AVERT Webinar: De/Transition, Disinformation, and Digital Moral Panic

Detransitioning has gained political and media attention in recent years, often driven by moral panic from anti-gender movement. A prominent example is Chloe Cole, a public detrans figure whose narrative has been widely circulated in conservative and gender-critical media as evidence of the dangers from “gender ideology.” This presentation focuses on a case study based on a qualitative content analysis of digital news articles that mention or cover Cole between 2023 and 2024. Findings reveal themes of false empathy toward detrans people through trauma narratives; disinformation about medical transition; and framing that suggests trans people are threats to cisgender women and children.  Organizations labeled as anti-LGBTQ by the Southern Poverty Law Center, such as Alliance Defending Freedom and Gays Against Groomers, exploit trauma narratives to advance far-right agendas. Conspiracy theories and anti-intellectual rhetoric are found to support anti-trans policies and strengthen in-group bias. By stigmatizing LGBTQ+ people, often labeling them as “groomers,” these networks facilitate radicalization into political extremism. This process has fueled support for authoritarian actions, including book bans, ex-queer conversion therapy, and the removal of legal protections. From the Proud Boys targeting drag queen story hours to US federal campaigns opposing "gender ideology, " transphobic narratives are strategically used as tools for ideological mobilization and recruitment into fascism.