Transphobia
Transphobia, at its core, is a rejection of transgender identities and a refusal to acknowledge that trans people are the gender they know themselves to be, based on their internal sense of gender identity.
The science is unambiguously clear on the validity of trans people and that they should be respected and affirmed in their gender identity (as should everyone, whether or not it aligns with your birth sex.) It is not a mental illness or delusion, although one might struggle to understand transgender identities without some learning about gender. Transgender people are born that way and, like sexual orientation, is a deep-seated part of their identity that cannot be removed.
The definition states: dislike of or strong prejudice against transgender people.
This includes mocking, harassment, abuse, discrimination, undermining trans rights, platforming and spreading hatred and misinformation about and against trans people, as well as misgendering, invalidating a person’s gender identity, or in general treating them as a gender other than that which they identify on purpose.
The following is a small selection of transphobic examples.
- Physical violence towards transgender people based on them being transgender
- Abuse/harassment towards transgender people based on them being transgender
- Calling trans women “men in dresses”
- Infantilizing trans men and characterizing them as “confused” women
- Denying the validity of non-binary gender identities
- Intentional misgendering (using the wrong pronouns for a transgender person, or implying their gender is something other than what they say it is)
- Deadnaming (using a transgender person’s previous name instead of the name they go by)
- Implying or stating that trans women are predators, fetishists, or a threat to cisgender women
- Using ‘male’ or ‘female’ to “sidestep” someone’s gender by ostensibly referring to sex, which is still misgendering
- Spreading graphic images to stoke fear, disgust or outrage at trans people
- Implying or stating that transgender people are delusional or mentally ill
- Making jokes at the expense of the validity of transgender identities, or trans people’s lives
- Making trans’ peoples lives more difficult in general on account of them being transgender.
- Fighting against trans’ peoples rights to go about their lives as their lived gender the same as any cisgender person would
- Fabricating or using misleading data to smear transgender people
The following things are not transphobic, unless the reasons for them are based in a rejection of the validity of transgender identites (which is transphobic.)
- Not finding a transgender person attractive / not wanting to date or have sex with them.
- Being rude or disagreeing with a transgender person
- Accidentally misgendering or deadnaming someone (everyone makes mistakes)
- Any other action or notion that doesn’t have to do with someone being trans.