In the first few months of 2023, the number of bills proposed that aim to restrict the rights of transgender people across the country has increased by 184 percent (Trans Legislation Tracker, 2023). The question that presents itself now goes beyond merely asking why this is happening: Instead, we have to ask what these recent changes say about the direction our country is headed, and what it will mean for our future. Transphobia is not a new idea in society or politics, but in the past few years there has been a shift echoing the beginning of the Nazi movement. 

The majority of the new anti-trans legislation specifically targets minors, attempting to restrict bathroom usage in schools, sports participation or the ability to medically transition. The restriction of medical transition especially threatens the livelihood of trans people, as medical transition via hormone replacement therapy is the most effective tool at alleviating dysphoria. Gender dysphoria is the negative feelings that occur when a trans person lives as their assigned gender at birth, an​​d it is a large part of what leads to the high rates of suicide and mental distress within the community.

Recent bills don’t only target the rights and freedoms of trans people directly, but also the personal freedom to talk about matters relating to gender, especially in schools. The “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Florida, for example, has received thorough media attention as it prohibits teachers from discussing sexual orientation or gender-related topics entirely. Additional bills have tried to narrow down the scope of what health classes can teach and when they can teach it. These bills are problematic for a variety of reasons, but especially because they have ushered in the mass censorship of reading materials. Florida provides the most concerning case study of this trend under Governor Ron Desantis. Florida has censored not only the books taught in their public school curriculum, but also banned books they deem unacceptable from being accessed in libraries at all. Shelves of Florida school libraries now sit nearly empty, with many of the banned book topics discussing LGBTQ+ people and families. Other titles that discuss racial history and cultural differences were also prohibited, such as ‘Before She Was Harriet,’ ‘Dreamers,’ ‘The Gift of Ramadan’ and ‘Sulwe.’ 

The era of Nazism in Germany began in an alarmingly similar way to what we see happening in America today. For those familiar with the rise of Nazism, the fascist censorship and burning of materials deemed unacceptable to the Nazi regime was a fundamental tactic they employed to control their population. Although largely unspoken about due to the magnitude of their other crimes, one of the first institutions the Nazis attacked was the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, one of the world’s foremost libraries of research into gender theory and sexual orientation at the time. The institute was raided and burned, and that research was lost to the public forever.

Information restriction isn’t the only authoritarian policy that recent American actions have mimicked. The most well known idea of Nazism is that of eradication. The Nazis largely targeted ethnic minorities, namely Jewish people, but LGBTQ+ people also fell under the umbrella of groups they deemed unacceptable. This exact ideation has been reflected today within the GOP. At the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference, a popular speaking venue for conservatives and Republicans, political commentator Micheal Knowles was chosen to present. In his speech, Knowles called for the “eradication of transgenderism from public life entirely.” He advocated for this eradication “at every level” and was met with a roar of thunderous applause. It should be obvious how dangerous and inflammatory this rhetoric is, but many on the right have gone to bat defending his assertion.

Knowles himself has argued against the idea that his rhetoric advocates for the genocide of transgender people, speaking to the difference between transgender people and the “ideology” of transgenderism. That reasoning, however, is entirely flawed. Transgenderism is not a political theory — as the only things within society that can be transgender are people. As such, advocating for eradication can only refer to those transgender individuals. The connection between this rhetoric and that of the Nazis is blatant, and Knowles makes no attempt at trying to mask that fact. Replace transgenderism in his speech with Judaism and the parallel ideas become indisputable. 

The Nazis put significant effort into damaging the reputation of Jewish people as a whole, especially by portraying them as a threat to the way of life they deemed superior. They used sensationalism to achieve this end, and Republicans have adopted similar tactics. Modern-day conservatives refer to highly researched surgical procedures as “child mutilation” and continuously monitored hormone treatments as “chemical castrations.” These arguments are made especially against surgical interventions, despite the rarity of such surgeries being performed on minors. These surgeries are never performed on children and are incredibly difficult to obtain even in one’s late teens. Referring to transgender youths who medically transition as unsuspecting victims of a pedophilic “deep state” conspiracy, as Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has done repeatedly, is especially dangerous. It is theories such as these that led to stronger measures to combat the freedoms of transgender youths, as is evident in the state of Texas’ policy. Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared that transgender health care constitutes child abuse, threatening families and healthcare workers alike. A judge’s restraining order on beginning investigations into families with trans kids is all that stands in protection of them. If this restraining order expires, the state would have the power to take children from their families in the name of their protection.

As more of these bills make their way through committee, the threat of active persecution and oppression of trans people becomes even more realized. With these developments, we are given a unique opportunity to learn from the mistakes of the past. In the case of Nazi Germany, bystanders enabled the rise of fascism, and to protect the rights of minority groups in this country, we can’t allow that pattern to repeat itself. Martin Niemöller, a Lutheran pastor during the Holocaust who survived the concentration camp system, stated the sentiment best. 

“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a socialist,” Niemoller said. “Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.”