Transphobia

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Transphobia (from Latin trans "otherworldly beyond," and ancient Greek phobos "anxiety, fear, terror") or trans hostility is the fear of physical and their lifestyle , the transsexual are or transgender - gender identity to express (collectively, "trans *people"). A transphobic attitude can be associated with prejudices , aversions and disgust towards trans people and lead to aggression against them, up to and including social discrimination . Transphobia is expressed by questioning or denying the gender identity of the person concerned, by making them invisible by language or by psychological and physical violence up to and including murder. In public debates , however, trans-hostile violence rarely or not at all.

Sometimes the term cissexism is also used (compare cisgender : gender identity that corresponds to the gender of birth). There is a strong connection between transphobia and homophobia (aversion to homosexual people): Both phobias are fears of deviating from the gender norms of biological and social sex ( gender ) of men or women . Many transgender forms also question heteronormative sexual ideas , to which traditionally minded people can react with defensiveness.

Concept history

The word transphobia originated in the 1990s as a modification of the word for homophobia (aversion to homosexuality). It consists of two parts:

  • The prefix trans- ( Latin for "beyond") refers to trans * gender ( transgender ). Many people consider themselves transgender if their gender role behavior or gender identity experience does not coincide with the gender role and gender identity assigned at birth. Assigned is what is socially expected of a person based on physical gender characteristics. For example, when a person is born, “It is a girl” is exclaimed because the child has a vulva ; however, the person feels and lives later as a man.
  • The ending in phobia ( ancient Greek phobos for "fear, fear") comes from psychiatry and describes a pronounced fear there that is viewed as unfounded or pathological. What is meant is the aversion to trans * gender.

With the word transphobia a phrase is used: Originally, researchers tried to find out why people are trans * and how they can be brought into line with the bisexual norm. Contrary to this, the keyword transphobia is used to investigate why people are hostile and violent against trans * gender.

Transphobia in the interpersonal area

Transphob-motivated were and are a significant number of murders and violent attacks against trans people. Aspects of transphobia, on the other hand, also include not letting transgender and transsexual people speak for themselves, ignoring their gender , continuing to address them after they come out with their old given first name and correspondingly wrong pronouns or the person without taking their self-definition into account read as heterosexual . Transsexual and transgender people are also treated with voyeurism , they are denied their self-chosen identity (transgender) or their gender norm variation (transsexual), and they are overwhelmed with external attributions. Transphobia also means that non-transgender and non-transsexual people believe that they can judge the authenticity of transsexual and transgender people.

Another problem is that gender identity is often misunderstood as a further sexual orientation alongside gay , lesbian and bisexual , which does not have to correspond to the self-perception of transsexual and transgender people. It is just as problematic when transsexual and transgender people are stylized as “pioneers” in the dissolution of gender categories in the sense of the post- gender approach , because people of all gender identities are responsible for social changes in gender images. The accusation of transsexual and / or transgender people that they reinforce traditional gender stereotypes by "conforming to the norm" through operations is also considered transphobic.

Transphobia can also be exercised by transgender or transsexual people. Some transsexual people or groups of transsexual people criticize the concept of " queer " because they do not feel represented by the designation transgender, trans *, queer or LGBT and therefore see their visibility and interests threatened. This is a criticism similar to that formulated by an intersex initiative against LGBT, queer and the transsexual community.

For some people, the difference between transgender and transsexual as a designation of identity is very important at this point . Transgender are people who feel wrong or insufficiently described with their assigned gender or who fundamentally reject any form of gender assignment or categorization. Transsexual persons, on the other hand, clearly assign themselves to one gender biologically, but perceive themselves as belonging to a different gender. For other trans people or transsexual people this demarcation is not so relevant, for them it is more important to be part of a larger community of people with similar interests. In this regard, they do not feel captured and / or see themselves beyond “stereotyped thinking”.

