What is transphobia ?

Transphobia is an aversion towards transgender people that can result in the expression of hostility towards them. It can manifest itself in physical and/or moral and verbal violence and discriminatory behavior.

There are two forms of transphobia: "institutional" transphobia and "relational" transphobia, direct or indirect.

The term "transphobia" contains the prefix "trans" and the suffix "phobia", which originates from the Greek term "phobos" which means "fear", "fear". In French, the element forming "-phobia" expresses an "aversion".

Transphobia is therefore defined as an aversion or hatred expressed or felt towards transgender people or perceived as such, and associated with prejudices with regard to the transition.

Ordinary transphobia

This frontline transphobia is constituted by "cissexism" and "cisgenderism".

Cissexism is a form of oppression that targets gender identity and establishes the correspondence between gender and the sex determined at birth as preferable.

Misgendering a person, intentionally or unintentionally, is ordinary transphobia.

It is often the prerogative of the direct entourage of the transgender person: family, friends, work colleagues.

It is the one that does the most damage because in the long run, it wears down the morale of the transgender person who suffers in silence because she is afraid of disturbing. She wonders each time if it's clumsiness, oversights, ill will or pure wickedness.

Relational Transphobia

According to Arnaud Alessandrin, relational transphobia covers direct transphobia, which is manifested by the immediate rejection of transidentity, and indirect transphobia, which is a staging of cisgender assumptions (representations as the norm of an identity corresponding to a sex). and it concerns all the words and daily representations in a cisgendered world.

It is aggravated by belonging to an ethnic group other than the white race, by poverty, by unemployment, by discrimination in the work and medical environment, in shops, in access to housing, by the rejection of the family and by the violation of their fundamental rights. The fear of this transphobia causes some transgender people to avoid going to certain places and hide or mask their true gender identity. Raising public awareness of the reality of trans identity could improve the evolution of social norms and combat gender stereotypes.