A moral panic is sweeping state legislatures across the United States, an irrational sense that harmless groups pose a threat to society and must be stopped. The epidemic relies on an emotional and political set of rhetoric and laws that label some people worthy of social and political support, and others…trans children and adults– as deviants.
There’s no need to hide from the panic: So far this year, state lawmakers have introduced 543 bills in 49 states identified as anti-transgender legislation; 32 more tickets aim to prevent drag queens from performing in certain spaces. Montana, for example, has banned trans children from receiving health care in conjunction with their parents and doctors. The law is called “Provide a law on the protection of the health of young people”. Tennessee banned drag clothes in public spaces. This legislation makes trans and gender non-conforming people vulnerable to discrimination.
This morality police signals a new form of governance over gender identity in the United States. However, the underlying issue is not gender, but rather a “war on youth” that uses trans issues as a way to impose control on children, adolescents and all young people. people. This charade is consistent with the literature: “Moral panic is the triggering of moral uneasiness in the face of a supposed threat from a corrupt agent that is out of proportion to his actual danger,” according to the researchers. Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda.
Historically, panics emerged about witches, comics, music lyrics, video games, kids playing soccer, Books by Judy Blume, satanic cult Or drag queens. The common thread between them all is a grievance-driven attempt to control people. Today, state-sanctioned transphobia and racism send a message about who should feel safe in society and who shouldn’t. or like transgender advocate Eloise Brook told me over email, “The only thing conservatives can think of doing to stem the tide of tolerance is to undertake a national project to legislate gender diversity out of the public eye.”
Anti-trans laws send the message that non-reproductive sex, reproductive health, and bodily autonomy are not acceptable. Ultimately, it tells a story about who has the power: if we can erase trans people, we can erase anyone; if we can delete homosexual books, we can delete any book; if we can silence the drag queens, we can silence you.
A central motivating principle of moral panics is that they play out in front of a large audience. Small topics, such as drag shows, libraries, manuals, are often proxy devices for public disapproval. The identified target is almost always symbolic or incidental, except in that it provides cover for legislative actions and generates visibility that can garner political and financial support. Here we see that “moral panic capitalism” can be lucrative: emotionally volatile legislation is designed to divide people as well as to sell t shirts and bumper stickers. It is the belly of epidemics, where anger attracts money and fuels organized outrage.
More often than not, moral panics are about preserving youth-oriented standards. Studies by researchers Stanley Cohen and Jock Young on the moral panics of the 1960s focused on youth culture. Today, the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative religious advocacy group, justified its support for Montana’s recent law by saying it protects “vulnerable children.” And Governor Ron DeSantis Florida “Don’t Say Gay” Legislation is much more than homosexual students; it represents a presupposed crisis in determining what young people say in class and what they read in social studies textbooks. The law talks about using schools to exercise power and control. The governor champions a state message directed against youth behavior that defines the terms of their free speech on his turf.
There are several reasons for the pronounced increase in moral panics in the United States, ranging from ICT TacThe ‘Libs of TikTok’ videos about vaccines, and the fury sparked by ‘groomers’ and sexting via Snapchat, to the structural factors of American politics, which favor those on the far right at the expense of the LGBTQ+ community. For example, gerrymandering reduces the importance of general elections for both parties and emphasizes the more polarized primary voter. Large, powerful, conservative organizations are also stirring up panic to elect friendly lawmakers. The Alliance Defending Freedom, which supports the conservatives push anti-trans laws based on its mission, “committed to protecting religious freedom, freedom of expression, parental rights and the sanctity of life”. Partisan outlet Fox News bombards its audience with mention of critical race theory, seen as a threat by extreme conservatives and the hotbed of related panic, more than 1,300 times in just four months in 2021.
Indeed, each epidemic tells us much more about those who militarize them than about their targets. There is a right wing moral panic industrial complex which raises highly emotional issues, which attract media attention on demand. (The left doesn’t often fight fire with fire, or moral panic with moral panic, that way, because they often represent very marginalized groups who lack power and who are attacked.) Evangelical nationalists are a mobile minority in the far-right community, and their positions produce clusters of highly emotional and incendiary political ideas designed to scare the wider community and impose elements of the world they want: a fragile, racist, xenophobic, homophobic and transphobic society, where petty grievances prowl like wolves wrapped in moralizing sheep’s clothing.
These panics are not just words: they can hurt and kill people. Political hate speech can create conditions that promote hate crimes. Groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) have has historically facilitated a pipeline of anti-LGBTQ+ state legislation which locates the trans and queer community in the shadow of society. More precisely, 59 trans and gender non-conforming people were killed in 2021 in the United States According to a study by THE Journal of Hate StudiesFBI statistics show that hate crimes against transgender and gender non-conforming people increased 587% between 2013 and 2019.
Those who claim to be “pro-life” should make it a priority to help protect the trans community, as research indicates that 48% of the people in this population are under the age of 26 will attempt suicide. But instead of protection, trans kids are pushed to the edge by exaggerated accounts that claim they are burdens, worthless and deviant. This singles them out for ridicule and insults from the state and society. These attacks, in addition to denying them medical care, risk serious harm to each of them.
This is an opinion and analytical article, and the opinions expressed by the author or authors are not necessarily those of American scientist.