What Is Transphobia
Transphobia is prejudice, hostility, or discrimination against transgender people, and against anyone perceived as transgender. It runs from open hostility, like a slur or an assault, to the quieter assumption that a person’s gender must match the sex they were assigned at birth. Merriam-Webster defines it as “discrimination against, aversion to, or fear of transgender people” (Merriam-Webster). A word, act, or policy is called transphobic when it expresses that prejudice.
Transphobia is measurable. The facts below trace it from violence to legislation to public opinion, each one sourced.
Key facts
- Gender identity was the bias behind 4.6% of single-bias hate-crime victims reported to the FBI in 2025, up from 2.2% in 2018 (DOJ).
- GLAAD tracked 485 anti-trans incidents from May 2024 to May 2025, 52% of all the anti-LGBTQ incidents it recorded (GLAAD).
- Of 399 trans people killed in the U.S. since 2013, 70.4% were Black and 59.4% were Black trans women (HRC, 2025).
- Statehouses considered 1,022 anti-trans bills in 2025, a sixth straight record, and 835 in 2026 through September (Trans Legislation Tracker).
- 72% of Americans support nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people (PRRI, 2025).
A related term, “transmisia,” uses the suffix that means hatred rather than the suffix that means a clinical fear, to frame the prejudice as a social bias instead of an anxiety disorder. This page stays on “transphobia,” the word most people search and use.
The Three Forms Transphobia Takes
Transphobia is easiest to see when you separate the levels it works on, because each one needs a different response. A 2025 systematic review of 187 studies, published in the International Journal of Transgender Health, found that the forms researchers measure most are victimization, institutional discrimination, and internalized transphobia (Ogarrio et al., 2025). The grid below names each one and what it does.
Source: Ogarrio et al. (2025), systematic review of 187 studies, International Journal of Transgender Health.
The forms feed one another, which is why naming them separately matters. A private prejudice affects one relationship. The same prejudice written into a statute reaches every trans person in the state, and the steady message that you are wrong is what gets turned inward as shame. The organized version of the institutional form, the funded campaign that drafts the model bills, is the subject of our anti-LGBTQ movement explainer.
What Transphobia Looks Like in Practice
Most of it is ordinary. When people picture transphobia they picture an assault, but the survey data says the common experience is name-calling in a hallway, a pile-on in the replies, and a coworker who keeps getting the pronouns wrong on purpose. Those things happen constantly. The beating is rare.
The largest survey of trans people in the country asked 92,329 of them, aged 16 and older, what happened in the past year.
Online harassment is now the most common form, and physical attack is the least.
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| Harassed online because of gender identity | 39% |
| Verbally harassed in person | 30% |
| Physically attacked | 3% |
Source: 2022 U.S. Trans Survey, Early Insights report (92,329 respondents aged 16 and older).
That gap matters for how the harm gets taken seriously. A person who is verbally harassed every week and never punched has still been worn down, and the rarity of the punch is often used to argue nothing is happening.
School is where most of it starts. Of trans adults who were out or read as trans in K-12, 80% were mistreated in at least one way: verbal harassment, bullying, cyberbullying, physical attack, or being barred from the restroom matching their gender identity. Among respondents who were still 16 or 17 when surveyed, 60% reported the same (2022 U.S. Trans Survey). For most trans young people who are out at school, mistreatment is part of the daily routine.
Nonbinary people meet a version of it that is easy to miss. Because they are not moving from one side of the gender binary to the other, the hostility often takes the form of refusing to believe the category exists at all: they/them treated as a grammar dispute rather than a name, forms with two boxes, an insistence that a person pick one. It is the same prejudice enforcing the same gender norms, aimed at someone who declines to sort. Nonbinary people also disappear from most of the data on this page, because surveys and police reports rarely record them as a separate group.
The individual form also shows up in acts that each carry a documented cost. Misgendering calls a person by the wrong gender; deadnaming uses the name they no longer go by. Denial of care, housing, or a job moves the same hostility into the places where a person tries to live a normal life. The table pairs each act with the harm it does.
Common acts of individual transphobia and the documented harm each one does.
Source: 2022 U.S. Trans Survey, Early Insights report (National Center for Transgender Equality, 2024); McLaughlin (2025), PLOS ONE
Intent matters here, and naming it keeps the page fair. An honest slip of the wrong pronoun, corrected and not repeated, is a mistake, not the prejudice. The harm the research measures comes from the deliberate or repeated act, and from the policy that makes the denial official.