Structural transphobia as a social problem

Transphobia is not just an interpersonal problem, it is a problem that affects society as a whole, as well as a structural and institutional problem: Representations of transsexual and transgender people are exoticized , fetishized and scandalized in our culture . Serious are the extreme bio-political sanctions that prevent transsexuals or transgender people from living according to their gender identity. The pathologization and psychiatization of transsexual people by law are to be assessed as institutionalized transphobia.

Transphobia in Psychology, Psychiatry, and Healthcare

Transsexuality is defined by law ( Transsexual Act ) and in ICD-10 (F 64.0) as well as in DSM 4 as a mental illness. Transsexual people and transgender people, contrary to their self-definition, are considered to be “gender-disordered women or men” and thus as sick people in need of treatment. The state does not allow them to determine their gender identity autonomously, to be experts in their own situation.

The Alexandra case is an example of an outdated and transphobic way of dealing with transsexual people and transgender people in medicine and state welfare institutions . As a result of the news of this case, an action alliance of trans activists was formed, which organized a demonstration to support the people concerned and to make structural transphobia visible.

Transphobia in the legal system

To change the civil status , i.e. to change the gender entry, transsexual people need two reports from two independent experts who are sufficiently familiar with transsexuality due to their training and professional experience.

The Transsexual Act is currently not in a valid version. In 2011 the Federal Constitutional Court judged the old transphobic version to be illegal because it violated the right to physical integrity. Changes in civil status were only permitted there if the persons concerned had their external sexual characteristics surgically altered through so-called gender reassignment operations and were rendered incapable of procreation or childbearing. Today there is at least an awareness of the problem at this point, even if the end of state transphobia and the pathologization of transsexual people is not yet in sight.

Transphobia in the Roman Catholic Church

An example of an organized transphobia is also the behavior of the Catholic Church , which in various official decrees and other acts - contrary to its religious - spiritual self-image and its task and concern for the salvation of the soul - shows itself to be strongly physical.

The Roman Curia (Vatican) initially issued a clandestine decree in 2000, later officially in 2003, according to the understanding of the Catholic Church that a gender reassignment operation is “so superficial and external that it does not change the personality. If a person is male, they remain male. If she is female, she will remain female ”. In addition, a legal change in civil status does not change the “canonical status” of a person, which states that a person is “male or female from the moment of birth”.

Although the above-mentioned formulations are entirely correct in theory if they were to relate to emotional gender identity, the Catholic Church emphasizes innate physicality and tries to deny transsexual people their true emotional identity. She also draws other serious discriminatory consequences from this: The decree also forbids church weddings for transsexual people and forbids those affected from entering a religious order or becoming a priest - at least after operational measures. A transsexual person who suppresses their emotional feelings could (without the knowledge of the church) marry or enter a monastery before and without appropriate measures .

In connection with a specific case in Cádiz , Spain , transsexuals were denied the right and ability to become godparents .

In May 2016, high-ranking American bishops protested against an order from President Obama. This had decreed that in public schools, colleges and universities in the USA, transsexual students were allowed to use the toilet of their choice, which "corresponds to their gender identity". Previously, an opposite transphobic "toilet law" had been enacted in the state of North Carolina. Two committee chairmen of the US Catholic Bishops' Conference stressed Obama's order for schools was "deeply worrying" and "contradicts a basic understanding of human personality development."

Transphobia in the media

Furthermore, transphobic ideas are often conveyed by the media, for example in an article by Arno Frank in the taz about the trans man Thomas Beatie from July 2, 2008. Frank had written about him that he was “not a man, but a terribly mutilated woman ". In this case, the German Press Council intervened for the first time because of discriminatory reporting on transsexual and transgender people that was contrary to the press code, after protests had formed in social networks and among taz readers. TransInterQueer said: "It was particularly difficult for a journalist to perceive gender diversity and to depict it professionally." Example "he" instead of "she").

The term transface (corresponding to blackface ) is used to describe the use of cisgender actors in feature films who are used in roles that are intended to portray transgender or transsexual people.

