US in the ‘early stages’ of a trans genocide, experts claim

The US is showing early warning signs of a genocide against trans and non-binary people, according to experts and scholars.

Concerns highlighted by the Lemkin Institute, a multinational genocide prevention organisation, warn the escalating political attacks against trans, non-binary, and intersex Americans could lead to a “mass atrocity”.

Multiple genocide scholars, including two former presidents of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), claimed in an interview with journalist Walker Bragman that the country could in the near future see policies that make lives for trans people “intolerable”.

Under international law, genocide refers to the systemic destruction, in whole or in part, of a religious, national, ethnic, or racial group. Experts have warned the law’s list of protected characteristics is too narrow.

Former IAGS president Dr Henry Theriault, who headed the organisation from 2017 to 2021, claimed the political and legal shift towards the right has allowed US President Donald Trump and his administration to more openly express a “blatant hatred” towards the demographic.

“I think we’re already at the point for trans folks, for immigrants, where the damage is being done,” Theriault said. “So it’s not so much ‘will genocide happen?’ as ‘we’ve got to stop it from happening.’”

US politicians, particularly Republicans, have over the past few years pushed a number of transphobic laws both federally and in state legislatures.

In 2025 alone there were 616 anti-LGBTQ+ bills, the majority of which target trans people, proposed in states across the country according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

US is trying to ‘destroy a gender group’, experts warn

Dr Gregory Stanton, former IAGS president and founder of the group Genocide Watch, argued these attacks represent a “genocidal” attempt to make it impossible for trans people to live their lives.

He noted that Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term “genocide” in the 1940s, previously said the term can apply to demographics beyond religious, national, ethnic, or racial characteristics.

“His view was that political groups, cultural groups, social groups, economic groups … should all be included in the definition of genocide. I think he also would have included gender groups.

“I think what [US politicians] are doing here is they’re trying to destroy a gender group,” he continued. “And so I do think it’s genocidal. I think that the objective here is literally, physically, to destroy this group.”

In the days after becoming president, Trump signed a waft of transphobic executive orders including, but not limited to, banning trans people from joining the US military, denying life-saving gender-affirming care for trans youth, and censoring mentions of LGBTQ+ people in school curriculum.

Dr Stanton said he believed the US was undergoing a “hardening of the categories” by enforcing its belief that there are only two sexes, which he said allows the administration to target people more specifically.

Haley Brown, a former genocide researcher, highlighted the government’s regular use of the term “Cultural Marxism” – a pejorative term baselessly claiming leftists, feminists, socialists, and LGBTQ+ people are trying to destroy Western civilisation.

She noted the term almost completely mirrors “Cultural Bolshevism”, which was used by the Nazis to justify their Antisemitic belief leading up to the Holocaust.

“The Trump administration and its bases…have identified a set of ‘enemies’ or ‘objectionable people,” Dr Theriault said, adding it is fomenting public prejudice against them “in a way that is escalating towards violence”.

In July 2025, the Lemkin Institute issued a “red flag” warning over similar political attacks in the UK, arguing that judicial and political attacks on trans people risked segregating them as “others.”