US agency offers up to $1 million to study gender dysphoria and violence
The National Institute of Justice seeks studies using existing data, saying evidence about causes is limited. Its October funding notice invites research proposals, rather than announcing grants awarded or findings.
In this article
The National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the US Justice Department’s research arm, has offered up to $1 million for studies of gender dysphoria, its treatment and violent behavior. The notice, posted on 9 October 2026, opens a funding opportunity; it does not announce awarded grants or research findings.
The notice follows cuts to research on hate-fueled and extremist violence by more than a year, the Guardian said. Researchers and advocates quoted by the newspaper question the new priority and its approach to explaining violence.
What the agency wants studied
NIJ seeks retrospective analyses—studies that look back at existing data. It seeks proposals because, it says, evidence on the topic is limited, particularly about how any causal relationship might work, not because it has found that gender dysphoria causes violence.
Suggested questions include how often violence occurs and what crime types are involved; patterns among people convicted or incarcerated; and relationships between violence and diagnosis or treatment. The notice also invites studies of people who have both experienced and committed violence, and of the influence of co-occurring substance use or mental health disorders on the relationship between violence and gender dysphoria diagnosis or treatment.
Why critics question the priority
Experts and LGBTQ+ advocates call attempts to make a single characteristic, such as gender, the principal explanation for violence “pseudoscience.” They point instead to attackers’ views, including racism, homophobia, misogyny and nihilism.
Wendy Via, co-founder and CEO of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, said the administration’s portrayal of transgender people as more likely to commit extremist violence diverts attention from far-right ideologies. She said individual paths to mass violence are complex. Zane McNeill, a staff attorney with Lawyers for Good Government, similarly warned that NIJ’s priorities would shift attention from far-right extremists toward transgender people.
After conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed in September 2025, right-wing influencers attributed part of the suspected shooter’s motive to what they called “transgender ideology.” A 2026 White House counterterrorism report included addressing left-wing violence and what it termed “transgender ideologies.”
A separate federal report faces a challenge
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also commissioned a report by researchers from Rutgers University, the Manhattan Institute and the Network Contagion Research Institute. Based on a survey of about 1,200 US adults, the report suggests that people who receive or support gender-affirming care are more likely to support political violence.
In October 2026, McNeill requested corrections, alleging that the report violated HHS guidelines and calling its research flawed and biased. McNeill and other researchers are seeking the survey data for their own analysis.
HHS press secretary Grace Davis Jamison said the report would help the government understand how political radicalization develops and that its findings should be judged on the evidence. NIJ and the institutions affiliated with the HHS report did not respond to the Guardian’s requests for comment.
Who can apply and what comes next
Eligible applicants include businesses, state and local governments, federally recognized tribal governments, other tribal organizations, higher-education institutions, independent school districts and nonprofits, including those without tax-exempt status.
The listing anticipates 2 awards and gives 23 November 2026 as the application closing date.
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