Invisibility of discrimination against transsexual and transgender people in society

In 2008 the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency published the case study it had commissioned on the “Perception of discrimination and anti-discrimination policy in our society”. The figures in this study are the only official figures on the subject of transphobia in Germany.

The study comes to the conclusion: “The issue of discrimination and equal treatment or the promotion of disadvantaged groups in our society are not really on the agenda for the majority of Germans. Attention to the topic [...] is rather low. ”“ There is a widespread attitude of 'everyone is next to himself', [...] only 15 percent of the population can be regarded as the hard core of supporters of equal treatment. These are those who firmly reject the statement, 'I consider anti-discrimination policy to be superfluous' (a total of 40 percent agree with the statement). "

71% of those questioned agreed that nothing or less should be done for transgender people. 5% felt that much more should be done for trans people. 49% state that they cannot see any discrimination against transsexual people. 15% of the population see strong or very strong discrimination. 45% do not understand transsexual people (40% of women, 50% of men).

Multiple discrimination

Non-white and less materially wealthy transsexual people or transgender people often experience multiple discrimination in our society in the sense of intersectionality and the more diverse invisibility and exclusion associated with it.

Transphobia in radical feminist, gay-lesbian or queer contexts

Women, like the trans woman Sandy Stone , experienced transphobia in the 1970s in feminist , lesbian and gay contexts. The "Lesbian Organization of Toronto" decided z. B. open to excluding trans women from their group. The basis for this were the predominant essentialist gender role models at the time . A transition from female to male could therefore be perceived as a “betrayal” of femininity, as a change to the “perpetrator side”. The Transsexual Empire by the feminist Janice Raymond should be mentioned as a transphobic publication in this context . She writes, for example: "All transsexuals rape female bodies by reducing the real female figure to an artifact, to an object made by man, in order to appropriate it [...]". Lesbian socialized trans men were excluded from lesbian groups after their transition, for example, and at the same time were possibly not accepted in the gay community. Such exclusions are often put into perspective today by the fact that they also result from a need for clearly defined protected areas.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, under the influence of queer theory, there has been strong support from the feminist side for transgender people. Queer communities moved away from essentialist gender role models and gave transgender people ideological and political support. People who live all sorts of sexual identities and forms of desire beyond heteronormativity could adopt the label queer by making their own decisions. This includes trans people of all genders and desires. Openness, understanding, acceptance and respect for and the visibility of trans * people have grown as a result.

Strategies against transphobia

Self-help structures and private environment

Protected spaces by and for transsexual people and transgender people in the sense of empowerment are helpful for coping with transphobic attacks . These are places where their identity and self-expression are naturally accepted. There they come into contact with people with similar experiences and receive support.

Jannik Franzen from Berlin's TransInterQueer eV recommends the following strategies to reduce transphobia for cisgender people:

  • be open to not knowing what gender a person is or how they define themselves
  • People ask what name and pronouns they would like to be addressed with
  • respect these self-definitions
  • deal with the term trans * , consider the many different identities that are possible
  • Think about multiple affiliations, for example to People of Color and people with so-called disabilities
  • if curiosity arises, respect the boundaries of the trans * person (questions about body or operations - consider whether similar questions would be asked to non-trans * persons)
  • questioning one's own images of gender
  • Bisexuality question <
  • Rethink spatial policies accordingly

The author Matt Kailey put together ten unsuitable questions and a small Trans Etiquette for Non-Trans People for people who are unsure about interpersonal relationships with trans people and explains his recommendations. Among these inappropriate questions are e.g. B. after operations, after passing , after sexuality, according to gender identity, after experiences with transphobia. His demands relate u. a. on not outing trans people as such , using the correct name and pronoun, only asking personal questions when invited not to inadvertently touch the person, to treat the person as respectfully as you are would treat other people as well.

