The internet has been a key medium for transgender people seeking information, activism, and community. But the Trump administration has sought to strip legal recognition for gender variance, prosecute providers of gender affirming care, and push trans people out of public life. The systems that once made trans people visible can now make them targets, and companies that once saw LGBTQ users as a source of cultural caché are withdrawing support — and potentially facing legal or political consequences if they don’t. A wave of internet regulation has been fueled partly by fears of online “social contagion,” including the Kids Online Safety Act, whose sponsor has suggested it could be aimed at suppressing trans-related content.
The Verge’s series, The Future of Being Trans, features six essays from trans writers on how the internet shaped and now threatened their identity and sense of being. The series opens with Parker Molloy’s confessional essay about how her well-intentioned journalism about transitioning published a decade ago now has new ramifications under an anti-trans regime; the package ends on a more hopeful note with Talia Bhatt’s piece on how queer authors are finding ways to circumvent platforms and gatekeepers to publish their stories.
