Trump’s DOJ is pursuing increasingly aggressive actions against medical providers in order to obtain the names, addresses, and social security numbers of trans kids. Why does it want this information?
The Department of Justice issued at least 20 subpoenas to healthcare providers serving transgender youth. This is a move that should be understood as what it is: the construction of a government list. History offers no reassuring precedents here. From Reconstruction to the Red Scare, registries and surveillance systems have been deployed to isolate targeted minorities, strip them of legal standing, and prepare the ground for what comes next. The threat is not only the intent of those who build the list. It is the uses to which every future administration may put it.
They only want the list of patients so they can substantiate the charges against the providers. These hospitals and providers are under federal investigation and are about to be indicted.
Your stated purpose is noted. I would reiterate, however, that the threat is not reducible to the intent of those who created the list. This administration and every future administration that gains access to it poses an equal danger. History compels that reading.
I’m not convinced of that. I think that’s a jump that plays into unfounded fear. You really think they’re going to make a list of trans people to hurt them? I don’t believe that’s part of the goal now or will be in the future.
I'm going to respectfully disagree with you here. I'll argue that lists of trans people inherently hurt trans people—being tracked by the government is a terrible thing, and it is essentially a ticking time bomb for any bad anti-trans policies. So you can better understand my point, I want you ask yourself the following question: in January, if you had found out that the state of Kansas had been internally flagging gender changes in its systems, how would you have characterized that? Would you have said that "they only want to internally flag licenses so they can keep track of who changed their gender?" Or would you have called it a list?
In my experience as a journalist and as a researcher, I have learned one thing: transphobes who have the ability to do something quietly will almost always do it quietly. Through my research, I've uncovered many instances of primarily GOP-controlled states implementing transphobic policy changes without announcement, and these changes are almost always limited to states where there is no statute governing a particular policy area (usually driver's licenses and Medicaid). As a result, they're able to change their policies without even making an announcement. To find them, I have to periodically check just to make sure they haven't changed them, and for this, I obviously have a list of prime suspects.
But just like I don't trust states without statutes governing their gender-related policies, I don't trust the federal government with trans people's medical data. Especially not when it's tied to their SSNs. Already, we've seen extremely aggressive enforcement of the Trump passport policy through SSN and past passport data, and that clearly harms our community.
I'll level will you: I don't know if they're going to use trans kids' medical data to hurt them, but I do know that they're trying to make a list. If they never use it then that's great. But the existence of the list is risky enough.
I hate to say it, but the federal government is already collecting data on transgender individuals working in the federal government. I would not be surprised if they had medical data on transgender veterans that use the VA for healthcare. They do know about the veterans that discharged from the military, as Hegseth called them “ dudes in dresses”. Many were highly trained and skilled and are very difficult to train and now to replace. The current political arena certainly points to more anti transgender policies and laws. Some GOP members have suggested a National registry for transgender individuals. Project 2025 continues to be a reality. The cruel lies that subjectively allege that all transgender individuals are bad and thus deserve to be discriminated against. Look at the list of states that transgender individuals are advised not to go to, such as Florida, Tennessee, Texas, Idaho, Ohio, and so on due to draconian anti transgender laws and current legislation.
I agree with you on your last point: gender-affirming care for minors is actively under threat, and the lists of trans kids are only half the issue. I'll also add that I myself am a survivor of gender-affirming care restrictions (along with talk therapy restrictions) for minors and that the issue is incredibly personal to me. I've written about it at length before and I will 100% cover that threat separately.
But for what you said about Kansas: you're wrong. This isn't as simple as states keeping track of past evidence—I know all states do that. What I'm talking about is the fact that Kansas created a specific internal flag specifically for gender changes due to a person being trans. I know because I've asked Kansas, West Virginia, Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Idaho, Missouri, and Indiana about whether or not they flag/flagged gender changes in this manner and of these, only Indiana and Kansas did. I'll also add that per my research, Texas and Florida didn't flag them either.
