On the Media Trans People are Facing a 'Dual State' in Trump's America
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Mar 25, 2026 Alejandra Caraballo, a civil rights attorney and Harvard Law clinical instructor who analyzes LGBTQ+ and digital civil liberties, discusses the surge of laws and legal tactics targeting trans people. She explains the 'dual state' framework, describes practical harms like ID loss and privacy violations, and traces how policy and rhetoric aim to exclude trans people from public life.
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Dual State Explains Legalized Persecution
- The dual state framework explains how normal legal systems coexist with targeted arbitrary persecution of minorities.
- Alejandra Caraballo uses Ernst Fraenkel's normative versus prerogative state to show courts enabling systemic legal erosion of trans rights.
Medical Rules Loosen For Some And Tighten For Trans Care
- A dual standard exists in medical regulation where anti-vaccine rhetoric loosens oversight while gender-affirming care is aggressively policed.
- Caraballo notes deregulation of alternative remedies and simultaneous crackdowns on trans youth care and provider investigations.
Fast Laws Can Immediately Remove Everyday Rights
- Rapid legislative maneuvers can instantly strip practical rights from trans people, creating sudden exclusion from daily life.
- Kansas used a cut-and-paste rush to overturn a veto and immediately invalidate many trans driver licenses and add a bathroom bounty provision.