The past half-decade has seen an exponential rise in proposed and debated anti-trans legislation in the United States. These bills are often positioned at the center of divisive political debates between Republicans (who typically support these laws) and Democrats (who typically do not). In the process of discussing these debates, there has been widespread dissemination of anti-trans rhetoric that has the potential to impact public opinion. In this review, we approach this rhetoric through the lens of social psychology with a specific focus on instances where anti-trans legislation is portrayed as beneficial for the rights of other vulnerable groups of people, such as cisgender women and children. We identify psychological constructs reflected in anti-trans rhetoric and then review existing literature on the consequences and beliefs associated with these constructs. Based upon this review, we argue that the kind of reasoning used to promote anti-trans laws—specifically, essentialist beliefs and benevolent sexism—is actually associated with outcomes that are detrimental to the very groups these laws purport to protect. Given these potentially adverse effects of essentialism and benevolent sexism, we reflect on ways to reduce the impact of these psychological constructs in everyday life and suggest some alternatives to these laws that would improve the lives of both cisgender and transgender individuals. Next, we briefly discuss other forms of anti-trans rhetoric and suggest ways that social psychology can be used to positively reframe rhetoric and policy to promote the welfare of transgender and gender-diverse individuals. We close our paper with a brief discussion of limitations and summary of our ideas.

中文翻译：

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反跨性别言论中的性别本质主义和仁慈的性别歧视

过去五年来，美国提出和争论的反跨性别立法呈指数级增长。这些法案通常处于共和党（通常支持这些法律）和民主党（通常不支持）之间政治分歧的中心。在讨论这些辩论的过程中，反跨性别言论广泛传播，有可能影响公众舆论。在这篇评论中，我们从社会心理学的角度来看待这种言论，特别关注反跨性别立法被描述为有利于其他弱势群体（例如顺性别妇女和儿童）的权利的情况。我们确定了反跨性别言论中反映的心理结构，然后回顾了有关与这些结构相关的后果和信念的现有文献。根据这篇评论，我们认为，用于推广反跨性别法律的推理——特别是本质主义信仰和仁慈的性别歧视——实际上与不利于这些法律旨在保护的群体的结果有关。考虑到本质主义和仁慈的性别歧视的潜在不利影响，我们思考如何减少这些心理结构对日常生活的影响，并提出这些法律的一些替代方案，以改善顺性别和跨性别个体的生活。接下来，我们简要讨论其他形式的反跨性别言论，并提出如何利用社会心理学积极重构言论和政策，以促进跨性别和性别多元化个体的福利。我们以对局限性的简短讨论和对我们想法的总结来结束我们的论文。