What Indiana and Kansas did was they created a system where they could electronically query every license labeled for a gender change. That's a list, and it's a choice that they both made. They made it for birth certificates as well.
And there is a difference: when Texas AG Ken Paxton tried to make a list of people who had changed their gender marker on their license in 2022, he was told that it would be too expensive (as Texas lacked the data without a manual search) and his attempt was rebuffed. Meanwhile, Kansas spent exactly $0 in finding out which licenses to revoke. They admitted it themselves in SB 244's finance note: the only costs were for mailing the revocation letters and for the creation of internal guidance.
I am a retired law professor and a former Assistant District Attorney in Kings County Homicide Bureau (Brooklyn), New York, where I spent many years building and trying cases, supervising grand jury presentations, and managing complex investigations. I know how evidence works in practice.
Evidence collected for one purpose routinely migrates to others. This is a prosecutorial reality. This is especially true in organized crime investigations. Data gathered today often doesn’t stay in its original lane. It gets queried, cross referenced, and repurposed.
Which is why I cannot share your optimism.
This administration has not been subtle. It has, by executive order, designated transgender people a national security concern and directed federal agencies accordingly. The FBI, under this administration’s direction, has treated gender affirming care providers and trans advocacy organizations as subjects warranting federal scrutiny. When the state begins constructing a surveillance architecture around a minority population, the question is never whether that data will be weaponized. The question is when.
I am a Black transgender woman. I am also someone who has stood on the government’s side of a courtroom and watched how the machinery of law enforcement actually operates when it has decided a population is a threat. The gap between “data collected for one purpose” and “data used to oppress trans people” is not a wall. It is a door and this administration has already told us, repeatedly and without apology, that it intends to walk through it.
Hope is not an effective defensive strategy. This administration has earned no benefit of the doubt.
I’m definitely aware that evidence collected for one purpose migrates to others. I never said it won’t. I actually said it might. We aren’t disagreeing there. However, I’m not optimistic. That’s a mischaracterization of my statement.
I’m just not willing to agree that patient records are being collected in order to obtain a list of trans kids. It’s being collected to secure indictments. As I did state in earlier comments, they might use it for something else later, but the current matter is one of securing indictments.
There’s also nothing the federal government can do with a list of trans kids. That’s not optimism or hope, that’s skepticism that comes from the fact that people have a habit of misrepresenting facts in order to push narratives that aren’t factual, which is what’s happening here.
I know how the world works and what's going on in this situation deeper than most people want to admit. It's not what it seems. Nobody is actually creating lists of trans people.
If I mischaracterized your position, I apologize , that was not my intent.
I too bring some grounding to this conversation, having spent many decades working both within the system we’re discussing and fighting against it. But I understand we may simply see this differently.
I wonder if cis people will ever get their heads out of their asses and realize that when we say “genocide” we are NOT being hyperbolic. And if they come for one they will come for all. What is their obsession with trans people!?!
People are generally reluctant to connect all the dots, for fear of sounding crazy or hysterical. However, I'm not most people. When the religious right says they want transgenderism completely eradicated from public life (originally stated by Michael Knowles, but repeated by others a few times now), that means something. I take them seriously. Knowles' statement, interestingly, was at the first CPAC conference shortly after the release of the Project 2025 "Mandate for Leadership" document. It says in the forward of that document, written by the president of the Heritage Foundation, on p. 5, that we and our "ideology" are "pornographic," and they want us locked away.
Of course they will take a multifaceted approach, as with any campaign of genocide. One approach is to make it impossible or extremely difficult for us to transition. They don't care if we exist as long as it is as our sex assigned at birth, as miserable as that might be. And they also don't care if we kill ourselves.
And if we've already transitioned, they want us to detransition. I guess they believe if we can do that convincingly enough, then the "problem" disappears.
They want to stop providers from helping us transition, and they are willing to prosecute and imprison them to stop them.
