The Rising Tide of Transphobia

   There has always been transphobia around me ever since I was an adult capable of understanding people and politeness and social justice. It was on forums, comment sections, it was in movies and TV shows. Though I would not understand the media aspect of transphobia until I actually transitioned. And then rewatched certain clips in a new light, understood just what the joke of laughing at men in skirts would accomplish.

   I was against bigotry early on, and seeked to understand how to be polite and kind to gay and trans people alike. I think I knew early on that trans people faced a lot of prejudice, it was much the same of gay and bi people hatred to high school me. I knew early on it was mean and cruel to be mean to a trans person in regards to their transness. Treat people how you wish to be treated was taught to me and imprinted on me at a very young age. The Golden Rule. I have wondered sometimes why that was so unique to my schooling. I knew vaguely of a trans man that had newly transitioned in my highschool, but never spoke to him directly or was friends with him before or after. I found out I was bi in highschool, I was always rather progressive, most likely said some stupid and wrong things as a teenager still though. I found out I was trans around 29 years old, 2 years of HRT now and soon to be 33.

   My lived experience of growing to know and accept trans people, and becoming trans myself, finds cis people wanting whenever they act like they are too young or too old or in too different of a culture to possibly understand trans people or how to be kind to trans people. I understood how to be kind to trans people at the ripe age of 16 you fucking assholes. With my parents and my school teachers having taught me nothing.

I’m going to talk about scarring transphobia examples aplenty.

Trans people be advised.

   On a forum I frequented there was an incident where during the making of a visual novel dating sim, featuring the characters of the forum goers themselves, one high profile member had argued that a trans member’s gender should be the gender they were before for the game, not the one they are now. Or some such bigoted thing, I do not remember the details mostly. Despite thousands of posts submitted to the forum, that member was banned and would be infamous for being a transphobe. Forever after.

   Transphobia has ramped up in previous years it feels like and it turns out. There was always transphobia, no doubt. The nazis burning of The Institute of Sexology in 1933. But the news cycle, living in the USA in 2026, the republicans in general being in power, both in administration and in a great many states, means they can push whatever they so desire. And they desire to push hatred. White hot, scarring, mind destroying, hatred. I know that at least in politics and in terms of law and in terms of Press, transphobia has ramped up to the maximum. It is cloyying. It is ever present. It is suffocating. It is endless. And it is so fucking annoying.

   In terms of online culture, the everyday person, transphobia may be getting slightly worse. But in my online circles at least we are always cushioned against experiencing transphobia. Discords and message boards and SOME subreddits are a much needed escape from transphobia. Even the lightest liberal tends to feel that transphobia has no place in polite conversation. A general ruleset banning bigotry of any kind; racism, sexism, transphobia, tends to make most online spaces halfway pleasant if not more. To be honest such things are the only thing that keeps trans people sane I feel. To be surrounded by transphobia in media, press, by family, by folks walking by on the street, but to receive a reprieve from the hate when going into nerdy and lefty spots online. I am not myself in my waking physical reality, but I am surrounded by love and care and well-wishers online, who see me for the real me.

They told us they were only going to go after trans women in sports for sportsmanship reasons.

That was a lie.

They told us they were only going to go after trans children who “should not be transitioning so young”.

That was a lie.

They told us that we would only be barred from talking about transness in school to “protect children”, they told us that in order to do right by parents trans children should be outted to their parents. They told us trans books have no place in schools.

That was a lie.

They are now telling us they will only be going after trans people in prison and detransitioning them, which is horrible regardless.

That is also undoubtedly a lie.

They told you that trans people are predators and pedophiles. That was of course a lie. We are nowhere near the primary suspects of being predators, pedophiles, killers.

We are in fact more likely to be killed, preyed on, sexually assaulted.

   I look forward to when the republican administration goes after HRT and trans surgeries. They have already attempted to knock off military individuals and their children off trans care, I do not know what happened to that one. Estrogen and testosterone are hard to ban because cis people use them freely and often. It is always kind of amusing. Cis people are able to access gender affirming care and hormone medication without anyone batting an eye. A trans person trying to access hormone medication is an abomination, a monstrosity, a tragedy. They must be stopped at all costs. Prevent their care, put up as many walls as possible, psychoanalyze them to make SURE they are trans, hold off their appointments for months and years. Do Your Sworn Duty To Prevent As Many Trans People From Existing As Possible.

   The hand of transphobia reaches far, and it reaches deep, and it has quite the coinpurse to fund any number of right wing politicians and influencers.

