1. United States
2. Mich.
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to take immediate action to protect transgender, nonbinary, and intersex Americans from escalating violence and discriminatory policies that genocide scholars warn may constitute the early stages of genocide. Multiple former presidents of the International Association of Genocide Scholars have issued stark warnings about the current trajectory. Dr. Gregory Stanton, founder of Genocide Watch, has described the attacks as a "genocidal" attempt "to destroy a gender group." Dr. Elisa von Joeden-Forgey, president of the Lemkin Institute, believes the United States is in the "early-to-mid stages of a genocidal process." These are not alarmist claims but professional assessments from experts who have studied mass atrocities worldwide. The evidence supporting their concerns is substantial. More than half of U.S. states now restrict youth access to gender-affirming care despite support from virtually every major medical organization in the country. Twenty states have explicit regulations on transgender bathroom use. The NIH defunded LGBTQIA+ related research in 2025. Murders of transgender people doubled between 2017 and 2021. Dr. Henry Theriault notes that transgender Americans represent roughly one percent of the total U.S. population, the same proportion as Jews in 1933 Germany. Genocide scholars emphasize that these processes begin with less violent techniques before escalating. Dr. von Joeden-Forgey warns that the LGBTQIA+ community serves as "a kind of canary in the coal mine" and that states use certain communities as testing grounds to desensitize populations to violence. She cautions that once genocide is in the mix, the state in question will commit other mass atrocities, threatening democracy itself. I am asking you to publicly pledge to protect transgender Americans by opposing discriminatory legislation, supporting nondiscrimination protections, defending access to evidence-based healthcare, and speaking out against dehumanizing rhetoric. Your constituents deserve leadership that recognizes the warning signs of mass atrocity and acts to prevent it.