But in the end, there are those of us who have transitioned and want to stay transitioned. Some of us can't de-transition, particularly those who have undergone gender confirmation surgery. So, what do they do with US?
Well, they're making lists, so they know who to come after later, after they finish writing all the laws that will make our post-transition existence illegal.
The end goal is "ERADICATION." That's THEIR word. Whether that will ever mean "extermination" is anyone's guess. It certainly worked out that way for the Jews in Germany.
I'm hardly the only person to speak of this genocidal campaign against trans Americans. Just a couple of nights ago, I was the only trans/queer person at a small dinner party. Half of the people there were Jewish. We were all talking about this administration's politics. I asked the Jewish people there, who were expressing discomfort with the lists being made of Jews, whether their concern was similar to ours - that these might be lists of people to round up in a campaign of genocide. Their response was an unequivocal "of course!" They emphasized that we trans people are absolutely NOT being overreactive when we speak in terms of genocide.
For those who are interested, the Lemkin Institute studies and monitors genocidal campaigns throughout the world. Here's their THIRD Red Flag Alert concerning the genocide of trans Americans:
Texas pursued investigations against the parents of trans kids in that jurisdiction.
There can be do doubt as to the intentions of the Trump regime with its track record of animus against the trans community.
Trump and his Justice Department will attempt to investigate and prosecute the families and providers of trans kids if they get their hands on this information.
Thankfully the federal statutes for child abuse (which is what Texas used) only apply in either federal land or cases where parents crossed state lines, but that could still be used against parents who traveled. Honestly though, I don't think they'll push their luck with those kinds of investigations.
I wouldn't think that at first glance, as the list they'd get from doing this would be very incomplete. However, I'd be more concerned about that if they were going for the records of every trans patient.
I see where this is going. This is a setup for a series of SLAPP lawsuits against practitioners.
They’re not after the patient data for the sake of the patient data, they only need that information to substantiate the charges against the providers to secure indictments. At this point, the hospitals have likely already been under federal investigation for some time and they’re going to indict the healthcare practitioners. Once they secure the indictments (the bar is lower than probable cause, they’ll get the indictments) they’ll drag the practitioners to federal court and force them to spend a fortune in legal fees.
At that point it won’t matter if the providers violated any laws or not because even if they’re innocent under the law, they’ll have to pay for a federal defense attorney, which costs far more than a general defense attorney. Going to trial will be too expensive so they’ll likely settle. The settlement will likely include a provision that they are not allowed to provide care for minors.
They’re going to put these providers in a position where they’ll need to spend all their money fighting the charges or settle and keep their career. The intention is to send a message to other providers to stop providing care to trans youth or face federal charges.
They’ll only stand a chance if there’s an attorney who will work pro bono for these doctors.
Trump tried to ban youth care with executive orders and funding cuts and now hospitals aren’t complying, so they’re going to drag them all in front of a grand jury probably by the end of the year. They probably already know the names of the providers and just need the patient data connecting the provider to the care provided to secure the indictments.
Because we're in a sad world now that they have to be ignorant as all can be to pick on anybody that ain't like him. Thank God I ain't like him. He's a piece of crap ass president. And trans. People are better than him by far and he's jealous
Why does the federal gov’t want to build a list of transgender people? Note they just put out a document which boasts on the first page “we will find you and we will kill you.” The president’s grandiose signature is underneath that statement, and then it lists the groups it is talking about, one of which is those supporting “radical pro-transgenderism.” The terms are not defined, so it’s up to the government’s discretion.
The Department of Justice issued at least 20 subpoenas to healthcare providers serving transgender youth. This is a move that should be understood as what it is: the construction of a government list. History offers no reassuring precedents here. From Reconstruction to the Red Scare, registries and surveillance systems have been deployed to isolate targeted minorities, strip them of legal standing, and prepare the ground for what comes next. The threat is not only the intent of those who build the list. It is the uses to which every future administration may put it.
