty or not, I can honestly agree that executing people for crimes other than murder seems cruel and unusual according to the Constitution, no matter how heinous the crime is.

That hasn’t stopped Florida Republicans from pushing this law, doing their best to take advantage of a much more conservative Supreme Court in both Florida and the US. I think they hope to override the existing case law which prevents the death penalty for anything but murder, and the Court’s willingness to overturn Roe v. Wade gives them a lot of hope.

Wait a second, Matthew, you might say. How does this tie back to trans genocide? You’ve just talked about executing child rapists — how does that relate to trans folx?

Well, there are a bunch of laws being passed throughout the country banning drag shows around minors (and drag in general) on top of other efforts to ban trans folx from receiving gender-affirming care. There is a lot of language on the right around people who do drag shows (and queer folx in general) “grooming” kids, making them out to be sexual predators who prey on minors.

This rhetoric has been around for a long time but has experienced a resurgence as the right has been pushing its efforts to enact genocide on trans and queer folx. Much of the right’s rhetoric around banning drag shows are focused on the notion that drag queens (and kings) are somehow indoctrinating kids when they do family-friendly events.

Additionally, the right generally does not acknowledge that trans people exist, viewing them as either sick or sexual deviants. A regular argument against trans folx is that women don’t want to share bathrooms with a “man in a dress,” which is ridiculous for so many reasons. However, do not think for a second that they won’t continue to weaponize that against trans folx.

When you get a bunch of men in dresses, whether they are drag queens or trans women, who are suddenly prohibited from interacting with kids in any way, you suddenly have blanket permission to arrest any of them and charge them with sex crimes against children. And, when sex crimes against children are punishable by death and determined by only eight of 12 jurors, it doesn’t take much to get to stage nine of trans genocide.

Just a reminder, the ten stages of genocide are as follows:

1. Classification — The differences between people are not respected. There’s a division between ‘us’ and ‘them’ which can be carried out using stereotypes, or excluding people who are perceived to be different.
2. Symbolisation — This is a visual manifestation of hatred. Jews in Nazi Europe were forced to wear yellow stars to show that they were ‘different’.
3. Discrimination — The dominant group denies civil rights or even citizenship to identified groups. The 1935 Nuremberg Laws stripped Jews of their German citizenship, made it illegal for them to do many jobs or to marry German non-Jews.
4. Dehumanisation — Those perceived as ‘different’ are treated with no form of human rights or personal dignity. During the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, Tutsis were referred to as ‘cockroaches’; the Nazis referred to Jews as ‘vermin’.
5. Organisation — Genocides are always planned. Regimes of hatred often train those who go on to carry out the destruction of a people.
6. Polarisation — Propaganda begins to be spread by hate groups. The Nazis used the newspaper Der Stürmer to spread and incite messages of hate about Jewish people.
7. Preparation — Perpetrators plan the genocide. They often use euphemisms such as the Nazis’ phrase ‘The Final Solution’ to cloak their intentions. They create fear of the victim group, building up armies and weapons.
8. Persecution — Victims are identified because of their ethnicity or religion and death lists are drawn up. People are sometimes segregated into ghettos, deported or starved and property is often expropriated. Genocidal massacres begin.
9. Extermination — The hate group murders their identified victims in a deliberate and systematic campaign of violence. Millions of lives have been destroyed or changed beyond recognition through genocide.
10. Denial — The perpetrators or later generations deny the existence of any crime.

These do not have to be linear, either — many of these steps can occur simultaneously. Make no mistake, if Republicans are able to pass laws that make sex crimes against children punishable by death, it won’t be long before they’re rounding up and executing queer and trans folx in every red state that can manage to pass these laws.

Remember, with modern Republicans, cruelty is the point. They are trying to instill fear in those who might oppose them by criminalizing everything that they oppose. Republicans are all about keeping big government out of people’s lives, unless, of course, you’re queer, trans, a woman, or a minority. Then it’s all about legislating what you can and cannot do with your body. Hell, they tried to outlaw the Democratic party at one point (again, in Florida), however jokingly or ineffectually.

Republicans are rapidly turning into modern American fascists, attempting to exert control over anyone and everyone who disagrees with them. They will weaponize the government they claim to abhor against those who might stand up to them, jailing or just straight-up murdering anyone who dares to not be a straight cis white man.

It’s anything goes at this point and we cannot let them win. This is a battle for the soul of American democracy, and everything from basic freedoms to our right to bodily autonomy is on the line. We cannot let them win; if we do, the American experiment will be well and truly dead.

Be well out there.

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