Political demands

Furthermore, transsexual people and transgender people make the following political demands for the reform of the transsexual law:

  • Abolition of expert opinions and judicial proceedings - right to self-determination
  • instead of judicial proceedings, change of first name and civil status upon application to the authority responsible for civil status
  • Expansion of the prohibition of disclosure ; Inclusion in the regulatory offense law ;
  • legal protection of the health insurance companies' obligation to provide benefits
  • including legal regulations

Making transphobia visible

In 2009 the committee of IDAHO ( International Day Against Homo-, Bi-, Inter- and Transphobia on May 17th) carried out a campaign on gender identity. The motto was “Reject transphobia, respect gender identity”. 300 associations from 75 countries responded to the call. The most famous signatories include the Green politician Daniel Cohn-Bendit , Judith Butler , the former President of the EC Commission Jacques Delors and Nobel Prize winner for literature Elfriede Jelinek . One of the main demands was a call on the United Nations to investigate the human rights abuses that transgender people and transgender people are suffering worldwide and to take action to end these abuses.

The Transgeniale CSD has existed in Berlin since 1998 and sees itself as a political alternative to the commercial Christopher Street Day . At this Pride Parade, not only the gay and lesbian interests, but equally the interests of transsexual people and transgender people, intersex people and people who are (re) discriminated by racism should be presented. In 2010 the trans * ingenious CSD was very popular with around 5000 participants, which is also attributed to the racism controversy triggered by Judith Butler a week earlier. In the course of this, she rejected the CSD Berlin's moral courage award . In 2010 the global campaign “Stop Trans-Pathologization 2012” was represented at the Transgeniale CSD, which advocates the depathologization of trans * identities and their removal from the disease catalogs ( DSM and ICD ).

The Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR) is celebrated annually on November 20th . On this day the fatality due to transphobia is commemorated. The names of people killed in transphobic hate crimes in the past year are read out loud. The Transgender Day of Remembrance was founded in 1998 by the graphic designer, journalist and activist Gwendolyn Ann Smith to commemorate the murder of Rita Hester in Allston ( Massachusetts , USA ) and to publicize transphobia and transphobic murders worldwide in general.

Critical reflection on transphobia in the media, public and art

Transphobia is also critically reflected in the media. One example is the film Boys Don't Cry , which depicts the transphobic murder of Brandon Teena. Teena was raped and murdered by some of his friends in 1993 after they found out that as a trans man he had female physical sex characteristics. The story was also adapted as a play.