They only want the list of patients so they can substantiate the charges against the providers. These hospitals and providers are under federal investigation and are about to be indicted.
Your stated purpose is noted. I would reiterate, however, that the threat is not reducible to the intent of those who created the list. This administration and every future administration that gains access to it poses an equal danger. History compels that reading.
I’m not convinced of that. I think that’s a jump that plays into unfounded fear. You really think they’re going to make a list of trans people to hurt them? I don’t believe that’s part of the goal now or will be in the future.
I'm going to respectfully disagree with you here. I'll argue that lists of trans people inherently hurt trans people—being tracked by the government is a terrible thing, and it is essentially a ticking time bomb for any bad anti-trans policies. So you can better understand my point, I want you ask yourself the following question: in January, if you had found out that the state of Kansas had been internally flagging gender changes in its systems, how would you have characterized that? Would you have said that "they only want to internally flag licenses so they can keep track of who changed their gender?" Or would you have called it a list?
In my experience as a journalist and as a researcher, I have learned one thing: transphobes who have the ability to do something quietly will almost always do it quietly. Through my research, I've uncovered many instances of primarily GOP-controlled states implementing transphobic policy changes without announcement, and these changes are almost always limited to states where there is no statute governing a particular policy area (usually driver's licenses and Medicaid). As a result, they're able to change their policies without even making an announcement. To find them, I have to periodically check just to make sure they haven't changed them, and for this, I obviously have a list of prime suspects.
But just like I don't trust states without statutes governing their gender-related policies, I don't trust the federal government with trans people's medical data. Especially not when it's tied to their SSNs. Already, we've seen extremely aggressive enforcement of the Trump passport policy through SSN and past passport data, and that clearly harms our community.
I'll level will you: I don't know if they're going to use trans kids' medical data to hurt them, but I do know that they're trying to make a list. If they never use it then that's great. But the existence of the list is risky enough.
I hate to say it, but the federal government is already collecting data on transgender individuals working in the federal government. I would not be surprised if they had medical data on transgender veterans that use the VA for healthcare. They do know about the veterans that discharged from the military, as Hegseth called them “ dudes in dresses”. Many were highly trained and skilled and are very difficult to train and now to replace. The current political arena certainly points to more anti transgender policies and laws. Some GOP members have suggested a National registry for transgender individuals. Project 2025 continues to be a reality. The cruel lies that subjectively allege that all transgender individuals are bad and thus deserve to be discriminated against. Look at the list of states that transgender individuals are advised not to go to, such as Florida, Tennessee, Texas, Idaho, Ohio, and so on due to draconian anti transgender laws and current legislation.
I agree with you on your last point: gender-affirming care for minors is actively under threat, and the lists of trans kids are only half the issue. I'll also add that I myself am a survivor of gender-affirming care restrictions (along with talk therapy restrictions) for minors and that the issue is incredibly personal to me. I've written about it at length before and I will 100% cover that threat separately.
But for what you said about Kansas: you're wrong. This isn't as simple as states keeping track of past evidence—I know all states do that. What I'm talking about is the fact that Kansas created a specific internal flag specifically for gender changes due to a person being trans. I know because I've asked Kansas, West Virginia, Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Idaho, Missouri, and Indiana about whether or not they flag/flagged gender changes in this manner and of these, only Indiana and Kansas did. I'll also add that per my research, Texas and Florida didn't flag them either.
What Indiana and Kansas did was they created a system where they could electronically query every license labeled for a gender change. That's a list, and it's a choice that they both made. They made it for birth certificates as well.
And there is a difference: when Texas AG Ken Paxton tried to make a list of people who had changed their gender marker on their license in 2022, he was told that it would be too expensive (as Texas lacked the data without a manual search) and his attempt was rebuffed. Meanwhile, Kansas spent exactly $0 in finding out which licenses to revoke. They admitted it themselves in SB 244's finance note: the only costs were for mailing the revocation letters and for the creation of internal guidance.
