In my formative high school years, as I tried to figure out what my life was all about, one book proved to be pivotal: The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. I took to that book like some teens take to “Atlas Shrugged” but, thankfully, Rand never interested me.
Among the many bits of philosophy I took from Illuminatus was one line from “Celine’s Laws” buried deep in the text, “every Law creates a new criminal class.”
“As more and more laws are passed, more and more citizens become criminals,” said Robert Anton Wilson, speaking through the character Hagbard Celine. “The chief cause of the rising crime rate is the rising number of laws being enacted.”
With that, I can’t help but note, the crime rate is about to explode.
In August of this year, speaking at a Moms For Liberty event, former and future President Donald Trump told the crowd that, “On Day 1, I will sign an executive order instructing every federal agency to cease the promotion of sex or gender transition at any age. They’re not going to do it anymore.”
Yes, he can do this. It won’t be easy, and there’s more than likely to be legal fights ahead, but I assure you that plenty will fall in line with such a rule, fearing repercussions — and less funding — if they do not.
Additionally, many departments in this administration, fueled by the plans laid out in Project 2025, make it clear that a vast pushback on trans rights will be more than just a day-one agenda item.
Ben Brody, a reporter at Punchbowl, recently secured a copy of Federal Trade Administration Commissioner Andrew Ferguson’s pitch for the FTC’s plans going into the new presidency. While there are a great many awful things in there, the plans for trans people are chilling.
In a section labeled “Protect Freedom of Speech and Fight Wokeness,” is this: “Fight back against the trans agenda. Investigate the doctors, therapists, hospitals, and others who deceptively pushed gender confusion, puberty blockers, hormone replacement, and sex-change surgeries on children and adults while failing to disclose strong evidence that such interventions are not helpful and carry enormous risks.”
Read that a second time, and consider just how far they can go with this. Consider that this very column would potentially be under threat if I do not lie to fit Ferguson’s agenda. This is but one of 15 departments who will all be tasked with — among many other things — stripping transgender people of their rights.
Of course, we have three branches to our government, so perhaps we can look at Congress. Let’s look at a bill filed just a few days ago, HB9218. This is the Defining Male and Female Act of 2024. You can read the whole bill at https://legiscan.com/US/text/HB9218/2023. The important takeaway is that this will rigidly define man and woman and, in short, place transgender, nonbinary genderfluid, intersexed, two-spirited, and many other people outside of the law.
This bill is close to the worst possible outcome.
Or, consider HB10186, the Protecting Women’s Private Spaces Act, visible at https://legiscan.com/US/bill/HB10186/2023. This is Nancy Mace (R-SC)’s bill, limiting the use of single-sex facilities on federal property based on biological sex. This means that many airports, post offices, federal buildings, and places like the Smithsonian would have to police and segregate their restrooms from me and people like me.
So clearly, Congress will be of little help, this leaves the judiciary.
Arguments were held at the Supreme Court in the US V. Skirmetti case, a Tennessee ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors. The case, historical in many ways, with not the least of them being that Chase Strangio, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, became the first known trans person to speak before the court, could also deeply impact transgender care, with many seeing it as being wielded against all transgender people, not just trans youth.
While the Tennessee ban would surely be deemed unconstitutional in a non-corrupt court, it is likely this one will rule in favor of Tennessee, setting aside the United States Constitution to allow for state discrimination of transgender people. Or, as Justice Elena Kagan put it, “sounds to me like we want boys to be boys and we want girls to be girls.”
Justice Brett Kavanaugh tried a different approach, arguing, “The Constitution doesn’t take sides on how to resolve that medical and policy debate. If there’s strong, forceful, scientific policy arguments on both sides in a situation like this, why isn’t it best to leave it to the democratic process?” In short, Kavanaugh would rather punt the fights of a minority into the goodwill of a majority — knowing that the majority is so generous.
Or, as Justice Sonia Sotomayor put it, “When you’re 1% of the population or less, [it’s] very hard to see how the democratic process is going to protect you.”
To me, this is a perfectly awful trifecta. The administration will remove us from all our protections, Congress will make our existence illegal, and the judiciary will — at best — sit on its thumbs rather than protect its people.
And we transgender people will become a new criminal class overnight.
So, what to do? Well, what does one do when there is nothing left to lose? We will need to learn to push back, to ignore unjust laws, and do what we need just to exist — and exist we must.
It is all on us now.
Gwen Smith remembers what it was like to write lighthearted columns. You can find her at www.gwensmith.com.