TransWeek 2026 Keynote: American Genocide: America's Erasure of Transgender People

American Genocide: America's Erasure of Transgender People Presenter: Nicole Pauling Genocide in the United States doesn’t resemble Germany’s industrialized killing; it works through erasure, elimination, and the narrative machinery of the American Story. Because Americans are taught to recognize genocide through the Holocaust’s visible and foreign model, they often miss the quieter, longer forms embedded in U.S. history—policies of silence and elimination carried out through the forced removal and cultural destruction of Native peoples and their modern echoes. Today, the systematic targeting of transgender individuals—through bans, forced detransition, and the removal of rights and resources—follows this familiar historical pattern. Grounded in frameworks such as the UN definition of genocide, this talk examines how these practices fit within broader eliminationist traditions and challenges us to recognize genocide even when it wears an American face.