Transphobia

[Jamie Ann]

Transphobia is a persistent unreasoning fear of, or antipathy toward, transgender persons and cross-gender expression. The concept came into use to explain the fact that some people “freak out” and commit hate crimes against transgender persons. Why do they “freak out”? The most plausible theory is that, in large part, they’ve learned (mistakenly in my opinion) that God finds crossdressing disgusting. At some level, they’ve incorporated such dubious notions into their mental functioning and thought processes. They have internalized those ideas through learning processes and contact with parents, teachers, pastors, or others who share such notions.

Transphobia is not a quality of TRANSGENDER persons (except by sad coincidence), just as homophobia is not a quality of homosexuals (except by sad coincidence). Rather, these ordinarily are qualities of OTHERS whose persistent loathing and fear may motivate them to engage in hateful speech, physical assaults, or even worse.

When we treat transphobia as fundamentally a quality of TRANSGENDER persons, as I’ve seen some do on this forum, we miss the significance of the concept. Prejudice and discrimination against transgender persons is motivated by something or other; and that “something or other” has been given the label “transphobia.” To be sure, crossdressers who seek counseling because they feel guilty about their crossdressing or cross-gender feelings may have a mild form of something akin to transphobia; but concern about transphobia within the LGBT communities is mainly about hateful persons who pose a threat to crossdressers, not to crossdressers themselves.

For instance, when teenage transgender person Gwen Araujo (born Edward Araujo) was murdered in Newark California by Michael Magidson and Jose Merél after a party, the young men who murdered her clearly were transphobic. They claimed at their trial that they had experienced severe “trans panic” after becoming aware that Gwen was not genetically female. Fortunately, the jury didn’t buy their claim that their fear and loathing of transgender persons or expression was adequate reason to commit murder. It convicted them of second-degree homicide. But note that it was Michael Magidson and Jose Merél who were transphobic. There is no evidence that Gwen was transphobic. On the contrary, she fully accepted herself and was accepted by her mother and siblings as well.

[mikiSJ]

[I]For instance, when teenage transgender person Gwen Araujo (born Edward Araujo) was murdered in Newark California by Michael Magidson and Jose Merél after a party, the young men who murdered her clearly were transphobic. They claimed at their trial that they had experienced severe “trans panic” after becoming aware that Gwen was not genetically female. Fortunately, the jury didn’t buy their claim that their fear and loathing of transgender persons or expression was adequate reason to commit murder. It convicted them of second-degree homicide. But note that it was Michael Magidson and Jose Merél who were transphobic. There is no evidence that Gwen was transphobic. On the contrary, she fully accepted herself and was accepted by her mother and siblings as well.

Being 'local' I followed this case closely. You are correct that Gwen was at peace with herself and had been accepted by her family and friends. Her killers were immature gang members who 'had to kill her' to maintain the macho image. I too am glad the jury ignored the wholly fabricated reason for killing her.

[Karren H]

Haters will hate...... especially people who aren't just like them....... and believe exactly what they believe in..... that's never going to change..... and they will fabricated some justification for their actions..... Just look at the middle east!

[Angela Campbell]

sometimes I look in the mirror and I get scared.......

[Jamie Ann]

sometimes I look in the mirror and I get scared.......

Transgender persons have to become more accepted in society. That is not an issue of God's will or the like. It is an issue of tolerance for persons whose feeling differ from one's own. We have made a lot of progress over the last decade, but there is still a ways to go. Thanks for you comment! Look in the mirror and feel proud for being the person that you are.

[Eryn]

There are insecure people out there who have to push others down to prop up their own sense of self-worth. The extreme of this can become violent and if a trans person happens to be present they will be attacked. If a trans person isn't handy the attackers will go after some other person they perceive as weak. It's the attackers that are the cause of the problem, not the presence of the victim.

[BillieJoEllen]

I remember what it was like 40-50 years ago. Its almost heaven today compared to what it was like back then. Back then if you ventured out en femme you were subject to arrest not to mention massive amounts of ridicule. Back in my hometown when I was a kid on the fourth of July a man was talking to some police officers about another 'man' that he had seen wearing women's clothes in a local department store. I couldn't believe the response of the police when they told the man details of what they would do to that man if they caught him. Fear of the police was instilled in me at that time.

