Justice Department funds research on violence and gender dysphoria

NIJ grants will examine the frequency and type of violence

The National Institute of Justice, the research arm of the US Department of Justice, said last month it would award up to $1 million for studies into the frequency and type of violence committed by people diagnosed and treated for gender dysphoria. The notice came as the Trump administration continued to limit transgender people’s access to health care and identification documents showing their correct gender. It also came more than a year after the administration cut funding for research into hate-fueled and extremist violence.

After conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed in September 2025, rightwing influencers argued that the suspected shooter was motivated in part by what they called “transgender ideology,” The Guardian reported. The outlet said the term is often used by those on the right to falsely suggest that being transgender is a political ideology rather than an identity. A White House counter-terrorism report issued this year included the idea that being transgender or being an ally to transgender people represents a dangerous political ideology, as part of its approach to addressing leftwing violence and “transgender ideologies.”

Wendy Via, co-founder and CEO of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, said the Trump administration had repeatedly falsely portrayed transgender people as more likely to commit extremist violence. She said the approach diverts attention from violence driven by far-right extremist ideologies, including the “great replacement” theory that several high-profile shooters have cited in their manifestos. “What the administration is doing is very dangerous,” Via said.

Experts and LGBTQ+ advocates called attempts to link transgender people and violence “pseudoscience.” They said those claims depart from a growing body of academic literature showing that it is impossible to link a single characteristic, such as race, political affiliation or gender, as the prime reason for violence. Researchers said the most common thread among most high-profile attackers is their views, which often include racism, homophobia, misogyny and nihilism.

The Guardian reported that the vast majority of mass shootings in the US have been carried out by cisgender people, although transgender and non-binary people have committed some mass shootings. The outlet named cases at Annunciation Catholic school in Minneapolis, Club Q in Colorado Springs and Tumbler Ridge elementary school in British Columbia in Canada. In those cases, transgender shooters shared characteristics of modern high-profile mass shooters, such as idolizing other killers and online radicalization.

Via said the reasons people commit mass violence cannot be known with precision. “We don’t know exactly why a person decides to commit mass violence, because they’ve all had things in their lives that have led them to it,” she said. “Being trans or being straight likely doesn’t have anything to do with it.”

Zane McNeill, a staff attorney with Lawyers for Good Government, said the NIJ’s new funding priorities would shift attention away from the dangers posed by far-right extremists and toward transgender people. “I see it as a part of this larger apparatus to distract from who’s propagating the violence,” McNeill said. “It’s also about weaponizing funding decisions. They’ve been undermining projects while diverting taxpayer dollars for far-right pseudoscience.”

The NIJ is not the only part of the government pursuing research on transgender people and violence. The Department of Health and Human Services recently published Where the Clinic Meets the Movement: Does Gender Ideology Arm Left-Wing Authoritarian Psychology? HHS commissioned the report, and researchers from Rutgers University, the Manhattan Institute and the Network Contagion Research Institute authored it. Based on a survey of about 1,200 adults in the US, the report suggests that people who receive or support gender-affirming care are more likely to support political violence.

McNeill sent HHS a letter last month requesting several corrections and arguing that the report violated the agency’s own guidelines. He and other researchers are trying to obtain access to the survey data so they can conduct their own analysis. “This research is so flawed that it should not be published,” McNeill said. “It’s obvious that it’s extremely biased.”

The NIJ and the institutions affiliated with the HHS report did not respond to The Guardian’s request for comment.

In a statement to The Guardian, HHS press secretary Grace Davis Jamison said the report would help the government better understand how “political radicalization develops.” “The findings should be evaluated based on the evidence, and under the Trump administration, HHS will not shy away from asking important questions to protect the health and safety of the American people,” she said.