Radicalization problems

I really wish the Trump administration, which is busy issuing gender-related executive orders and messaging, were taking into account the reality that we're dealing with a radicalized population that includes a lot of very vulnerable, psychologically unwell young people who've been told for years to expect a "trans genocide."

I don't think we have a mass-deradicalization playbook to dust off and put into action. But it’s imperative to be as clear and specific about what's being proposed (and what isn’t!) and as compassionate about the "why?" as possible.

I realize that for Trump, the appeal is the culture war. But many of the people working behind the scenes to craft these executive orders and shape public messaging should know better than to use inflammatory language. Trust me, describing what's happening in plain English is damning enough.

Even something like: "The federal government has no interest––positive or negative––in gender identity. People are free to hold unusual beliefs about themselves but these beliefs should not be reflected on government documents and should never overwrite sex. Therefore, we will no longer issue identification documents that reflect self-identified gender identity, as opposed to biological sex observed at birth..." would help.

The federal government needs to explain its sudden divestment from gender identity after years of senseless pandering (all done in the name of the "next civil-rights movement") and state in plain language its concerns about youth gender medicine and the fitness of trans-identified adults to serve in the military. There’s no way to reach the lunatic fringe. But it’s not even remotely necessary to give the lunatic fringe so much inflammatory material to work with.

Then we have a fleet of LGBTQ “advocacy” organizations that have abdicated their responsibility to the young people they claim to represent, preferring to spend the last few years terrifying vulnerable young people, rather than informing them and reassuring them. (I guess it’s better for fundraising?)

So, we're in a position where the Trump administration is making big, confusing, poorly explained, and highly politicized changes, and there are no responsible adults in the room, and we’ve got lots of radicalized, vulnerable young people who think the federal government wants to take away their passports so they can't flee the coming crackdown.

That combination really, really worries me.

The stakes are very, very high when the government is taking away access to interventions that many of us know to be dangerous but which many young people sincerely believe to be life-saving. That has to be handled with clarity and care, not politicization.

Honesty is required here. Brutality is not. Young people have made permanent changes to their bodies because they fell under the spell of a strange new belief system and because their doctors told them transition would help, whether it has or not. They're in an impossible position.

No matter how outlandish the trans movement's fringe is, no matter how prickly and offense-seeking members can be, they need some compassion here and as much clarity as possible about how the process of rolling back the government's investment in gender identity will go.

Because here's what some of these young people think: that Trump wants to take away their passports so they can't flee the country. That the Trump administration is making a list of people (based on medical records and requests for gender-marker changes) to round up to send to concentration camps (or Guantanamo Bay).

• "We have three real options: flee, die fighting, or die in prison. Those are our long term prospects."

• "If you get your documents changed there will be a record of that change especially if you get a gender marker changed. They can and will use this information in the future."

• "My birth certificate, ID card, our marriage certificate all say my dead name and the wrong gender. I can’t decide if that makes me “safer” or more in danger, since my medical records mention that I have gender dysphoria."

• “What's coming, probably, is a culling of undesirables. They're following the Nazi playbook beat by beat.”

• “I think it's probably fine to start being alarmist and call this for what it is: A buildup to genocidal atrocity.”"

• “America is descending into the darkness of Fascism and we are a priority target. That isn't fear-mongering it's just the truth. The best thing for you to do is to learn how to survive such a regime. Building local community is probably the single most important thing you can do to that end. Having people who can vouch for you, support you, and potentially hide you from authorities if need be. You should consider evacuation if possible. You should also start stockpiling necessary medications and learning about DIY medical care. You may also consider getting armed, this will be exponentially more effective if you have friends who are willing to join you in this endeavor.”

• “The Nazis did not start rounding up Jews and sending them to camps on Day 1. They slowly escalated discriminatory policies aimed at isolating Jews from employment, housing, etc first, tried making it very obvious who was a Jew vs. a gentile like mandating the wearing of the Star of David, or even forcing people to change their legal names to sound more Jewish.”

• “I'm scared as fuck. However, hiding and waiting to be killed won't do us a damn bit of good. I came out in October 2016. It'll take a bullet to put me back in the closet.”

• “America is descending into the darkness of Fascism and we are a priority target. That isn't fear-mongering it's just the truth. The best thing for you to do is to learn how to survive such a regime. Building local community is probably the single most important thing you can do to that end. Having people who can vouch for you, support you, and potentially hide you from authorities if need be. You should consider evacuation if possible. You should also start stockpiling necessary medications and learning about DIY medical care. You may also consider getting armed, this will be exponentially more effective if you have friends who are willing to join you in this endeavor.”

• " I thought it was really strange when they wanted Canada to lock up the border harder... It's important to remember that this is looking less and less like keeping folks out of America and more like keeping Americans inside America."

• "One of the first things Nazis did in Nazi Germany was going after trans people just like what they are doing now. This is truly becoming the Fourth Reich."

Some of the more 'reasonable' voices say they don’t think there will be concentration camps—instead, we’ll see something more like for-profit prisons, with trans-identified people put to work fighting wildfires: "I do think the US is too large and decentralized for them to implement a Final Solution."

Yes, these fears are irrational. That's what phobia indoctrination is and does. Young people involved in trans communities have been subjected to years and years of phobia indoctrination, which has been reinforced by some of the most prominent NGOs in the country.

I don't expect young people to trust the Trump administration. But there has to be an attempt to speak directly, clearly, compassionately, and nonsensationally to these kids, as Hilary Cass at least tried to do. I know that attempt didn't go all that well (cue years of fearmongering about a mild-mannered, retirement-age British pediatrician!)! But government officials should try to do it anyway, so that kids who are looking for another way to make sense of what's happening can find it.

This is a moment that will either push young people deeper into radicalization—if they follow the trans community's lead—or may help a few start to find their way out, if they see their community spreading misinformation and terror.