[LelaK]

Haters will hate...... especially people who aren't just like them....... and believe exactly what they believe in..... that's never going to change..... and they will fabricated some justification for their actions..... Just look at the middle east!
- Are you talking about Americans' and Zionists' Islamophobia, or Islamists' Americano- and Zionistophobia?
- People tend to hate groups whose members sometimes kill or abuse members of their own groups. Whose group/s have killed or abused the most members of the other group/s?
- I guess in our case, CDs or TGs are considered by transphobic people to be abusive to their societal ideals, in which men should be and look masculine and macho and women should be and look feminine and submissive.

[Valerie Nova]

Why do they “freak out”? The most plausible theory is that, in large part, they’ve learned (mistakenly in my opinion) that God finds crossdressing disgusting. At some level, they’ve incorporated such dubious notions into their mental functioning and thought processes. They have internalized those ideas through learning processes and contact with parents, teachers, pastors, or others who share such notions.
We'd probably prefer if that were the case, but trust me, that's not it. People use God as an excuse for their own irrational behavior and emotions all time time, and if you ever stop to examine it, it's obvious that people just defer to God when they can't come up with a good reason for why something should or shouldn't be a certain way.

So why do some people become really uncomfortable around transgendered people? I mean, it's not just religious people that do this, atheists do it too. Well, the people that "freak out" tend to be straight men more often than not. And straight men often treat people very differently depending on whether they're women or men. Typically they want to compete with and outperform other men, and have sex with women, at least the attractive ones. So when a straight man sees someone displaying characteristics of both sexes, it makes him really uncomfortable because he isn't sure what the hell to do. It screws with his sexual attraction faculty in ways that are not pleasant at all.

It would be nice if being bothered by transsexuals was purely a learned thing, but really, it's a reaction that some people just naturally have. Like other instinctive reactions though, this one can be unlearned if exposed to enough people like this.

[UNDERDRESSER]

Fear.

Some people don't understand teir own reactions, they get scared at the thought that they might be gay, that fear gets transmuted into anger

I see this chain of behaviour all over.

[Amy Fakley]

Why do they “freak out”? The most plausible theory is that, in large part, they’ve learned (mistakenly in my opinion) that God finds crossdressing disgusting.

I have found that people many times tend to invoke the term "God" when what they actually mean is "I, in the most emphatic context" ... especially when people are speaking in a manner which purports to convey the will of God. They almost always are speaking about themselves instead.

People have "freak outs" ... which is to say, strong, emotional, sometimes violent reactions to things that are fundamentally different than expected. Sad clowns. People of different races. Rock music. Classical music. People from foreign countries. Cute looking but physically powerful animals like dogs. Horror movies. Thunderclaps. Insects ... you get what I'm saying.

I suspect this stems from fundamental human survival instincts, fear of not understanding a situation is visceral. It is deeply intertwined with the foundations of our intelligence, and it takes a lot of education and practice to learn to deal with it constructively.

As people who emulate the appearance of the opposite sex, we toy with the most fundamental abstraction that every human learns ... learned item number 1 as it were ... "women look like this and that is where the cuddles and food come from".

Learning not to freak the hell out when the reality of a situation does not warrant it, but when you nonetheless get the urge to from a deep psychological place ... this is a thing a very large proportion of the world has not had. There's no excuse for it in this day and age, but it is the unfortunate reality.

Be careful out there y'all.

[ColleenA]

... when a straight man sees someone displaying characteristics of both sexes, it makes him really uncomfortable because he isn't sure what the hell to do. It screws with his sexual attraction faculty in ways that are not pleasant at all.

I agree, Vir Nova. That is essentially what happened in the Gwen Araujo case. She was at a party, and one of the four who were eventually arrested for her murder did have sex with her, thinking she was a GG. It was after he found out she was a T-girl that he, with help from his buddies, first beat her savagely and then killed her. How much was he driven by anger at her, for deceiving him? And how much was he driven by fear and disgust that he had sex with, in his eyes, another male (which, if he enjoyed it, could raise questions as to how straight/macho he was, not only in his mind but also, he may have feared, in the minds of others)?


Going back to the OP, I agree, Jamie Ann. Transphobia is when someone who is not trans fears, and in knee-jerk reaction hates, transgenders. This is distinct from a person who is self-loathing about this aspect of themselves.

Self-loathing btw can occur under countless conditions, such as with girls who think they are too fat and starve themselves or ones who feel they are unloved and unlovable and cut themselves. No doubt some CDers find their interest at odds with their morality and thus belittle themselves in their own eyes as well as in the eyes of God. In that way, though, I suppose it's no different than any other "sinful lifestyle" people won't accept about themselves.

