By Fatma Younis
The U.S. Department of Justice is funding research aimed at exploring a potential link between gender dysphoria and violent crime, a move critics say is part of a broader effort to target transgender rights.
Last month, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the department’s research arm, announced grants of up to $1 million for studies examining the frequency and type of violence committed by individuals diagnosed and treated for gender dysphoria.
The initiative comes as the Trump administration has aggressively restricted transgender people’s access to healthcare and identification documents matching their gender identity, while also cutting funding for research into hate-fueled and far-right extremist violence more than a year ago.
Critics Warn of Pseudoscience and Diversion
Wendy Via, co-founder and CEO of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, said the administration is falsely portraying transgender people as more prone to extremist violence, thereby diverting attention from far-right ideologies such as the "great replacement" theory cited by several high-profile shooters.
Experts and LGBTQ+ advocates describe attempts to link trans identity to violence as pseudoscience, noting a growing body of academic literature shows no single characteristic — whether race, political affiliation, or gender — serves as the primary driver of violence. Instead, researchers say the most common thread among high-profile attackers is a cluster of views including racism, homophobia, misogyny, and nihilism.
Political Context and Previous Incidents
Public speculation about gender identity’s role in violence intensified after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed in September 2025, when right-wing influencers blamed what they call "transgender ideology." A White House counter-terrorism report this year included "transgender ideologies" as a form of left-wing violence.
While the vast majority of U.S. mass shootings have been carried out by cisgender people, transgender and non-binary individuals have committed some high-profile attacks, including at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, Club Q in Colorado Springs, and Tumbler Ridge Elementary School in British Columbia. In those cases, the shooters shared traits common to modern mass shooters, such as idolizing other killers and online radicalization.
HHS Report Adds to Controversy
The Department of Health and Human Services recently published a report titled "Where the Clinic Meets the Movement: Does Gender Ideology Arm Left-Wing Authoritarian Psychology?" Commissioned by HHS and authored by researchers from Rutgers University, the Manhattan Institute, and the Network Contagion Research Institute, the study surveyed about 1,200 U.S. adults and suggested that people who receive or support gender-affirming care are more likely to endorse political violence.
Zane McNeill, a staff attorney with Lawyers for Good Government, sent a letter to HHS requesting corrections and argued the report violates the agency’s own guidelines. McNeill and other researchers are seeking access to the survey data for independent analysis, calling the research "extremely biased" and unfit for publication.
In a statement, HHS press secretary Grace Davis Jamison said the report will help the government better understand how "political radicalization develops" and that the findings should be evaluated on the evidence.
