WASHINGTON — Trump administration-funded researchers and independent collaborators found a startling correlation between proponents of a transgender ideology and left-wing violence, according to a new report obtained by The Post and set to be released Wednesday.
The new study from researchers at Rutgers University, the right-leaning Manhattan Institute and Network Contagion Research Institute found that those normalizing transgender beliefs were more likely to be supportive of political violence.
Respondents were quizzed about six potential targets of political violence for the study: “killing Charlie Kirk, killing Donald Trump, killing Brian Thompson, arson of ICE buildings, damaging wealthy people’s property, and violence against police.”
Nicholas Roske, the would-be assassin of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, is seen in surveillance footage at a gun shop on May 23, 2022. (Department of Justice) Department of Justice
“These findings suggest that gender ideology is associated with LWA [left-wing authoritarianism] and willingness to justify political violence,” stated the study, which titled “Where the Clinic Meets the Movement: Does Gender Ideology Arm Left-Wing Authoritarian Psychology?”
“Experimental research is needed to determine causality,” according to the researchers.
The study comes amid recent public debates about high-profile shootings involving transgender individuals.
Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, was assassinated by a gunman who allegedly had a trans-roommate lover. The late conservative icon was speaking at a Utah university campus on Sept 10, 2025, when he was shot before a daytime crowd while addressing a question on transgender violence.
“Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?” asked one attendee during a question-and-answer session.
“Too many,” Kirk replied.
Charlie Kirk throws hats to the crowd after arriving at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, September 10, 2025, in Orem, Utah. Getty Images
“Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?” the questioner said.
“Counting or not counting gang violence?” the Turning Point USA founder responded.
Kirk was shot in the neck moments later and later died at a local hospital at the age of 31.
Tyler Robinson, who is accused of fatally shooting Charlie Kirk, had an alleged transgender lover. Rick Egan/Pool The Salt Lake Tribune via AP
Kirk’s case was not the only high-profile act of political violence linked to views on gender ideology. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh faced an assassination attempt from a suspect who later identified as a transgender woman.
School shootings in Minnesota and Tennessee were also carried out by trans-identifying individuals.
“One of our study’s most interesting and perhaps shocking findings was that accepting gender ideology appeared to augment authoritarian attitudes on support for political violence,” Colin Wright, one of the researchers, told The Post.
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“We believe this may result from gender ideology defining specific oppressed classes and their oppressors, and the promotion of extreme narratives of harm for those who refuse to affirm transgender identities both socially and medically.
“That is only speculative at this point, but we are addressing this directly in a follow-up report.”
The HHS-commissioned researchers queried 1,208 US adults about the importance of affirming a person’s gender identity, threats to transgender individuals from various groups including “white supremacists, men, the Supreme Court, etc.” and “support for anti-democratic behaviors,” among other views.
Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh faced an assassination attempt from a gunman who later identified as transgender. Bloomberg via Getty Images
The questions were formed using “consensus positions” held by the American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health.
“These are not fringe organizations—they represent the official scientific and clinical establishment on care for individuals who identify as transgender,” the report noted.
Results from that questionnaire helped develop what the researchers called the Clinical Gender Affirmation Scale (CGAS), which helped measure a respondent’s degree of support for gender ideology.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during an event at the Kennedy Center on Wednesday, August 13, 2025, in Washington, DC. Getty Images
The report concluded that “gender ideology may function as an ideological accelerant, telling left-wing authoritarian psychology who the enemy is, why the situation is urgent, and—in those already disposed toward force—that violence is legitimate.”
“We also assessed catastrophizing beliefs, such as the perceived likelihood that a genocide of individuals that identify as transgender is currently under way, and associate extremist responses, such as belief in the need to censor and punish those who oppose transgender dogmas and ignore Supreme Court rulings on gender ideology issues,” it added.
“We have good reasons to expect that LWA and CGAS will predict support for these sorts of anti-democratic beliefs, but those are empirical questions which will be answered in the analysis that are ongoing.”