[Julogden]

sometimes I look in the mirror and I get scared.......
Me too, but that's a whole different kind of scared. At least for me, it's a phobia of being old, worn-out and not having enough makeup to fix everything I'm seeing looking back at me. ;)

On a more serious note: regarding transphobia, I've always felt that the term isn't accurate. It isn't that people are afraid of us so much as they're pitiful excuses for humans who dislike anyone different than them. Regarding the "trans panic" plea in cases of violence, and the Gwen Araujo case in particular, I feel it's more a homophobic reaction. The guys who did the violence to Gwen supposedly reacted violently because they felt that they'd been tricked by Gwen into "being gay", or at least that's how they looked at it. Whatever their reason, it was horrendously ignorant and wrong for them to react as they did.

Regarding God hating transgender behavior, as mentioned in the Old Testament, check out this page (http://www.beki.org/crossdress.html), very enlightening. Its bottom line is that the prohibition against CD'ing was primarily to prevent heterosexual adultery that might result from a crossdressed woman or man sneaking into spaces reserved for the opposite sex with having sex being their primary motivation. Dressing for other reasons was evidently okay.

Carol

[KellyJameson]

Transphobia comes in part from the same place xenophobia does, it is fear of the "other" that is different which partly comes from apophenia.

It seems anything ending in ia will get you killed.

[kimdl93]

When murderers get caught, they come up with any variety of excuses to justify thier actions. the reality is that these brutes exercising power and enjoy inflicting pain on others. Granted these predators sometimes set out with a gay or transperson in mind, but its often an accident of fate when a gay or transgendered person is targeted.

[Angela Campbell]

I don't look in the mirror and get scared because I see a transgendered person. I am happy about that. I am scared because sometimes the image is just hideous. I worry about transphobia a little when I go out when it comes to men. Women do not scare me at all because I have never had one attack me. When I was young I was beaten quite a few times by the other males. The worst I have ever experienced by a woman who clocked me was a snicker. Nowdays I do not go out much alone, I wait until I have someone to go with. Safety in numbers.

[ReineD]

To be sure, crossdressers who seek counseling because they feel guilty about their crossdressing or cross-gender feelings may have a mild form of something akin to transphobia;

Yes, you're referring to Internalized Transphobia, which is a form of the many different ways that members of oppressed groups internalize the bias:

http://tgmentalhealth.com/2011/03/25/internalized-trans-phobia/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laverne-cox/hung-up-on-our-bullies-in_b_1079271.html

How to heal from Internalized Oppression: http://ctb.ku.edu/en/tablecontents/sub_section_main_1172.aspx

[Jamie Ann]

Yes, you're referring to Internalized Transphobia, which is a form of the many different ways that members of oppressed groups internalize the bias:

http://tgmentalhealth.com/2011/03/25/internalized-trans-phobia/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laverne-cox/hung-up-on-our-bullies-in_b_1079271.html

How to heal from Internalized Oppression: http://ctb.ku.edu/en/tablecontents/sub_section_main_1172.aspx

First of all, I am impressed with the many thoughful comments and ideas expressed above. It will take me a while to digest some of them, but that is good! It proves that people are offering good substantive ideas.

The articles cited by A.B. Kaplan, Laverne Cox, and Marya Axner are about those sad cases of self-hating crossdressers. Those cases are tragedies, but they are small minorities of crossdressers. Transphobia refers primarily to hatred and antipathy from OTHERS, not from crossdressers themselves. To be sure, part of the collateral damage from an anti-crossdressing culture is those sad cases. But the proper definition of transphobia is persistent unreasoning fear of, or antipathy toward, transgender persons and cross-gender expression — period. Those attitudes are ALWAYS internalized — that does not separate a few sad cases from the huge majority of haters that pose a threat to transgender persons. As mfakley argued (see above), the cause may not be entirely social learning. Whatever the cause, internalized transphobia is practically ALL transphobia — what would non-internalized transphobia be? It refers to anti-crossdressing prejudices that have become part of a person’s thought structure and thinking processes. Unfortunately, a few crossdressers are trans-negative to some degree; but the transphobia of Michael Magidson and Jose Merél is more significant than the guilt of a few crossdressers. No thoughtful member of an LGBT community would claim that self-hatred is a more significant concept than hatred from subpopulations that pose a physical and emotional threat to LGBT persons. Self-hatred typically is a consequence of more fundamental beliefs within a culture. Transphobia refers most importantly to the negative attitudes of OTHERS toward transgender persons.