The White House released it's 2026 national counterterrorism strategy in early May, the first since a 2021 strategy from the Biden administration. This new one identifies three main groups in the federal government's crosshairs: transnational narcoterrorist gangs, Islamic jihadists, and "violent left-wing extremists"
What qualifies as violent left wing extremism, according to the document, includes groups that have a "radically pro-transgender ideology." That term is never strictly defined, and it's not clear what it really means.
"I think it's a very tricky and fluid area," said Shanthie D'Souza, a visiting professor at UMass Amherst and a counterterorrism expert, having served as an International Advisor at the Nordic Counter Terrorism Network.
D'Souza said while it's not uncommon for counter-terrorism strategies to include domestic extremism, this document seems to directly target groups that are politically opposed to President Donald Trump.
"What is most striking this time especially in the counterterrorism strategy is that broad sweeping generalization of the word 'terrorist' to include what has been the U.S. president's rather personalized fetish of equating political opposition with radicalized terror," D'Souza said.
She said the focus on so-called 'transgender ideology' is especially strange, since typically a group needs to demonstrate a sort of institutionalized violent intent before they can come close to being considered terrorists. Lacking that, the administration seems to be broadly classifying support for transgender people as a form of radical extremism.
"This is extremely dangerous and anti-democratic," D'Souza said. "And will effectively bar any political rights groups that support transgender ideology."
Since taking office for the second time, President Trump has consistently sought to eliminate or hamper protections for transgender people put in place by prior administrations. Soon after his inauguration in 2025, Trump passed an executive order explicitly banning the federal government from recognizing gender identities at all. The Trump administration also links the transgender community to the murder of right-wing podcast host Charlie Kirk last year, with the counterterrorism strategy document claiming that his killer "espoused extreme transgender ideologies."
It's a far cry from the experiences of transgender people in Western Massachusetts — parts of which have long been considered a haven for the state's LGBTQ+ population.
Lorelei Erisis is a local transgender artist, activist and organizer. She's been navigating anti-trans rhetoric and policies for the better part of two decades, and thinks this latest association with domestic terrorism is both frightening, and ridiculous.
"It's so absurd as to feel like bad comedy writing," she said.
Erisis is no stranger to policy that frames transgender people as a nebulous threat to women, or American culture writ large. But as the Trump administration draws this new connection to domestic terrorism, she feels like it's becoming an existential battle to be trans in public life.
"It's terrifying to see the way trans people are being made criminals," Erisis said. "And aren't criminals but are being labeled as such. Our very existence is being made illegal."
For a while, it seemed like Western Mass was a sanctuary against efforts to marginalize the transgender community, in no small part due to the historically queer population in places like Northampton. Erisis says over the last couple decades, trans people nationwide have come to the region to escape persecution.
"Broadly in the [Pioneer] Valley, I've seen trans people from all over the country who are fleeing here from other more dangerous parts of the country," Erisis said. "For relative safety."
Thats a sentiment echoed by other local trans organizers. Mya Nuri-Head is executive director of the Pittsfield-based and transgender-focused nonprofit Seeing Rainbows. She says it's common for trans people to seek out places they feel safest.
"There's a lot of internally displaced refugees," Nuri-Head explained. "The map of this country for trans people looks very different than the map for everyone else. There are huge no go zones."
But both Erisis and Nuri-Head said the safety they feel in Massachusetts is only a temporary bulwark — one that could crumble under increased federal pressure. They both point to Baystate Health, a local hospital system that discontinued gender-affirming care for young people to protect their federal funding.
Nuri-Head said she fears institutions would rather comply with anti-trans policy than risk a legal battle with the federal government.
"Governments change the rules," Nuri-Head said. "And you can either be law-abiding, or you can be moral. And they're not necessarily the same thing. And we allow the law to force us into positions of being immoral."
Even under the weight of a federal administration that seems determined to erase transgender people, Nuri-Head stressed that when it comes to working with the local community, she's more focused on fostering joy than anything else.
"Joy first and foremost," Nuri-Head said. "We are in a war, right? And joy is our most powerful weapon. They want to take away our joy and replace it with fear."
It's still not clear what this new domestic terror designation means materially for transgender people in the country, but the recent counterterrorism strategy document implies that U.S. intelligence will identify groups that focus on the transgender community, and "use law enforcement tools to cripple them operationally."
