President Trump’s transgender moral panic

ABSTRACT

This article argues that former President Donald Trump acted as a moral entrepreneur when he created a moral panic by sending tweets that established a new national policy that negatively affected transgender Americans. The statement was that transgender Americans could not serve the US military in any valid capacity. The implication of the demonization was a moral panic predicated on the belief that transgender citizens were a burden to the American people, that they were invalid Americans. The policy tool used to facilitate the moral panic was Twitter, which was used to transmit his concerns to the broader public. The moral panic is a legacy of the Trump presidency for the way it sent a message that trans citizens were “others” and validated right-wing arguments against trans people in society. To reach this analysis, this article addresses the theory of moral panics within the context of the policy studies literature, including moral entrepreneurship, policy issues, and policy tools.

KEYWORDS:

• LGBTQ
• Trump
• Donald Trump
• moral panic
• transgender

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christopher Pepin-Neff

Christopher Pepin-Neff is a Senior Lecturer in Public Policy in the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney. His research focuses on agenda-setting, emotions, and LGBTQ politics.

Aaron Cohen

Aaron Cohen has a Bachelor's degree in Business from Boston University and a Master's Degree in Sustainable Development and Cultural Studies from Leipzig University.