It should be self-evident from the tone and tenor of the "discourse" (read: hysteria) over trans people right now that what we're experiencing is a moral panic, in the same vein of the Satanic panic of the 80s. For one thing, the whole shebang is being led by unhinged QAnon-adjacent actors like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. and the "Libs of TikTok" lady, people who ignore actual real world sexual abuse in order to indulge in blood libel-style accusations painting LGBTQ people as pedophiles. For another, the supposed "whistleblowers" the right trots out are reminiscent of the sort of shady grifters that always step forward during these moral panics, such as the liars who claimed they used to be Satanists, the "ex-gays" or people who say embryos scream during abortions.
Seriously, Jamie Reed, the lady they're using to make false accusations at gender-affirmation clinics, is saying kids "identify" as helicopters. One wonders if she's testing how much nonsense people will swallow because they want their prejudices affirmed so badly. As Irin Carmon of New York magazine recently detailed, anti-trans activists are using "the same playbook" they used to stigmatize abortion by "fomenting moral panic around the most vulnerable and co-opting progressive tropes to help fuel it."