Internalized Transphobia and the Mental-Health Link
Internalized transphobia is the discomfort and negative self-attitudes a trans person develops from absorbing the anti-trans stigma around them. It is the third form turned inward, and it is the one that does its damage quietly. The mechanism is well documented in peer-reviewed work on minority stress.
The path from prejudice to harm runs through specific feelings. In a study of 149 trans and gender nonconforming people in Italy, shame and alienation linked anti-trans discrimination to depression, and alienation linked it to anxiety (Scandurra et al., 2018). A 2023 study of trans and gender-diverse youth found that high internalized transphobia and low pride in one’s gender identity went with more depression symptoms (Conn et al., 2023).
The same research points to what blunts it. In the Italian study, resilience weakened the path from discrimination to anxiety, and in the youth study, pride in one’s gender identity went with fewer symptoms. Because internalized transphobia is absorbed from the world outside, the response starts outside too.
The Measurable Harm
The harm is not a feeling to debate. It shows up in hate-crime records and in who is being killed, and the two leading datasets measure different things, so they are kept separate here. The FBI counts crimes reported to police; GLAAD counts incidents it tracks directly, including ones never reported. Neither number is the full picture, and blending them would overstate or undercount.
- About 600
- hate-crime victims targeted for gender identity in 2025, 4.6% of the 12,967 single-bias victims police reported to the FBI (derived)
- 485
- anti-trans incidents GLAAD tracked from May 2024 to May 2025, 52% of all the anti-LGBTQ incidents it recorded
- 399
- trans and gender non-conforming people killed since 2013, tracked by the Human Rights Campaign
The FBI figure is a floor, not a full count. It depends on crimes that participating police agencies choose to report. The share of victims targeted for gender identity is the steadier signal, and it has roughly doubled since 2018.
Gender identity’s share of hate-crime victims went from 2.2% in 2018 to 4.6% in 2025.
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| 2018 | 2.2% |
| 2019 | 2.7% |
| 2020 | 2.7% |
| 2021 | 3.2% |
| 2022 | 4% |
| 2023 | 4.1% |
| 2024 | 3.9% |
| 2025 | 4.6% |
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Hate Crime Statistics pages for 2018 through 2025, from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. Participation varies by year, and 2021 was the first year of the FBI's switch to a new reporting system.
The Human Rights Campaign warns that its own count of killings is an undercount, because cases “often go unreported or misreported” (HRC, 2025).
Who the Violence Falls On
The violence is not spread evenly, and the pattern is the most consistent finding in the data. Of the 399 deaths the Human Rights Campaign has tracked since 2013, 59.4% were Black trans women and 70.4% of all known victims were Black. A firearm was used in 71.2% of cases (HRC, 2025).
No account of transphobia that stops at gender explains that number. The Human Rights Campaign attributes it to the way “racism, sexism, and transphobia collide” in the lives of Black trans women, who face all three at once.
The economics compound it. Trans and gender-expansive people experience homelessness at eight times the rate of the general population, and homelessness is itself an exposure to violence. Among respondents who had been homeless, 97% were verbally harassed, sexually assaulted, or physically attacked while without housing, including in emergency shelters (National Low Income Housing Coalition, from the 2022 U.S. Trans Survey). A lost job is often where that path starts: 11% of survey respondents who had held a job lost it because of their gender identity.
Transphobia also travels with homophobia and biphobia rather than apart from them. Homophobia and biphobia target who a person loves; transphobia targets who a person is. The campaigns and the laws rarely separate sexual orientation from gender identity, and a person targeted for one is frequently targeted for the other.
Where the Beliefs Come From
Most Americans do not know a trans person. In a 2023 PRRI survey, 63% said they do not know anyone who is transgender, and another 25% knew one only as an acquaintance (PRRI). For many cisgender people, the picture comes from what they are shown, with no personal experience to check it against. That is why misinformation about trans people spreads easily.
The oldest claim is that being transgender is a mental illness. Psychiatry did classify it that way, and then stopped. The American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from the DSM in 1973, and in 2013 the DSM-5 replaced “gender identity disorder” with gender dysphoria. The change was deliberate: the diagnosis now names the distress a person may feel, not the identity itself. Being trans is not the disorder. The claim survives in political rhetoric anyway, decades after the field abandoned it.
