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The new moral panic: Transphobia and the law
In the face of our latest moral panic and its likely impact on the law, certain norms are worth remembering, writes Dr Matt Bach.
Dr Matt Bach
It’s been just over 50 years since the South African scholar Stanley Cohen wrote his famous work, Folk Devils and Moral Panics. He concentrated on violent youth subculture and defined a moral panic as a period of exaggerated public alarm, which is often caused by media reports and usually focuses on a societal group that is perceived as dangerous and a threat to society. The result, Cohen argued, is regressive legislation.
Surely, today’s most prominent moral panic concerns trans people. Look, society’s growing acceptance of gender dysphoric people does create challenges: challenges at school, in sporting competitions, and in the use of spaces intended only for women. Most people of goodwill, I think, believe there need to be genuine and respectful conversations about these issues, and more.
But that’s no excuse for too many in the media and political classes to spew bile and foment division in a deliberate attempt to demonise trans people – often with cover from the highest levels of government. Again, Cohen found a key element of any moral panic is repressive legislation.
On this front, America is the obvious place to start looking. Last year, Georgia became the latest American state to pass laws banning the teaching of “divisive concepts” in the classroom.
These vague laws, while an affront to anyone with a liberal bone in their body, are increasingly common in Republican-led states. On signing the bill, the state’s Governor Brian Kemp said – with typical poor grammar – that “our classrooms will not be pawns to those who indoctrinate our kids”.
We now have an indication of what sort of indoctrination he was talking about: pro-trans indoctrination, of course. Last year, Katie Rinderle, a grade 5 teacher from Cobb County, was sacked after reading a book called My Shadow is Purple to her class of 10- and 11-year-olds. Just a few weeks ago, in February, her sacking was upheld by the Georgia School Board.
My Shadow is Purple, written by Melbourne’s Scott Stuart, is about a child who sees in themself both feminine and masculine traits. Any book about these complex issues needs to be carefully contextualised by teachers or, if read at home, by parents. And there is a risk, of course, that those with an activist bent will seek to force their views upon children.
Yet the accusation against Rinderle is that she simply read a book that, as a former English teacher myself, appears age-appropriate.
Whatever the ins and outs of Rinderle’s case, the enactment and then the enforcement of vague and illiberal laws across the Pacific should give us pause for much thought here in Australia. Cohen was not wrong when he asserted that politicians respond to media pressure and what they believe to be the public mood.
Recently, in Australia, for example, right-wing commentators and politicians lost their minds about a book called Welcome to Sex, which contains “honest advice on everything you need to know about sex” for teenagers. These troglodytes were particularly outraged by the book’s references to gender fluidity.
After a concerted campaign from the censorious mob, Big W caved and removed the tome from its shelves. I have a rather straightforward view on these things: if you don’t like a book, don’t buy it for your children. And if it’s about sex, realise that they’ve already seen far, far worse on their iPhone.
I do understand why many parents have their concerns about issues of gender identity. In response to significantly growing numbers of trans and non-binary kids, even The Economist, an evidence-based publication that leans to the left on social policy, has questioned whether some of the rise may be the result of social contagion or parental pressure: some parents may prefer a straight daughter to a gay son, the argument goes, and thus encourage a transition.
These are all matters that can be discussed, albeit with much care. Yet sober consideration of these complex issues is not aided by hyperbolic, sometimes hateful, coverage in certain publications and on certain television networks – by a moral panic that currently centres on the fiction that teachers are cheerleaders for gender transition or, even worse, that trans people and their allies are groomers or paedophiles.
As a liberal, I really don’t care what other people choose to do, how they choose to live, or what they choose to read, as long as they’re not harming me (to crudely paraphrase John Stuart Mill). In the face of our latest moral panic and its likely impact on the law, these norms are worth remembering.
Dr Matt Bach is the former shadow attorney-general of Victoria.
