Department of Justice Considers Throwing Out Constitution for Trans Americans
Leading Off: The Department of Justice toys with the idea of banning trans Americans from owning guns. The NRA comes to an unexpected defense of the trans community. Texas successfully passes a bathroom ban. Our top stories starting out the week in trans news.
by Assigned Media
On Thursday September 4th, a source inside the Department of Justice told The Daily Wire that it was investigating options to ban transgender people from gun ownership, a story that was shortly after confirmed by CNN. This comes in the wake of conservative efforts to falsely portray the shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school on August 27th as part of a pattern of violence by trans people. The proposed ban cites mental illness and instability of trans people as its reasoning, specifically calling out gender dysphoria.
In a Bluesky thread, Alejandra Caraballo explained how the department of Health and Human Services could “declare people with gender dysphoria ‘mentally incompetent’” to compel providers to report anyone with a diagnosis, in order to make a list for the ban.
The Trump administration obtaining a list of a minority group it has actively targeted since day one of the presidency is especially alarming after Trump’s executive order in July calling for the forced institutionalization of, among other groups, people with mental illness.
This proposal has not been without major pushback and outcry, with trans people and allies calling out the blatant unconstitutionality of such a ban. In a statement to CNN, a GLAAD spokesperson said “Instead of actual solutions, the administration is again choosing to scapegoat and target a small and vulnerable population.”
Of all the people and groups to come out in defense of the trans community, the most surprising, and potentially the most effective, has been the NRA. On Friday, the second amendment advocacy group posted on Twitter that they do not support any sweeping gun bans, following that post up with a repost explicitly calling out the proposed transgender gun ban.
Since the NRA has been unequivocally supportive of the Trump administration in the past, their opposition starkly underlines the magnitude of a proposal to declare millions of Americans unfit to own a gun.
After a decade of attempts, the Texas legislature finally succeeded in passing a bill banning transgender people from bathrooms in public facilities across the state, including schools, prisons, and women’s domestic violence shelters. The bill would be the most financially punitive in the nation, fining any agency or institution in violation $25,000 for a first offense and $125,000 for any subsequent offense.
The bill is now on Governor Abbot’s desk awaiting his signature.
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