Newer claims arrive faster than they can be checked, and most of what circulates today travels under the “gender ideology” label, which bundles a set of unrelated fears into one phrase. The pattern is consistent: a rare or invented case is presented as routine, and the negative attitudes it produces show up later as a bill, a school board policy, or a person deciding a stranger does not deserve a bathroom.
Sexual assault and physical violence come up constantly in that messaging, almost always with trans people cast as the threat. The data on victims points the other way. Using the federal National Crime Victimization Survey, researchers found that transgender people are over four times as likely as cisgender people to be victims of violent crime, including rape and sexual assault (Williams Institute, 2021).
What Reduces the Harm
The harm is real, and so is the evidence on what cuts it. Acceptance, care, and legal protection each lower suicide risk and distress, which means the problem is not fixed in place. The single most reachable intervention is also the simplest.
LGBTQ young people with one accepting adult were 40% less likely to report a past-year suicide attempt, and a study of gender-affirming care found 73% lower odds of suicidality.
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| One accepting adult: less likely to report a suicide attempt | 40% |
| Gender-affirming care: lower odds of suicidality | 73% |
| Gender-affirming care: lower odds of depression | 60% |
Sources: The Trevor Project, research brief (June 2019); Tordoff et al. (2022), JAMA Network Open, an observational study of 104 youth followed for 12 months. Each bar is a percentage reduction.
The care study is small and observational, so it shows an association, not proof of cause. The care is medically endorsed and politically contested at once. The AMA, APA, AAP, and Endocrine Society endorse age-appropriate gender-affirming care, while 27 states restrict it for minors and the UK’s Cass Review and several European systems have narrowed puberty blockers for minors, citing low-certainty evidence. Our gender-affirming care explainer, including its section on detransition, and our gender dysphoria explainer cover that debate in full.
Public opinion already leans toward protection: 72% of Americans support nondiscrimination laws for LGBTQ people, according to PRRI’s 2025 survey.
Where Legal Protections Stand
Federal law protects trans people at work and leaves gaps elsewhere. The case that closed the workplace gap began with one firing. Aimee Stephens worked at R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes in Garden City, Michigan. In her sixth year there, she wrote a letter to her employer saying she planned to “live and work full-time as a woman” after an upcoming vacation. The funeral home fired her before she left, telling her “this is not going to work out.” In Bostock v. Clayton County (2020), the Supreme Court held that “an employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender” breaks federal law (Supreme Court opinion).
Outside the workplace, protection depends on the state. As of September 2026, 35% of LGBTQ adults live in states that do not bar housing discrimination based on gender identity, and 37% live in states with no such protection in public places like stores and restaurants (Movement Advancement Project).
Where Federal Protections for Trans People Stand
As of September 25, 2026
- Firing someone for being transgender Final ruling, illegal
Bostock v. Clayton County, June 15, 2020: it violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. (source)
- Federal definition of sex Agency action
Executive Order 14168, signed January 20, 2025, makes it federal policy "to recognize two sexes, male and female," defined by the sex a person belongs to "at conception." (source)
- State bans on gender-affirming care for minors Final ruling, upheld
United States v. Skrmetti, June 18, 2025, upheld Tennessee's ban.
- 2025 subpoenas for patient records Blocked by a court, many quashed
A Maryland judge quashed the demand for Children's National records on January 22, 2026. (source)
- 2026 grand jury subpoenas In litigation
The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas subpoenaed NYU Langone and Stanford's children's hospital in May 2026. (source)
- Equality Act (H.R. 15, S. 1503) Proposal
In committee, with no action since April 29, 2025.
Source: Supreme Court opinions; Federal Register; Bloomberg Law; STAT; govinfo bill status
The federal government is also using investigations as pressure, which is the institutional form at full scale. In the summer of 2025, the Justice Department sent administrative subpoenas to more than 20 providers of gender-affirming care for young people, and courts quashed many of them. Quashing the demand for Children’s National records, U.S. District Judge Julie R. Rubin wrote that it “appears to have no purpose other than to intimidate and harass” (Bloomberg Law). In May 2026, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas escalated with grand jury subpoenas, a sign of a criminal investigation. NYU Langone’s asked for records on minors who received care from 2020 to 2026 and the clinicians who treated them (STAT).
