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But I think that there’s also something more going on here. As I mentioned in my companion essay, members of dominant/majority groups (in this case, cisgender people) tend to view stigmatized minorities as “contaminated” and capable of “corrupting” supposedly “pure” ingroup members. This unconscious “contamination” mindset drives fears that marginalized groups may be contagious (e.g., “turning people gay,” “transgender social contagion”) as well as sexually corrupting (e.g., “sexual deceivers,” “restroom predators,” “groomers”). [I discuss this mindset in more depth in this essay and in Chapters 7 & 8 of my book Sexed Up.]

The greater the disparity one can create between the supposedly “contaminated, corrupting, dangerous outgroup” and the “pure, innocent, vulnerable ingroup,” the more atrocious the imagined threat will seem. This is why moral panics (including this latest anti-trans rendition) are almost always centered on “protecting women and children,” especially those who are white, middle-class, and otherwise unmarked (read: “uncontaminated” and therefore “pure”).

Anti-trans campaigners have increasingly played into this mindset by portraying trans activists as “adult males” who supposedly “prey” (whether ideologically or sexually) on innocent and vulnerable “young girls.” Depicting said “girls” as mentally incompetent (due to supposed feminine fragility, neurodivergence, mental health issues, etc.) serves to further amplify their imagined innocence and vulnerability.

Perhaps the best illustration of this mindset can be found in Abigail Shrier’s recent book Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters. The book focuses almost exclusively on how “social contagion” is ravaging “our girls,” with a brief diversion (via interviews with Ray Blanchard and J. Michael Bailey) to depict trans adults as “sexually deviant men.” While the book doesn’t explicitly discuss “grooming,” it’s suggested in the subtitle (“seducing our daughters”) along with the phrase “transgender craze” (implying that these kids’ trans identities are caused or enabled by mental illness). Oh, did I mention that the cover image is a cartoon of a young girl with a hole cut out where her reproductive parts would be (read: she has been “defiled”).

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