Heritage Foundation Wants FBI to Target Trans Groups

It's calling on the FBI to designate certain groups as 'extremist' groups
Posted Sep 22, 2025 1:30 AM CDT
Group Behind Project 2025 Wants FBI to Target Trans Groups
FBI Director Kash Patel arrives to testify before the House Judiciary Committee for an oversight hearing, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025.   (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The Heritage Foundation, the group behind Project 2025, has launched a petition urging the FBI to add "Transgender Ideology-Inspired Violent Extremism" or "TIVE" to its list of domestic extremist groups, the Independent reports. The petition, co-created with the Heritage Foundation-linked group The Oversight Project, says the move would allow authorities to "detect, disrupt, and dismantle TIVE cells." It argues violence carried out by trans people and their allies is increasing, the Advocate reports. But multiple studies report that trans people were responsible for just 0.1% of mass shootings over the past 10 years, and that they are in fact more likely to be victims of violence than cisgender people.

According to independent journalist Erin Reed, the petition came hours after independent journalist Ken Klippenstein reported that two national security officials told him the FBI is considering designating transgender people as "violent extremists," with transgender suspects being considered a part of a new threat category at the FBI known as ""Nihilistic Violent Extremists." That category was created to replace the one the Biden administration used for January 6 rioters, "Anti-Authority and Anti-Government Violent Extremists." The New Republic, which also picked up Klippenstein's report, calls it "yet another example of the Trump administration and broader MAGA right seizing on [Charlie] Kirk's death as a flimsy pretext to crack down on purported undesirables."

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