The legislative front keeps expanding alongside the investigations. Sports bans and the law behind them are covered in our Title IX explainer, state bans on care for minors in our gender-affirming care explainer, and the political label driving much of it in our gender ideology explainer.
Not Every Disagreement Is Transphobia
Calling every disagreement transphobia is both wrong and self-defeating, so the line has to be drawn honestly. Genuine questions, ordinary discomfort, and good-faith policy debate are not the prejudice. The prejudice is the denial of dignity, the refusal to accept that trans people exist, and the deliberate cruelty. Four distinctions hold the line.
- Intent and delivery. A respectful, honest question is not transphobia. Using “questions” to mock or invalidate, or deliberately misgendering someone after being corrected, is.
- Focus of the critique. Debating a specific policy, such as sports rules, medical protocols for minors, or facility logistics, is fair. Claiming trans people are inherently predatory, deceptive, or delusional is not.
- Acceptance of existence. Disagreeing on a policy while affirming that trans people exist and deserve dignity is debate. Denying the validity of trans identities and advocating erasure is prejudice.
- Reaction to correction. Apologizing for an accidental wrong name or pronoun and trying to do better is human. Refusing on “principle” is the prejudice asserting itself.
Three claims come up often, and each has a measured answer rather than a dismissal.
Common claims and the sourced, measured response to each.
Source: peer-reviewed stigma research; medical-consensus bodies; standard-of-care debate
Frequently Asked Questions
What does transphobic mean?
Something is transphobic when it expresses prejudice against transgender people: a slur, a deliberate misgendering, a policy that singles trans people out for worse treatment, or a claim that trans people are dangerous or not real. An honest question or a good-faith policy disagreement is not transphobic on its own.
What is the difference between transphobia and transmisia?
They name the same prejudice with different framing. “Transphobia” uses a suffix that can read as a clinical fear, while “transmisia” uses a suffix meaning hatred, to frame the bias as a social attitude rather than an anxiety disorder. Most people and most data sources use “transphobia.”
Is misgendering illegal?
On its own, usually not. There is no general law against using the wrong pronoun. But repeated, deliberate misgendering can be part of unlawful harassment in a workplace or school, where federal employment protection under Bostock and many state laws apply. The legal line turns on a pattern of conduct, not a single slip.
Is criticizing medical transition automatically transphobic?
No. There is real medical debate over standards of care and timing for minors, and raising it in good faith is not prejudice. It becomes transphobia when it asserts that care is universally abuse or mutilation, or when it denies that trans people are who they say they are.
Can a transgender person be transphobic toward themselves?
Yes, and researchers have a name for it: internalized transphobia. It is the anti-trans stigma a person absorbs from the world around them and turns into negative self-attitudes. Community connection, pride, and support are what reduce it.
What You Can Do
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If you are being harassed or treated unfairly, write it down and get help. Record dates, names, and what was said. At work, a complaint to the EEOC has a 180-day deadline in most states (300 in some), covered in our Civil Rights Act explainer. If you are in crisis, call or text 988.
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If you see someone harassed, step in safely. Right To Be’s five Ds give you options that do not require a confrontation. You can distract, delegate to someone with authority, document and hand the recording to the person targeted, check in with them afterward, or speak up directly when it is safe. Ask the person before posting any video.
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Tell your members of Congress to pass the Equality Act. It would write protections against discrimination based on gender identity into federal law, closing the housing, public-accommodations, and education gaps that Bostock left open. Use the letter and call script below and ask for a yes or no.
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Oppose the use of federal investigations to intimidate care providers. Since 2025, federal prosecutors have subpoenaed hospitals for trans patients’ private records, and one judge found a demand had “no purpose other than to intimidate and harass.” Ask your representatives where they stand on using investigations against patients and doctors.
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Fight the bills in your own state. Statehouses have considered 835 anti-trans bills in 2026. The Trans Legislation Tracker shows which bills are moving where. Call your state legislators about the specific bill, by number, before it gets a vote.
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Be the accepting adult. LGBTQ young people with one accepting adult were 40% less likely to report a suicide attempt in the past year. Acceptance is something every reader can offer.
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Write your representative about federal nondiscrimination protections for trans people. Use the letter below and ask for a clear position.