Understanding Anti-trans Tropes: “Radical Gender Experimentation”
This entry is part of the GLAAD Guide to Anti-LGBTQ Online Hate and Disinformation, an ongoing project to identify some of the most prevalent and egregious terms, tropes, and concepts that are used to harass, attack, and spread malicious misinformation about LGBTQ people on social media. Learn more here.
*CONTENT WARNING*
The example below includes a hateful term, phrases and imagery.
“Radical Gender Experimentation”
“Radical gender experimentation” is a common anti-trans trope used by right-wing political figures and media to fearmonger and spread false narratives about transgender people and trans healthcare.
Current political attacks on trans healthcare — including the many Trump administration executive orders and departmental memos in 2025 — rely on intentional inflammatory mischaracterizations. For example, as KFF (an independent and non-partisan research organization) notes in its Overview of President Trump’s Executive Actions Impacting LGBTQ+ Health with regard to the April 2025 “Preventing the Mutilation of American Children” Department of Justice Memorandum: “the memo includes inaccuracies relating to gender identity, gender affirming care, and transgender people that conflict with science and evidence.”
Conclusion
This is just one example of anti-LGBTQ online hate and disinformation. Every term and concept should be evaluated in context. For instance, LGBTQ people and allies may use hashtags with hate terms as counterspeech, or slurs such as “tranny” or “dyke” may be used self-referentially to reclaim them. This guide will be updated on an ongoing basis. Please see the latest GLAAD Social Media Safety Index report for a deeper exploration of the current social media landscape for LGBTQ people, including GLAAD’s recommendations and thought leadership in the field.
How to Report Anti-LGBTQ Online Hate Speech and Harassment
Every major social media platform has policies which prohibit hate and harassment on the basis of protected characteristics, including sexual orientation and gender identity. To learn how to report potentially violative content, check out GLAAD’s LGBTQ Digital Safety Guide, which includes basic tips on helping our community be more safe online.
About the GLAAD Social Media Safety Program
As the leading national LGBTQ media advocacy organization, GLAAD is working every day to hold social media platforms, tech, and AI companies accountable, and to secure safer online spaces for LGBTQ people. The GLAAD Social Media Safety Program produces the highly-respected annual Social Media Safety Index (SMSI) and researches, monitors, and reports on a variety of issues facing LGBTQ social media users — with a focus on safety, privacy, and expression.