See also

literature

  • 2018: Gayle Salamon: The Life and Death of Latisha King: A Critical Phenomenology of Transphobia. NYU Press, New York 2018, ISBN 978-1-4798-4921-5 (English).
  • 2012: Carsten Balzer, Jan Simon Hutta (eds.): Transrespect versus Transphobia Worldwide - A Comparative Review of the Human-rights Situation of Gender-variant / Trans People (= TvT Publication Series. Volume 6). Berlin November 2012 (English; PDF; 5.4 MB, 124 pages on transrespect.org).
  • 2012: Horst-Jörg Haupt: You are your brain - transsexuality in the field of tension between neuroscience and transphobia. Lecture at the specialist conference Trans * Identities in Vienna, October 18, 2012 ( PDF: 395 kB, 14 pages on trans-evidence.com).
  • 2011: LesMigraS - anti-violence and anti-discrimination area of ​​the lesbian counseling Berlin e. V. (Ed.): Empowerment in relation to racism and transphobia in LGBTI contexts - Connections speak. Berlin 2011 ( PDF: 2.4 MB, 48 pages on lesmigras.de).
  • 2010: Jannik Franzen, Arn Sauer: Discrimination against trans * people, especially in working life. Published by the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency (ADS), Berlin December 2010 ( PDF: 900 kB, 118 pages on antidiskriminierungsstelle.de).
  • 2010: Thomas Hammarberg : Human Rights & Gender Identity - Issue Paper (=  TvT series of publications. Volume 2). Published by TransInterQueer and TGEU, Berlin 2010 ( Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe ; PDF: 349 kB, 30 pages on transrespect.org).
  • 2009: Berthold Bodo Flaig: Discrimination in Everyday Life, Perception of Discrimination and Anti-Discrimination Policy in Our Society (=  research project. Volume 4). Published by the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency (ADS), Berlin March 2009, ISBN 978-3-8329-4657-9 ( PDF: 4.4 MB, 244 pages on antidiskriminierungsstelle.de).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Jens Scherpe: The legal status of trans * people in international comparison. Federal Agency for Civic Education , August 8, 2018, accessed on June 12, 2020.
  2. ↑ TransInterQueer e. V. (TrIQ): TransInterQueer: ABC. Berlin May 18, 2017, p. 10: Transphobia ( PDF: 383 kB, 12 pages on transinterqueer.org).
  3. ^ Tilman Steffen: Trans-People: Among colleagues in the wrong body. In: The time . December 22, 2010, accessed June 12, 2020.
  4. ↑ a b c TransInterQueer e. V. (TrIQ): Trans * in the media: information for journalists. 2nd Edition. Berlin December 2014 ( PDF: 1.5 MB, 24 pages on transinterqueer.org).
  5. ↑ Arn Sauer: Glossary: ​​Racism in the two-gender system - central concepts and terms. In: TransInterSektionalitaet.org. 2010, accessed on June 12, 2020 (entry: Cisgender / Cissexismus ).
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g h Jannik Franzen: Transphobia in LGBTI contexts. In: LesMigraS - anti-violence and anti-discrimination area of ​​Lesbenberatung Berlin e. V. (Ed.): Empowerment in relation to racism and transphobia in LGBTI contexts: Connections speak. Berlin 2011, pp. 11–14, here p. 13 ( PDF: 2.4 MB, 48 pages on lesmigras.de).
  7. ↑ a b c Y. Gavriel Ansara, Erica J. Friedman: Transphobia . In: Nancy A. Naples et al. (Ed.): The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies . Chichester 2016, p. 2357-2360 (English).
  8. ↑ Carsten Balzer: Every third day a murder of a trans person is reported. The preliminary results of the new "Trans Murder Monitoring" project show more than 200 reported murders of trans people between January 2008 and June 2009, in: Liminalis, No. 03 2009 (July 2009) ( Memento from December 10, 2014 on the Internet Archives )
  9. ↑ paperlined.org: Transgender Divisions. Retrieved March 3, 2013.
  10. ↑ Kim Schicklang: The appropriation of transsexual people. In: Courageous. Human rights and transsexuality. Retrieved March 3, 2013.
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  12. ↑ Daniela Truffer: The Speech of Psychic Intersexuality In: Zwischengeschlecht.org. December 10, 2007, accessed March 2, 2013.
  13. ↑ Message: Transphobia is not a cissexual (*) privilege. In: Bad Hair Days. September 25, 2008, accessed March 3, 2013.
  14. ↑ Cristan Williams: From Whence Comes the Transgender Community? In: Open Salon. June 30, 2011, accessed March 2, 2013.
  15. ↑ Ehipassiko: Transgender VS Transsexual on YouTube, accessed March 3, 2013.
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  17. ↑ Martha Testovich: Fine Differentiations. In: Progress. Retrieved February 8, 2013.
