In George Orwell’s 1984, Emmanuel Goldstein is the ultimate scapegoat. As an enemy manufactured by the Party, his purpose is to unite the population through fear and hatred. His vilified image distracts the public from the real issues happening in their society, directing their anger towards a fabricated enemy. The people are left believing their safety is constantly threatened by an enemy that might not even exist.

This manufactured hate is no longer fiction. In Trump’s America today, the Emmanuel Goldsteins are trans women.

Just as the Party in 1984 spun a narrative to justify oppression, current political leaders use false pretences to undermine the rights of transgender individuals to justify their bigger plan. Despite no data to back their claims that trans women pose a threat to womens’ safety, their fear-mongering has given them the ammunition to pass 32 anti-trans bills in Congress this year alone, with 774 bills under consideration.

“I don’t actually think this has anything to do with women’s safety at all,” says Barbara J. Risman, a Sociology professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, “This anti trans ideology is against any non-traditional lives for women or men, and any right for any of us to be gender non conformist or outside of the biological conception of male and female.”

The gender ideology page on the official White House website says that allowing “men to self identify as women” has deprived ‘biological’ women of their safety in womens’ only spaces. They said that their aim by recognising women as biological females and men as biological males is to defend women’s rights, suggesting that the latter would have a ‘corrosive impact’ on women. However, multiple studies, including one by Williams’s Institute in February this year, found no correlation between trans inclusive policies and violence in women’s only spaces. 

“This is just part of their bigger plan to roll America back to a time where men, specifically white men, were the people who had the power in the society, and women were at home with their children, and they want everyone to fit into that mould,” says Prof. Risman, “But of course they have to demonise trans women so people are too distracted to question the government’s true motivations.”

Just like Goldstein in 1984, trans women in the US are vilified and scapegoated.

“What does it do when you create a narrative of trans women being a threat to women’s safety?” says Emily Cousens, assistant professor in Politics and International Relations at Northeastern University London, “It creates fear. It works as a scapegoat. It works as a distraction. 

“This is a government manufacturing the cause of a problem, then acting like they care by issuing strong statements and creating these ‘solutions’, which are devastatingly pernicious, but under the veil of looking like they are actually solving the issue.”

While there is no available evidence to prove that trans women as a whole pose a safety threat to cis women, research shows that 99% of reported sexual assaults are, in fact, committed by cisgender men, with a large majority of the assaults targeted towards women (National Sexual Violence Resource Center). Despite the ongoing crisis, the number of anti-trans bills proposed far outweighs legislation specifically aimed at addressing male violence against women within the same timeframe. This highlights a disproportionate amount of attention being given to ‘men identifying as women’ instead of tackling real issues that harm women.

Prof. Cousens says: “The fact that the government says that they’re anti trans to protect women’s rights, and then fails to do things that actually protects women’s rights, makes sense- because it was never about women’s rights and it was never about women’s safety. 

“This is really just about attacking any person, trans person, or woman, who dares not to fulfill their traditional ideas of what gender should be. Not only is this powerfully anti trans, but it’s also powerfully anti woman.”

The effects of presenting trans women as a threat to womens’ safety has had devastating consequences for the trans community, with transgender people being over four times more likely than cisgender people to experience violent victimisation (Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law). 

“When you tell people there’s a threat, they attack,” says Prof. Risman, “In this case, people either genuinely believe in a threat or need a justification for their violence.”

Avery Collins, 22, from Louisville, Kentucky is one of the many who had to suffer the harsh result of this. 

In 2021, at 17, Avery’s female transition became more visible. Uncomfortable in the boys’ bathroom, she chose to use the girls’ during quiet hours.

“I timed it so I wouldn’t run into anyone,” Avery says, “I waited until the halls were empty before slipping in.”

Her system worked perfectly until she was spotted one day, and since that day she vowed to never use the restroom in school again.

When she stepped out of the bathroom, she was adjusting her bag over her shoulder, not paying attention to a group of boys waiting outside.

“I remember being in complete shock when I heard a voice behind me. When I turned around my stomach dropped. They were three guys from my grade who thought they were above the rules.”

They started to spit verbal abuse at her, accusing her of trying to rape girls in the bathroom. 

One grabbed her bag and yanked it off her shoulder, throwing it down the hall. Another pushed her to the floor with her hands scraping against the tile.

“I felt one of their feet slamming into my ribs, then more kicks ramming into my stomach and to my back. I started holding myself, trying to block the places they were targeting the most. Then they started stomping on my head, smashing my skull into the floor. I could hear them laughing as they were doing it.” 

Eventually they left Avery lying there. Her whole body was shaking. Her vision blurred with tears. The hallway was silent again, like nothing had happened.

“In that exact moment, crouched on the floor, everything felt like a fever dream. The pain was unbearable. Every part of my body was screaming. My face stung where they’d stepped on me, and I could feel the blood gathering under my skin. My ribs felt tight, and each breath was sharp, like I was inhaling needles.”

Avery was left physically, mentally and emotionally scarred for years. 

“It was hard to cope with because, honestly, I didn’t know where to start. How do you even begin to deal with pain that doesn’t just affect your body, but your soul? The kind of pain that cuts so deep where it feels like the cruelest part of it all was the fact that they didn’t just finish me off?”

And now, the same beliefs that got Avery attacked in a school hallway are being used to justify writing anti trans laws. 

Prof. Risman says: “I think it’s a terror. I think that this moment in history is a really tragic one for trans people. 

“In the last decade or so, we have seen so much improvement with trans visibility and acceptance, so to see a right wing government attack all of this progress in a couple of months is heartbreaking.”

While Avery Collins feels like there has been more visibility, awareness and allyship around trans rights, she feels like the backlash has been undeniable.

“It feels like for every step forward, we take two steps back,” Avery says, “And it’s being fueled by the government.

“I’ve wasted so much time debating ignorant people about these baseless lies forced onto trans people, but I gave up when I realised the reality- they don’t want the truth, they want a villain. For some reason, they picked us.

“It’s devastating because it diverts attention away from the real issues. They don’t fight for the woman murdered by her husband, they don’t fight for the survivors in underfunded, overcrowded shelters, but they will sure fight so I can’t use a bathroom.”

Avery worries that trans children in high school today can be subject to the same fate she experienced if this rhetoric worsens.

 “When people in power start pushing these ideas, they embolden others to act on that hatred,” she says, “The government is giving bullies a green light to justify targeting trans kids.”

Orwell’s 1984 warned of a world where enemies are invented, fear is manufactured, and united hatred is used to maintain control. Today, trans women are facing the violent effects of being scapegoated, vilified, and blamed for a society’s ill, while the real dangers to women are disproportionately unchallenged. Like the Party in 1984, modern governments risk following the same path- shifting focus from systemic issues to constructed enemies.  

“When I look at the way trans people are being scapegoated, it’s like we’re not just being marginalised- we’re being hunted,” Avery says, “So, yeah, it absolutely feels dystopian.”

The question is whether society will recognise these parallels or continue down this road.

Prof Risman says: “I think how quickly things will get bad under the Trump administration depends on how well the US Supreme Court and other courts hold to civil rights protections for trans people. 

“We have yet to see how that all plays out, but clearly these next four years are going to be much tougher than before.”

Avery says: “I’m honestly terrified about the future. If the government is pushing this kind of narrative, it sets a dangerous precedent for anyone who doesn’t fit the mold of what they consider acceptable.

“The message they’re sending is clear: some lives matter less.”