I am a retired law professor and a former Assistant District Attorney in Kings County Homicide Bureau (Brooklyn), New York, where I spent many years building and trying cases, supervising grand jury presentations, and managing complex investigations. I know how evidence works in practice.
Evidence collected for one purpose routinely migrates to others. This is a prosecutorial reality. This is especially true in organized crime investigations. Data gathered today often doesn’t stay in its original lane. It gets queried, cross referenced, and repurposed.
Which is why I cannot share your optimism.
This administration has not been subtle. It has, by executive order, designated transgender people a national security concern and directed federal agencies accordingly. The FBI, under this administration’s direction, has treated gender affirming care providers and trans advocacy organizations as subjects warranting federal scrutiny. When the state begins constructing a surveillance architecture around a minority population, the question is never whether that data will be weaponized. The question is when.
I am a Black transgender woman. I am also someone who has stood on the government’s side of a courtroom and watched how the machinery of law enforcement actually operates when it has decided a population is a threat. The gap between “data collected for one purpose” and “data used to oppress trans people” is not a wall. It is a door and this administration has already told us, repeatedly and without apology, that it intends to walk through it.
Hope is not an effective defensive strategy. This administration has earned no benefit of the doubt.
I’m definitely aware that evidence collected for one purpose migrates to others. I never said it won’t. I actually said it might. We aren’t disagreeing there. However, I’m not optimistic. That’s a mischaracterization of my statement.
I’m just not willing to agree that patient records are being collected in order to obtain a list of trans kids. It’s being collected to secure indictments. As I did state in earlier comments, they might use it for something else later, but the current matter is one of securing indictments.
There’s also nothing the federal government can do with a list of trans kids. That’s not optimism or hope, that’s skepticism that comes from the fact that people have a habit of misrepresenting facts in order to push narratives that aren’t factual, which is what’s happening here.
I know how the world works and what's going on in this situation deeper than most people want to admit. It's not what it seems. Nobody is actually creating lists of trans people.
If I mischaracterized your position, I apologize , that was not my intent.
I too bring some grounding to this conversation, having spent many decades working both within the system we’re discussing and fighting against it. But I understand we may simply see this differently.
It’s not for a list. They don’t care about patient data. It’s worse than a list. See my comment in this thread.
I wonder if cis people will ever get their heads out of their asses and realize that when we say “genocide” we are NOT being hyperbolic. And if they come for one they will come for all. What is their obsession with trans people!?!
If this passes they will come after trans adults next.
they already are
People are generally reluctant to connect all the dots, for fear of sounding crazy or hysterical. However, I'm not most people. When the religious right says they want transgenderism completely eradicated from public life (originally stated by Michael Knowles, but repeated by others a few times now), that means something. I take them seriously. Knowles' statement, interestingly, was at the first CPAC conference shortly after the release of the Project 2025 "Mandate for Leadership" document. It says in the forward of that document, written by the president of the Heritage Foundation, on p. 5, that we and our "ideology" are "pornographic," and they want us locked away.
Of course they will take a multifaceted approach, as with any campaign of genocide. One approach is to make it impossible or extremely difficult for us to transition. They don't care if we exist as long as it is as our sex assigned at birth, as miserable as that might be. And they also don't care if we kill ourselves.
And if we've already transitioned, they want us to detransition. I guess they believe if we can do that convincingly enough, then the "problem" disappears.
They want to stop providers from helping us transition, and they are willing to prosecute and imprison them to stop them.
But in the end, there are those of us who have transitioned and want to stay transitioned. Some of us can't de-transition, particularly those who have undergone gender confirmation surgery. So, what do they do with US?
Well, they're making lists, so they know who to come after later, after they finish writing all the laws that will make our post-transition existence illegal.
The end goal is "ERADICATION." That's THEIR word. Whether that will ever mean "extermination" is anyone's guess. It certainly worked out that way for the Jews in Germany.
