GLR July-August 2025

ESSAY The Lavender Scare and Its Echoes R ONALD O. V ALDISERRI

H ISTORY IS often cyclical; after a period of in creasing acceptance, fears that sexual and gen der minorities pose a serious threat to society’s values and well-being are now back in fashion. Sociologists label widespread fears in response to a perceived threat—which is usually imagi nary or exaggerated—as a “moral panic.” Reactions to moral panics typically include legal and policy actions focused on the perceived threat. Recent anti-LGBT legislation and policy directives coming from federal and state gov ernments are a product of the United States’ most re cent moral panic, with its obsessive focus on issues of sexual and specifically gender identity.

medical interventions. This dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation’s history, and it must end.” Charging that gender-af firming care is founded on “junk science,” this order directs fed eral agencies providing research or education grants to medical institutions to take immediate steps to “end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children.” Each of these orders has been challenged in federal court, leading to delays in their implementation. The final outcome of

An executive order issued by President Donald Trump on January 20 asserts the following: “Across the country, ideologues who deny the biological re ality of sex have increasingly used legal and other socially coercive means to permit men to self-iden tify as women and gain access to intimate single sex spaces and activities designed for women, from women’s domestic abuse shelters to women’s work place showers.” The order goes on to explain that the federal government recognizes two sexes, male and female, which are established “at conception” and “are not changeable.” Gender identity, it main tains, is a “subjective sense of self, disconnected from biological reality,” essentially negating the ex istence of transgender people. Following this pol icy directive, major media outlets such as TheNew York Times and the Associated Press reported fed eral agencies censoring or removing documents that include terms such as “transgender,” “nonbinary,” and “ LGBTQ ” from their public websites. One week later, Trump issued another Execu tive Order: “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness.” Stating that a successful military “re quires a singular focus on developing the requisite warrior ethos,” the order bars transgender men and women from serving in the armed forces, asserting that “expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent

these cases remains uncertain, but however they fare, attacks on the LGBT community—and transgender Americans in par ticular—are likely to continue. Even before the issuance of the January 28th order, several states had adopted bans on gender affirming care for transgender minors—and the proposed re strictions are not limited to children and teens. According to a 2024 position paper from the American College of Physicians, some states are considering bans through the age of 26 or re stricting care for transgender patients of all ages. Watching these events unfold, I cannot help reflecting upon Clockwise from top left: Evening Star (Washington, DC), May 25, 1950; Chicago Tribune , April 20, 1953; Syndicated, March 5, 1953; New York Times , April 19, 1960.

from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service.” This was followed by a third Executive Order on January 28th attacking transgender medical care in misleading terms: “Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible Ronald O. Valdiserri, MD, is a professor of epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University. July–August 2025

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