The Justice/">US Department of Justice is funding research to examine whether gender dysphoria is linked to violent crime. Last month, its research arm, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), announced grants of up to $1m for studies on the frequency and type of violence committed by people diagnosed and treated for gender dysphoria.
The funding announcement comes as the Trump administration has sought to restrict transgender people’s access to healthcare and identity documents reflecting their gender. It also follows cuts, more than a year ago, to funding for research into hate-fueled and extremist violence.
Wendy Via, co-founder and CEO of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, said the administration had repeatedly sought to portray transgender people as more likely to commit extremist violence. She warned that this framing could draw attention away from violence associated with far-right ideologies, including the “great replacement” theory, which several high-profile attackers have cited in manifestos. “What the administration is doing is very dangerous,” Via said.
LGBTQ+ advocates and experts describe attempts to link transgender identity with violence as pseudoscience. They point to academic research suggesting that no single characteristic, such as gender, race or political affiliation, can be identified as the primary cause of violence. Researchers instead cite views including racism, homophobia, misogyny and nihilism among common characteristics of high-profile attackers.
The NIJ initiative is part of a broader debate over claims about transgender people and violence. A White House counter-terrorism report this year included “transgender ideologies” in its discussion of leftwing violence. Most mass shootings in the US have been carried out by cisgender people, although transgender and non-binary people have also committed some, including attacks at Annunciation Catholic school in Minneapolis and Club Q in Colorado Springs, as well as a shooting at Tumbler Ridge elementary school in British Columbia, Canada.
Via said the causes of mass violence are not fully understood and that a person’s gender identity is unlikely to explain it. Zane McNeill, a staff attorney with Lawyers for Good Government, said the NIJ’s priorities would shift attention away from far-right extremism. He described the funding decisions as a way to “distract from who’s propagating the violence” and said taxpayer money was being diverted to what he called far-right pseudoscience.
The Department of Health and Human Services has also published a report examining gender identity and political violence. Commissioned by HHS and written by researchers from Rutgers University, the Manhattan Institute and the Network Contagion Research Institute, it draws on a survey of about 1,200 US adults and suggests that people who receive or support gender-affirming care are more likely to support political violence.
McNeill wrote to HHS last month requesting corrections, arguing that the report violated the agency’s guidelines. He and other researchers are seeking access to the survey data to conduct their own analysis. McNeill called the research flawed and biased.
The NIJ and institutions affiliated with the HHS report did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment. HHS press secretary Grace Davis Jamison said the report would help the government understand how political radicalization develops, adding that its findings should be assessed on the evidence.
Sources: The Guardian World.