‘JUNK REPORT’: Human Rights Campaign Fires Back at HHS Transgender Political-Violence Study

The Human Rights Campaign, America’s largest LGBTQ+ activist group, condemned as “junk” a report finding a correlation between support for transgender medical procedures and left-wing authoritarianism, along with justifications for political violence.

The Department of Health and Human Services commissioned the study, in which researchers with Rutgers University, the Manhattan Institute, and the Network Contagion Research Institute surveyed 1,208 U.S. adults. They asked a series of questions measuring support for a “clinical gender affirmation scale,” support for “left-wing authoritarianism,” and whether respondents considered various acts of political violence justified.

The study found that the more strongly a person supported sex-rejecting procedures, the more likely he or she was to support “aggression toward perceived oppressors, enthusiasm for top-down censorship and institutional enforcement, and hostility toward conventional social institutions.” It also found that support for sex-rejecting procedures correlated with support for violence against Charlie Kirk, President Donald Trump, and police, among others. It only claimed to find correlation, not causation.

The Human Rights Campaign did not respond to the Daily Signal’s request for comment about whether it disagrees with the study’s methodology, but it did release a statement condemning the study.

“For nearly two years now, the Trump administration and officials like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have used our own government as a cudgel against LGBTQ+ people, and increasingly, the transgender community specifically,” Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson said.

“This so-called study, sponsored by an extreme right-wing advocacy organization, is another example of the outcome leading the research—MAGA Republicans want to sow hatred against our fellow Americans in a desperate attempt to distract from their failures ahead of the midterms,” she added.

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The Human Rights Campaign condemned two of the entities that conducted the “supposed ‘research,’” the Manhattan Institute and the Network Contagion Research Institute, as “known conservative-leaning think tanks with track records of producing reports that align with extremist right-wing positions.”

Political Violence Study Author Responds

Colin Wright, a Manhattan Institute fellow and one of the study’s authors, rejected the Human Rights Campaign’s characterization.

“I think the HRC has been one of the most egregious organizations pushing extreme rhetoric, such as the notion that there is an ‘epidemic of violence’ against trans people that amounts to a ‘genocide,’” Wright told the Daily Signal.

“The homicide data demonstrate this narrative is false, but it’s likely effective at stirring up fear and attracting donor money,” he argued. “If they actually cared about the well-being of trans people, they wouldn’t lie about data and spread unwarranted fear and anxiety.”

Wright noted that the study “is not capable of proving causality between this kind of extreme rhetoric and violence,” but added that “future reports will be addressing that question directly.”

HHS’ Response

When approached for comment, the Department of Health and Human Services defended the research as rigorous.

“The authors propose a potential mechanism in which clinical and professional institutions lend authority to frameworks that identify victims, sources of harm, and appropriate responses, potentially providing individuals already disposed toward authoritarianism with moral justification for coercive or punitive action,” HHS senior press secretary Emily Hilliard told the Daily Signal. “HHS will continue to pursue rigorous research into the relationships among ideological beliefs, authoritarian attitudes and the justification of political violence, providing the American people with evidence on these important questions.”

Human Rights Campaign’s Rhetoric

The Human Rights Campaign has repeatedly claimed that transgender people face an “epidemic of violence,” even though its own data on the homicides targeting transgender people suggest a rate lower than that of other segments of the population.

The Trevor Project, another LGBTQ+ activist group, cited its own research, claiming that “anti-transgender laws” increase suicide risk among transgender and nonbinary youth. Critics dispute those claims.

The Daily Signal asked the Human Rights Campaign and The Trevor Project whether rhetoric emphasizing threats to transgender people could contribute to the sense of danger measured in the HHS study. Neither group responded by publication time.

Several recent high-profile violent attacks involved perpetrators who identified as transgender or whose cases featured transgender issues.

Tyler Robinson faces murder charges in the slaying of Charlie Kirk, and Robinson allegedly told his transgender-identifying boyfriend that he shot Kirk on his behalf. Robin Westman, a man identifying as a woman, shot and killed two children at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis in August. Julia Grace Egler allegedly shot and killed her mother and her mother’s boyfriend following disputes with her mother about her transgender identity. Audrey Elizabeth Hale, a woman who identified as male, shot and killed six in Nashville in 2023.

The study did not examine whether people who identify as transgender commit violence.

The Human Rights Campaign’s statement included an explicit condemnation of political violence.

“Let us all be absolutely clear on this point: political violence is not, and must never become, acceptable in our society,” Robinson said. “But neither should demonizing entire groups of people for political gain. Trans people are not an ideology, they are human beings and our fellow Americans who deserve the same dignity as anyone else.”

Rutgers University, the Manhattan Institute, and the Network Contagion Research Institute did not immediately respond to the Daily Signal’s requests for comment.