The GOP Doesn’t Want to Punish Trans
People—It Wants to Eradicate Them
Jan 19
At the 2023 Conservative Political
Action Conference, Michael Knowles
took the main stage and called for
the “eradication of transgenderism
from public life” to a standing
ovation. Not long after, Project
2025 (led by the Heritage
Foundation) published the “Mandate
for Leadership,” a 900-plus-page
blueprint for the next Republican
administration. The first legislative
item in the executive summary declares
that “transgender ideology” is a
form of pornography, and that all
pornography should be outlawed.
It then goes on to call all trans
people “child predators and
misogynistic exploiters of women.”
It further demands that anyone who
is a “purveyor of transgender
ideology” be put on sex offender
lists and imprisoned.
We already have the first state
proposing bills to do exactly this
(and more) less than a week into
the new legislative year. By
January 17, more than 200 anti-
transgender bills have already
been filed. West Virginia’s
Senate Bill 197 defines the
existence of transgender people
as “obscene” and bans them from
being within 2,500 feet of any
school. Senate Bill 194 would
not only ban all transition-
related care for anyone over the
age of 21, but would also require
that all providers (including
therapists of all types) attempt
to “cure” them. It would define
being transgender as a “sexual
deviation,” like pedophilia,
exhibitionism, masochism,
sadomasochism, or fetishism.
Senate Bill 195 in West
Virginia would declare that any
material related to being
transgender is obscene, which
would have far-reaching
implications for the internet
and the First Amendment.
https://newrepublic.com/article/178175/republican-anti-trans-laws-punish
-eradicate