Moral panic is rampant in U.S. state legislatures, and the irrational feeling that innocent groups pose a threat to society and need to be stopped. The epidemic is riding on emotional and political rhetoric and laws that deem some people deserving of social and political support and label others (transgender children and adults) as deviants. increase.
There is no escape from panic. So far this year, legislators have introduced 543 bills in 49 states that are purportedly anti-transgender. Another 32 bills aim to ban drag queens from performing in certain spaces. Montana, for example, made it illegal for transgender children to seek medical care with a parent or doctor. The title of the bill is “Provide the Youth Health Protection Act.” Tennessee has banned drug attire in public. This law makes it easier for transgender and gender nonconforming people to be discriminated against.
This moral crackdown suggests a new form of governance around gender identity in the United States, but the underlying issue is not gender, but transgender issues as a tool to help children, teens, and young people at all ages. It is a “war on the youth” used as a means of imposing control on the young. people. This appearance is consistent with the literature. According to scholars Eric Goode and Nahaman Ben Yehuda, “moral panic is the development of moral concern about the perceived threat posed by corrupt actors out of proportion to the actual danger.” .
Historically, there have been panics around witches, cartoons, music lyrics, video games, kids playing soccer, Judy Bloom’s books, Satanism, drag queens, and more. What they all have in common is a frustrated 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, as transgender advocate Eloise Brooke told me in an email, “The only thing conservatives can do to stem the tide of tolerance is to keep gender diversity out of the public eye. It’s about embarking on a national project to legislate.”
Anti-trans laws send the message that non-procreative sexuality, reproductive health, and bodily autonomy are unacceptable. Ultimately, this tells a story about who is in power. If transgender people can be erased, anyone can be erased. If you can delete gay books, you can delete any book. If you can silence drag queens, you can silence them.
The central motivating principle of Moral Panic is that it is directed to a large audience. Small topics like drag shows, libraries, and textbooks are often a proxy for public disapproval. Identified targets are mostly symbolic or incidental, except in the way they create prominence that could cover legislative action and garner political and financial support. Here we see that “moral panic capitalism” can be lucrative. Emotionally unstable laws are designed to divide people beyond just selling T-shirts and bumper stickers. This is at the root of the epidemic, where anger attracts cash and fuels organized riots.
Most often, moral panic is associated with maintaining youth-focused norms. A study of the moral panics of the 1960s by academics Stanley Cohen and Jock Young found that they focused on youth culture. Today, the Liberty League, a conservative religious advocacy group, justified its support for Montana’s recent legislation as protecting “vulnerable children.” And Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ Don’t Say You’re Gay bill isn’t just about gay students. It represents a putative crisis for deciding what young people say in class and what they read in social studies textbooks. The law aims to use schools to exercise power and control. The governor is defending a national message for youth action that defines the terms of free speech based on his position.
Moral panic is on the rise significantly in the US, from TikTok’s ‘Libs of TikTok’ videos about vaccines and the hype around sexting via ‘Groomers’ and Snapchat, to a US political structure that favors conservatives. There are several reasons, ranging from The far right is at the expense of the LGBTQ+ community. For example, gerrymandering would make the general election less important for both parties and focus more on the more polarized primary voters. Large and powerful conservative organizations also feed the panic to elect friendly lawmakers. The conservative Alliance to Defend Freedom promotes anti-trans laws with a mandate to “defend freedom of religion, freedom of speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.” . Partisan news outlet Fox News hits viewers with more than 1,300 mentions in just four months in 2021 of critical race theory, seen as a threat by ultra-conservatives and a focus of related panic bottom.
In fact, each outbreak tells us far more about the weaponizer than about the target. There is a right-wing moral panic-industrial complex that raises highly emotional issues and gets media attention on demand. (The Left thus does not often fight fire with fire and moral panic with moral panic because it represents a very marginalized group that has no power and is under attack.) ) Evangelical nationalists are a moving minority on the extreme right. Communities and their positions produce highly emotional and inflammatory masses of political ideas aimed at scaring the wider community and imposing the elements of the world they want. It is a vulnerable, racist, xenophobic, homophobic, transphobic society where petty grievances prowl like wolves wrapped in moralization. sheep clothes.
Such panic is more than just talk, it can harm or even kill people. Political hate speech can create situations that foster hate crimes. Groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) have historically promoted a pipeline of anti-LGBTQ+ state legislation that places transgender and queer communities in the shadow of society. More specifically, a US study found that 59 transgender and gender nonconforming people were murdered in the US in 2021. Hate Research JournalHate crimes against transgender and gender nonconforming people increased 587 percent between 2013 and 2019, according to FBI statistics.
Those who advocate “pro-life” should make it a priority to help protect the trans community. A survey found that 48 percent of people under the age of 26 in the trans community have attempted suicide. But instead of being protected, transgender children are haunted by over-the-top narratives that claim them to be burdensome, worthless and perverted. This leaves them singled out for ridicule and slander by the state and society. These attacks, along with the denial of medical care to them, put them all at risk of serious harm.
This is an opinion and analysis article and the views expressed by the author are not necessarily those of the author. Scientific American.