I'm hardly the only person to speak of this genocidal campaign against trans Americans. Just a couple of nights ago, I was the only trans/queer person at a small dinner party. Half of the people there were Jewish. We were all talking about this administration's politics. I asked the Jewish people there, who were expressing discomfort with the lists being made of Jews, whether their concern was similar to ours - that these might be lists of people to round up in a campaign of genocide. Their response was an unequivocal "of course!" They emphasized that we trans people are absolutely NOT being overreactive when we speak in terms of genocide.
For those who are interested, the Lemkin Institute studies and monitors genocidal campaigns throughout the world. Here's their THIRD Red Flag Alert concerning the genocide of trans Americans:
https://www.lemkininstitute.com/red-flag-alerts/red-flag-alert---anti-trans-genocide-in-the-usa---%233
I'm going to take a wild guess and say they want those kids' lives to be as miserable as possible.
Texas pursued investigations against the parents of trans kids in that jurisdiction.
There can be do doubt as to the intentions of the Trump regime with its track record of animus against the trans community.
Trump and his Justice Department will attempt to investigate and prosecute the families and providers of trans kids if they get their hands on this information.
Thankfully the federal statutes for child abuse (which is what Texas used) only apply in either federal land or cases where parents crossed state lines, but that could still be used against parents who traveled. Honestly though, I don't think they'll push their luck with those kinds of investigations.
I wonder if it has any connection with the medical experiments they're trying out on prisoners.
I wouldn't think that at first glance, as the list they'd get from doing this would be very incomplete. However, I'd be more concerned about that if they were going for the records of every trans patient.
I see where this is going. This is a setup for a series of SLAPP lawsuits against practitioners.
They’re not after the patient data for the sake of the patient data, they only need that information to substantiate the charges against the providers to secure indictments. At this point, the hospitals have likely already been under federal investigation for some time and they’re going to indict the healthcare practitioners. Once they secure the indictments (the bar is lower than probable cause, they’ll get the indictments) they’ll drag the practitioners to federal court and force them to spend a fortune in legal fees.
At that point it won’t matter if the providers violated any laws or not because even if they’re innocent under the law, they’ll have to pay for a federal defense attorney, which costs far more than a general defense attorney. Going to trial will be too expensive so they’ll likely settle. The settlement will likely include a provision that they are not allowed to provide care for minors.
They’re going to put these providers in a position where they’ll need to spend all their money fighting the charges or settle and keep their career. The intention is to send a message to other providers to stop providing care to trans youth or face federal charges.
They’ll only stand a chance if there’s an attorney who will work pro bono for these doctors.
Trump tried to ban youth care with executive orders and funding cuts and now hospitals aren’t complying, so they’re going to drag them all in front of a grand jury probably by the end of the year. They probably already know the names of the providers and just need the patient data connecting the provider to the care provided to secure the indictments.
To put them in his detention centers
Match every one of their escalations. ICE’s home information was dumped online a few months ago. Anyone can make lists.
Is it time for Kindertransport?
They are going to take those trans kids away and put them in “ Christian “ foster care. They’ll probably end up molested by some Youth Pastor. WTF
To lock them up in rehabilitation centers?
Because we're in a sad world now that they have to be ignorant as all can be to pick on anybody that ain't like him. Thank God I ain't like him. He's a piece of crap ass president. And trans. People are better than him by far and he's jealous
Why does the federal gov’t want to build a list of transgender people? Note they just put out a document which boasts on the first page “we will find you and we will kill you.” The president’s grandiose signature is underneath that statement, and then it lists the groups it is talking about, one of which is those supporting “radical pro-transgenderism.” The terms are not defined, so it’s up to the government’s discretion.
https://wendy664.substack.com/p/the-president-has-placed-transgender?r=1x3ewa
https://themidnightwatch.substack.com/p/jfks-autism-registry-is-about-control?r=eljoa&utm_medium=ios