A divisive, fascist political campaign has targeted transgender Americans for several years. Writing as a cisgender straight male, I see this not only as an attack on these individuals, but as an attack on our democracy itself.

Since 2021, state legislatures have proposed 2,492 bills and 265 have passed, aimed at restricting gender-affirming care, access to bathrooms, and legal recognition, according to the Trans Legislation Tracker. The Anti-Trans campaign is imbued and fueled by fear, lacking data or reason. A movement this large and this inflammatory has disastrous implications for everyone regardless of their orientation or identity.

When a government uses fear and lies to take away rights, it’s never just about the group being targeted. It’s about testing how much control a government entity can get away with. Following the state efforts, the Trump administration’s attack on transgender rights isn’t just a political stunt or temporary culture war nonsense; it’s a dangerous overreach that threatens any targeted group. Further, it threatens everyone’s bodily autonomy, normalizes venomous and deceitful rhetoric, and cracks the foundation of democracy itself.

As someone who grew up in a small conservative town, where trans people were barely discussed — and if they were, it was usually in ignorant or hostile terms — I didn’t really understand what was at stake, especially how something seemingly so far removed from my experience could have an effect on me. Over the years, and especially after witnessing the civil rights movements of 2020, I started paying more attention to the news and politics. I started to realize how fear, anger, and manufactured lies get weaponized, and how easy it is for any of us to become the next target. While the hysteria attempts to focus on fear of the “other,” we should instead understand how fragile rights become when unfounded fears erase the real. Now, we see the tragic outcome, as fear becomes official government policy.

A recent example of this manufactured fear is the 2025 Executive Order 14168 signed by President Trump, titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism.” It orders all federal agencies to erase any recognition of gender identity, restrict the use of terms like “gender,” and define sex strictly as biological and immutable. In it, Trump dictates that acknowledging trans people “attacks women’s dignity” and “undermines the American system.” In other words, the government is now openly treating the mere existence of trans people as a threat, not based on science, not based on public safety and crime statistics, but based on fear, ignorance, and manufactured crisis. This is no longer an issue for which one can sit on the fence, as fundamental rights, such as existing in public space, are no longer respected. Innaction will only help the administration perpetuate the discrimination.

This should concern everyone, not just people who are transgender, because when fear becomes the basis for policy and law, truth gets replaced with whatever those in power decide it is.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, along with the American Medical Association and nearly every major mental health organization in the country, has been clear: gender-affirming care is life-saving medical treatment. It is not experimental, it is not political. It is the best practice supported by decades of research and professional consensus. Denying access to those who need care does not just cause discomfort, it creates real harm and increases rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide among both trans youth and adults. Research from the Williams Institute at UCLA disproves the myth that trans-inclusive policies, like bathroom access, make public spaces less safe. Their 2019 studies found no evidence that allowing trans people to use bathrooms matching their gender identity leads to increased assaults or criminal activity, despite this being one of the main rhetorical points conservatives use to rile up emotions.

Meanwhile, the human cost is actually real, according to a 2023 national survey by The Trevor Project, which shows that 54% of transgender and nonbinary youth seriously considered suicide in the past year. The Trevor Project further states that with aggressive anti-trans laws, those numbers become even higher. Hostile policies don’t protect anyone, they simply put more vulnerable people at risk, and the more often that fear and lies are used to drive public policy, the more damage we will see.

The facts are there, the science is there, but both are being ignored intentionally because inflammatory rhetoric works to drive the argument against “the other” and does not abide by logic or reason. Fascistic messaging and rhetoric is specifically designed to appeal to our emotions and values, which allows for a much deeper, personal connection to the perceived issue. Issues like immigration invasions, CRT, and the false allegations that Springfield, Ohio pets were getting eaten are all examples of truth being either stretched beyond recognition or being completely fabricated. Our very reality is being warped and twisted by false narratives and lies, when this gets normalized, it allows policies to be built on deceit without most people even noticing. The deeper and more connected danger here is democratic backsliding. If the government can make up a fake threat about a small marginalized group and strip them of legal recognition, what stops them from doing it to the next group? And the next? History shows how scapegoating grows, first targeting the few, then consuming the many. Fascism doesn’t stop unless people push back.

And yet, speaking up isn’t always easy. I know that personally. Living in a conservative town, one learns quickly that saying the wrong thing can get you labeled, alienated, or worse. Sometimes it doesn’t feel safe to argue, even if you know the truth. But that fear, that pressure to stay silent, is exactly how oppression wins. One does not have to be reckless, but when one has the opportunity to speak, it matters that they try.

Staying silent only makes the lie louder. New York’s recent Equal Rights Amendment shows that there’s another path. Our state chose to protect gender identity under the law, even while the federal government moves backward. The federal government helps to provide a legal base, from which a state cannot go below; states can provide a ceiling for rights. This is proof that attention to federal conduct matters. Laws only protect people when the culture around them demands the protection. If we don’t keep fighting to normalize this truth — that bodily autonomy is a human right, not a political opinion — then even strong protections will collapse under public apathy.

I’m not saying one has to be a full-time activist to make a difference. I am saying the bare minimum is refusing to go along with the lies. Talk to people, push back when you hear bigoted jokes or misinformation, join or support student groups fighting for equity. Sign petitions, educate yourself and others, show up when it matters, even if it’s uncomfortable.

Every time you refuse to stay silent, you make it harder for venomous rhetoric to win. There is a choice in front of all of us. We can let this crack in the foundation in our society grow wider until it splits everything apart, or we can start sealing it up. The fight for bodily autonomy is a fight for democracy itself and the protections of all minorities. Whether you ever thought you’d be part of it, you already are.

Patrick Cotter is a State University of New York at Fredonia student.