  18. ↑ a b Horst-Jörg Haupt: You are your brain - transsexuality in the field of tension between neuroscience and transphobia. Lecture at the specialist conference Trans * Identities in Vienna, October 18, 2012 ( PDF: 395 kB, 14 pages on trans-evidence.com).
  19. ↑ Heide Oestreich: Who wanted the pink unicorn? In: taz.de. January 12, 2012, accessed March 2, 2013.
  20. ↑ Peter Nowak : Against compulsion. In: Friday . March 27, 2012, accessed March 2, 2013.
  21. ↑ Press release of the Federal Constitutional Court of January 28, 2011, accessed on February 8, 2013 ( Memento of March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  22. ↑ a b National TSG Reform Working Group: Demand paper on the reform of transsexual law, June 1, 2012, accessed on February 8, 2013 (PDF; 141 kB)
  23. ^ A b John Norton (Catholic News Service): Vatican says "sex change" operation does not change a person's gender. In: National Catholic Reporter. January 14, 2003 (archived September 19, 2011), accessed June 12, 2020; Quotes: "[...] the (transsexual) surgical operation is so superficial and external that it does not change the personality. If the person was male, he remains male. If she was female, she remains female [...] The altered condition of a member of the faithful under civil law does not change one's canonical condition, which is male or female as determined at the moment of birth. "
  24. ^ "Neither priesthood nor marriage for transsexuals", newspaper report on Kath.net, February 1, 2003 , last viewed in January 2018.
  25. ↑ Vatican: Objectively, transsexuals cannot be godparents. In: Katholisches.info. September 2, 2015, accessed January 2018.
  26. ↑ USA: Bishops criticize transgender arrangements, in: Religion ORF.at, May 18, 2016 , last viewed on January 21, 2018.
  27. ↑ Cigdem Akyol, Arno Frank: Transsexual pregnant - a pro and con: mother or father? In: taz.de July 2, 2008, accessed June 14, 2017.
  28. ^ Transphopedia versus Chelsea Manning. Retrieved December 29, 2013.
  29. ^ Sarah Pines: Transforming Hollywood. In: Jungle World. No. 51, December 18, 2014 (English).
  30. ^ Flaig: Discrimination in everyday life, ... In: Research project . 2009.
  31. ^ Flaig: Discrimination in everyday life, ... In: Research project . 2009, p. 8 .
  32. ^ Flaig: Discrimination in everyday life, ... In: Research project . 2009, p. 9 .
  33. ^ Flaig: Discrimination in everyday life, ... In: Research project . 2009, p. 50 .
  34. ^ Flaig: Discrimination in everyday life, ... In: Research project . 2009, p. 56 .
  35. ^ Flaig: Discrimination in everyday life, ... In: Research project . 2009, p. 65 .
  36. ↑ Julia Serano : Rethinking Sexism: How Trans Women Challenge Feminism. In: AlterNet. August 4, 2008, accessed March 3, 2013.
  37. ^ Sandy Stone: The Empire Strikes Back. A Post-Transsexual Manifesto. Austin 1993 (English; PDF: 80 kB at ucm.es).
  38. ^ Janice Raymond: The Transsexual Empire. 1979, pp. 101-102 and 104; quoted in Sandy Stone: The Empire Strikes Back. A Post-Transsexual Manifesto. Austin 1993 (English; PDF: 80 kB at ucm.es); Quote: "All transsexuals rape women's bodies by reducing the real female form to an artifact, appropriating this body for themselves [...]".
  39. ↑ Matt Kailey: Ten Things Not to Say to a Trans person. ( Memento of March 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: Tranifesto. Accessed March 2, 2013 (English).
  40. ↑ Matt Kailey: Trans Etiquette for Non-Trans People. ( Memento of March 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: Tranifesto. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
  41. ↑ International Day Against Homophobia & Transphobia, ILGA article ( September 1, 2012 memento in the Internet Archive ), May 14, 2009.
  42. ↑ Video: Transgenialer CSD In the capital of violence. ( Memento of October 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) on blu.fm, accessed June 28, 2010.
  43. ^ Website of the transgenial CSD 2010 , accessed on February 28, 2010
  44. ↑ Nic: What Judith Butler recommended. ( Memento from May 18, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: Nic's Bloghaus. June 28, 2010, accessed February 28, 2013.
  45. ^ MA Transgender Political Coalition. (2010). Transgender Day of Remembrance.
  46. ↑ Millen, L. (November 20, 2008). North Carolinians mark transgender remembrance day.
  47. ^ Smith, G. (2010). Biography ( Memento from April 24, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  48. ↑ Jacobs, E. (November 18, 2008). Remembering Rita Hester
  49. ↑ transgenderdor.org website , accessed February 28, 2013.
  50. ↑ Boys Don't Cry. ( Memento from December 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: SchauspielHannover.de. Retrieved February 28, 2013.