What is transphobia?

6 min readNov 15, 2022

A transgender blue, white and pink flag background, with two paper cut outs of the transgender symbols, one in blue and one in pink.

This week is transgender awareness week, and while I usually don’t align my content to calendar events, it felt like it was very much needed right now.

The world is becoming an increasingly unsafe and hostile place for trans people, and the UK is no exception. Now is the time that we, as allies, must learn more and do all we can to help support and protect trans and nonbinary people as their identities and physical safety is used as a political football.

I want you to better understand transphobia. What it is, what is looks like, and why there should not be a trans or gender identity “debate”, only support for people who want to live their lives as themselves.

So, what is transphobia?

Transphobia is a term used to describe the fear of, hatred of, or prejudice and discrimination against people who are transgender, nonbinary, or anyone who does not fit the male/female gender binary. It can include acts of exclusion, verbal, emotional and physical abuse, discrimination, misrepresentation, and harassment.

The transgender community is the most targeted group in the LGBTQIA+ community. According to Stop Hate UK “In 2020/2021, 2,630 Hate Crimes against transgender people were recorded by the Police, an increase of 16% from the previous year”, and these are only the crimes that are reported. Stonewall also report that two in five trans people (41%) have experienced a hate crime or incident because of their gender identity. How would it make you feel if almost half of your family members had been a victim of a hate crime? Because that’s exactly how the transgender community feel.

Is transphobia really a phobia?

Great question. Using the term “phobia” implies transphobia might be a legitimate disorder. Let’s unpack that.

According to the mental health charity Mind a phobia is “is a type of anxiety disorder. It is an extreme form of fear or anxiety, triggered by a particular situation or object.. A fear becomes a phobia if… the fear is out of proportion to the danger, it lasts for more than six months, it has a significant impact on how you live your day-to-day life”.

I can agree that transphobia would certainly be a fear that is out of proportion to the danger. Trans people are simply people trying to live their lives after all. But I do struggle to reconcile a person’s choice to physically abuse another person or deny their existence at all as a legitimate anxiety disorder, especially when the “danger” posed is overwhelmingly aimed towards trans people, and not coming from them.

So, is it a phobia or is it bigotry?

I’ll leave you to make up your own mind on that one.

a pink background with white scrabble tiles spelling out “GENDER IS A SPECTRUM”

Transgender = Someone who does not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. This can also include nonbinary people.

Cisgender = Someone who does identify with the gender they were assigned at birth.

What does transphobia look like?

As we’ve already stater to understand, transphobia can exist for people in numerous ways. Here are some common examples, but I urge you to research for yourself too to understand the full extent and impact.

Misgendering

This is where a person deliberately or repeatedly uses the wrong name and/or pronouns to describe a person, or refers to them using the wrong gender. This might include referring to a trans man as “she”, or refusing to use “they/them” to refer to a non-binary person who has specified they use those pronouns.

Exclusion

This might include refusing a trans person access to services or facilities appropriate to their gender identity. For example, trans men being prevented from participating in sports or not letting a trans woman use a woman’s bathroom. The latter is actually a form of discrimination under the Equality Act 2010, but the former somehow is not.

Additionally, in discussions concerning trans women, transphobic rhetoric regularly ignores Trans men and non-binary people. This is because the existence of trans men in the conversation would only undermine the arguments being made against trans women. For example, campaigners claim that trans people should use the toilets that align with the sex they were assigned at birth, in case a cisgender man pretends to be a trans women to access women’s toilets. However, this argument ignores the fact that if trans men are forced to use women’s toilets, it would be easier for cisgender men to also access women’s toilets by just pretending to be a transgender man.

Confused? Me too. How about we just let everyone pee in peace?

And, most worrying, travelling while trans can be a life and death decision. 14 countries criminalise the gender identity and/or expression of transgender people, and in many more countries transgender people are targeted by a range of laws that criminalise same-sex activity and public order offences. In at least 4 of these countries the death penalty is a legal possibility.

Denial

This would include suggesting that a trans person is not a “real” woman or man. By confusing gender and sex and implying that biology is the only indicator of both, we miss the complex spectrum that is gender identity and deny the existence of anyone who does not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth.

The author JK Rowling has recently filled the headlines with her trans-exclusionary views, but trans allies Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe were quick to step up and use their platforms effectively.

For simplicity:

Transgender men are men.

Transgender women are women.

Nonbinary and gender fluid people are people who are either, both or neither.

Everyone is a “real” person.

Additionally, saying “oh you don’t look trans” as though it is a compliment, or that looking cisgender is the ultimate goal. It implies that being trans is shameful, and that trans people should aspire to not look trans and should conform to societal norms and expectations of beauty.

Intersectionality

As with all “ists” and “isms”, transphobia is amplified when it’s intersectional.

Intersectionality is a phrase coined by Dr Kimberle Crenshaw in 1989. It describes the very real fact that the feminist movements to that point were advancing the needs of women, but specifically white women. As such, the needs of Black women, in relation to the racism that existed for them, was left unaddressed. Intersectionality requires us to consider people as whole human beings, and accept that we aren’t any one aspect of our identity, but all of them. Therefore, our race, gender, ethnicity, and sexuality cannot be uncoupled from one another.

Black trans people, disabled trans people and Muslim trans people for example, often run greater risks from being targeted by transphobia than white people. The denial of multiple specific trans identities is both transphobic and racist, or ableist, or Islamophobic etc.

What to do now?

Okay, so now we know what transphobia is, and how it can show up and impact trans and nonbinary folks. What can we do as allies to step up and amplify?

The great news is there are LOTS of resources available to help us listen, learn and take action.

Listening and amplifying:

Here are some great trans people to follow on LinkedIn who openly share their experiences and advice from their different perspectives, as well as ways in which we can support and work with them.

Learning:

There are heaps of books available, both by and about trans people. Most are available on audio book. I suggest using Queer Lit as a starting point, as they’re a proper book shop (instead of Amazon!).

There’s also tonnes of info available on the mighty internet! Places you might want to start are:

Let’s recap

Transphobia can take many forms, including misgendering a person, denying them access to services or from exercising their rights, and using derogatory language about or towards them.
Trans people are not a monolith. They are people as individual as anyone else, and all aspects of their identity must be respected.
Take steps as an ally to educate yourself and raise awareness of transphobia within your family and friend groups, and in social spaces and workplaces.