Name
How to blow up a (misinformation) pipeline: the role of misinformation in the development of violent legislation
Date & Time
Tuesday, July 16, 2024, 9:00 AM - 11:30 AM
IDEAL Locations
Chestnut W
Session Type
Workshop
Description

In the United States, transgender people are at serious risk of marginalization via transphobic legislation. For many this is already the case. Since 2021, 124 bills harming trans people have been passed into law, 80 of which were passed in 2023 alone. A number of factors contribute to the development of transphobic legislation, but often misinformation is a key tool that provides policy writers and legislators with political cover to justify bills regulating healthcare, legal gender recognition, access to public facilities, and participation in sports. The Misinformation-Legislation Pipeline is a framework to understand how misinformation is weaponized in policy development. The pipeline entails a cyclical relationship wherein information travels from isolated, reactionary networks into academic publications, mainstream media coverage, and policy-making. As the process is not linear, misinformation eventually travels freely between each of these quadrants. In this workshop, participants will learn how the Misinformation-Legislation Pipeline applies to the development of harmful legislation, not only aimed at transgender people, but in ways that target all people who experience structural marginalization. Further, we will consider how library workers are positioned to resist and actively disrupt these pipelines, with group activities focused on moving from theory to practice and committing to global solidarity through collective, direct action.

Track
Antioppression
Keywords
structural oppression; misinformation; critical librarianship; transgender people
Resources