Transphobia

Transphobia or transmisia is any prejudice or discrimination based on bad feelings toward transgender or transsexual people. This also means refusing them the chance to take part in society, have a job, or forcing prostitution out of them, not only hate speech or hate crime against the transgender person. In 2009, to prohibit hate crime against transgender people, the Matthew Shepard Act was passed in the United States.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees points out that asylum seekers because of gender identity are covered by the Yogyakarta Principles. A transgender woman who escaped from Guatemala to Denmark was put into a male centre and raped there. Now she is in danger to be returned into Guatemala by Danish government.^[1]

Transphobia is common all over the world. It is also found in social justice movements such as feminism. It is especially associated with radical feminism. 'Transmisogyny' is a word that refers to transphobia towards trans women. Julia Serano made it popular with her book Whipping Girl. Cissexism is sometimes used as a synonym for transphobia, and cisphobia is sometimes used as its antonym.

1. ↑ Natacha (16 August 2012). "UnCommon Sense: "What I'm most afraid of when I go back, isn't being killed. What really petrifies me is being attacked and tortured."".