Transphobia

Transphobia is a new and quickly changing concept and a phenomenon of grave concern for many. Transphobia entered Western academic discourse as activists in English-speaking trans communities during the 1990s described the hatred and prejudice—sometimes subtle, sometimes not—that transsexual and transgender people experience in everyday life. Obviously inspired by the term homophobia, transphobia came to describe the feelings and thoughts associated with a fear or disgust of trans people. Pioneering transgender and transsexual activists struggled against widespread and deep transphobia, began to describe it in their lives—whether it is a slight by a clerk at a store or a murderous attack—and eventually came to mobilize against it by writing and talking about it in zines and activist newsletters and protesting it through community events.

Once academics ...