   Perhaps most infuriating is always the newspapers and reporters to me however. Supposedly centrist outfits, supposedly interested in The Truth, supposedly benign members of the public who would not act maliciously. The New York Times, The Guardian, The Independent, Fox News… these people endanger us so much more than your average person, influencer, even politicians. “Just asking questions”, “just reporting the facts”, “just making sure kids are safe”. Generally I want you to know the news reporting outfits in the US are right wing funded and leaning. Politics in the US has just wedged farther and farther right with each passing year, voting cycle, and new round of funding for what news media and artful media is allowed to exist. Democrats themselves are anti-trans, fuck you specifically Newsom, and are not fucking helpful very often at all. News reporters are going to be responsible for the deaths of thousands of trans people. Anti trans articles and concepts have ramped up to the highest degree of late. “Family” oriented organizations are organized to educate parents as much as possible to detransition their children. An absolute unending cascade of news articles that can only result in more trans deaths. I have personally looked into some of the Twitter timelines and opinions of some of these reporters. They are rotting garbage masquerading as human beings. I hope the lot of them burn in the Christian Hell for all of eternity.

   I grow weary of cis people so defending the Idol that is to be cis. They defend it in so many infuriating ways. They dislike trans people transitioning. They dislike our names, usernames, and our choices, and they especially dislike our bodily autonomy. They dislike trans people looks and fashion, our very clothes. They dislike our medicine and our euphoria. They dislike when trans people defend themselves and arm themselves. They dislike our children and our parents. They dislike our voices and our makeup. They dislike even other cis people so much as flirting with the idea of transness. They will be cruel to other cis people in the name of even possibly being cruel to a potential trans person. They hunt us for sport, for pleasure, to get their rocks off.

   Today I woke up and watched a Bluesky clip of a cis male Twitch streamer wearing a dress in his living room, his father coming home, dumbstruck at the display, and immediately starting to try and beat the shit out of his son. The boy had made it obvious he was filming, likely the dad knew the son was a Twitch streamer. Even without transphobia in the picture, his assault being caught on camera is a very stupid move. His hatred of transness was so paramount, so white hot, that it did not matter to him his love of his son, his ability to stay out of prison, his ability to exist in a public speaking capacity without controversy. It did not even matter to him that the son had only put on a dress likely for some stream reward or bet, not exactly a genuine want. Not something that would be a continuing pattern. A. Single. Other. Time. Of Wearing a fashion item of the opposite gender. (Although unfitting at the moment to mention, men and women’s fashion has swapped over the years. Men used to wear dresses, used to wear makeup (South Korean men currently wear makeup and have highly advanced skin care routines), used to wear pink. Nothing is ever a truly fixed point when it comes to mankind and the history of our world.)

There is starting to be bounty programs to report trans people for having used “The Wrong Bathroom”

There are starting to be lists and attempted lists of tracking trans people by name and identification.

Our passports and IDs are being revoked.

Hospitals are being highly encouraged and threatened to give no trans care at all.

   A good lot of this absolute hunt of trans people apparently comes down the line from simply a few rich people. They seek to use us and scapegoat us for whipping their audience into a fury. They also just personally find us disgusting. A direct line to Epstein having known about us and funding efforts to disenfranchise us. They want us out of employment, away from positions of power. They want us used as sex objects and nothing more.

   Most cis people are aware of how ridiculous this is to so try and control the gender and gender presentation of others. I have seen every now and then even republican polling saying that basically republican voters are sick of hearing about trans people. To a certain degree the most likely opinion a person can hold on us is neutrality. To not care about us, our choices, and even to want us to be as invisible as possible. Dust to be brushed under a rug and put down.

   Let me be clear. Trans people gender euphoria is important for our continued lives, happiness, and existence. We feel like absolute shit when we do not wear the opposite clothes, do not look like the opposite gender, are not called our real names and pronouns. We do not survive without gender euphoria. This is not something we do on a whim or because it is only Fun. We do it to survive and we do it for happiness and we do it at great pain to ourselves. My life would be so much simpler and happier if I could be happy living as a man. But I am not happy. I am depressed and I am a whirling tornado of scalding fury. For simply being the person I am and the person I want to be, for simply transitioning I am doomed to a life of disrespect, anger, humiliation, bigotry, transphobia.

I will face more suffering the more I attempt to be who I want to be. For the rest of my life, however long or short it may be. I do not ask for cis people to have sympathy for myself or my trans kin. I do not ask for mercy. I know there is none in your cold, dead, hearts.

My own mother does not wish a happy, living daughter. She wishes a dead son.

You can take my gender away from my cold, dead hands.