Does supporting ‘gender ideology’ make you more likely to justify violence?

Does believing in “gender ideology” make someone more likely to justify political violence? A federal study says yes.

The study, commissioned by the White House and funded by the Department of Health and Human Services, surveyed 1,208 adults on their reactions to real and hypothetical violent events — including the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and a hypothetical successful assassination of President Trump. The more strongly someone endorsed “gender ideology,” the more likely they were to justify that violence and back what researchers call left-wing authoritarianism, marked by hostility toward “conventional sex and family norms.”

Researchers from Rutgers University, the Network Contagion Research Institute and the Manhattan Institute built their questions around positions from the American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health — what they called “the official scientific and clinical establishment” on transgender care.

Adm. Brian Christine, the assistant secretary for HHS, said “the association between sex-rejecting clinical beliefs, authoritarian attitudes and the justification of political violence warrants serious scientific scrutiny” and that the agency “will continue to pursue rigorous research.”

The study also points to a string of real-world cases where transgender identity intersects with violence — from Kirk’s killing to a Minneapolis church shooting to a 2022 plot against a Supreme Court justice. Researchers concluded gender ideology can act as “an ideological accelerant” signaling to authoritarian-minded believers when violence is justified.

Read more:

• Gender ideology supporters more fond of political violence, left-wing authoritarianism, study finds