Transmisandry

Discrimination against transgender men and transmasculine individuals is sometimes referred to as transandrophobia, anti-transmasculinity, or transmisandry.

Development of concept

There is currently no consensus on a term for the discrimination against transgender men. However, many terms have been proposed to refer to the discrimination experienced by transgender men. Unlike transmisogyny, presently neither the discrimination against transgender men, the discrimination against nonbinary people nor the discrimination against intersex people have widely agreed-upon names. As the fields of Queer Studies, Gender Studies and Feminist Studies continue to develop, this is likely to change. Alexander-Lee Kinmore notes in ''Trans Men: Precarious Manhood and the Paradox of Hegemonic Masculinity'' that transgender men are "particularly underrepresented in trans identity literature and in masculinity studies". The study of transmasculine people and transmasculinity is still in its infancy and as such, the terminology is not yet as established as other groups'.

One proposed term is transmisandry, which combines the prefix 'trans-' with 'misandry' in a similar way to transmisogyny, which is derived from 'trans-' and 'misogyny'. The term transandrophobia is also used, which uses the suffix 'androphobia'. Another alternative term for this type of prejudice is anti-transmasculinity. Literature which discusses discrimination against transgender uses a variety of terminology to refer to the topic as there is currently no consensus on which of the proposed terms to use.

The complexity of the prejudice along the axes of assigned and acquired gender and the need for a term for this type of transphobia have previously been addressed by transgender author Julia Serano, who coined the term ''transmisogyny''. In 2021 she clarified the usage of the term and identified a gap in the language for a word for discrimination against transgender men.

"Transmisogyny can be a vital term for some of us to communicate the intersection of transphobia and misogyny that we face. But others may experience it more complicatedly or severely, as in the case of transmisogynoir. And for others (e.g., certain non-binary people, trans male/masculine-spectrum people), misogyny may intersect with transphobia in different ways that aren't adequately articulated by transmisogyny. This doesn't necessarily make transmisogyny "wrong"; it may simply mean that we need additional language."

Instances

Lack of visibility

Transgender men historically did not enjoy much visibility due to lack of awareness that female-to-male transition existed. Many people were only aware of male-to-female transition as a result of the hypervisibility of transgender women in the mid-20th Century. Susan Stryker has written that an organization called Labyrinth was founded in 1968 in order to fill the gap in support for transgender men, since until that time most trans organizations focused on transgender women. Stryker writes that most of the other organizations at the time were more "geared more towards the needs of transgender women than transgender men".

Transphobia

Issues of bodily autonomy also affect transgender men. Transgender men who retain their uteruses may be able to become pregnant, but may also face additional barriers to abortion services. In 2018, proposed legislation to legalize abortion in Ireland only mentioned women in the context of obtaining abortion. Campaign groups feared for the potential implications for transgender men, believing and stating that "the proposed legislation for termination of pregnancy in Ireland will only allow women to access abortion" and "thus, trans men in Ireland will be denied abortion access".

Transgender men and transmasculine people are at a high risk for sexual assault, sexual violence and rape. The 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey found that 51% of trans men reported being sexually assaulted at least once in their lives compared to only 21.3% of cisgender women. One non-profit study undertaken in 2011 found that, of the 1,005 trans people involved in the study, 50% of Female to Male (FTM) respondents reported experiencing childhood sexual assault. A further 31% reported sexual assault as an adult, 23% listed violence in dating, 36% had experienced domestic violence, 18% had experienced stalking and 29% had experienced hate violence. Despite transgender men and transmasculine people's high rates of sexual assault, many rape and sexual assault crisis centres are not open to men, cis or trans, leading to transmasculine people being put at risk of not having any resources after a sexually-motivated crime. The ARC Readiness Assessment in 2023 found that only 29% of providers surveyed knew of safe sexual assault recovery/family violence services to refer trans men to compared to 37% knowing safe sources for trans women and 44% knowing safe sources for non-binary people.

Counting Ourselves also found that only 11% of trans participants had been able to receive support after sexual violence and abuse and that 33% of transgender men had to explain the concept of transgender men to healthcare professionals when seeking support, compared to 14% of trans women having to do the same. The study also found that 50% of transgender men experienced someone attempting to rape them or succeeding in raping them. Trans men may also face barriers in reporting hate crimes motivated by transphobia while presenting as male. Brandon Teena, a trans man murdered in 1993, did not succeed in accessing a rape kit following his rape until he returned to the police station presenting as a woman.

Transgender men may also face infantilization in a similar way to what is sometimes experienced by cisgender women. This infantilization could sometimes be a result of biological essentialist beliefs that those who were assigned female at birth are not intelligent and therefore do not know what is "best for them."

Misgendering and Malgendering

Misgendering

Transgender men's experience of misgendering may vary from receiving verbal insults to experiencing physical assault. Misgendering affects anyone who is not perceived as the gender they identify with, including both transgender people and cisgender people. For transgender people, misgendering can lead to significant emotional distress which contributes to "mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem". A 2009 study of transgender men in the San Franciso Bay Area interviewed nineteen trans men on their experiences post-transition. The study reported that nearly all interviewees "claimed that their fear of violence or harassment stemmed from the worry that other men would react violently if they judged the interviewees' masculine practices as effeminate or not appropriately masculine". Transgender men may be at risk for physical assault if their gender presentations are not sufficiently masculine to avoid being "clocked" as trans and subsequently misgendered.

Malgendering

Transgender men and transmasculine people are often subjected to malgendering, a type of discrimination which affirms someone's gender in a negative, often malicious way. For example, a transgender man being treated as if he has become dangerous or threatening after commencing masculinizing hormones or pursuing masculinising sex reassignment surgery may be being malgendered. Malgendering is different to misgendering an
degendering
two similar types of discrimination - the former of which refers to the denial of someone's declared gender altogether. The latter (sometimes referred to as ungendering) refers to the use of gender-neutral language with the purpose of avoiding referring to the subject's declared gendered pronouns or honorifics. Transgender men may also experience misgendering and degendering.

Malgendering is also experienced by other transgender people, such as the assumption transgender women must now be less intelligent after undergoing a feminizing transition on the basis of their acquired gender. Likewise, transgender men may experience isolation, rejection and distrust on the basis of their acquired gender. Transgender men may also report sentiment which suggests that since they are not women, they are now acceptable for another man (usually cisgender) to punch.

Racism

Trans men and transmasculine people of colour face a unique discrimination as a result of their race, gender and transgender status intersecting. An interviewee for the project To Survive on this Shore discusses racism against trans men:

"In the beginning, when I started transitioning, when my features started changing, when it got to the point where I was totally male, I wondered why people were treating me differently. Other races were treating me differently. And I realized, I'm a black male now, and so when I step on the elevator, the woman's going to clutch her pocketbook, or she's going to move to the other side of the elevator, or I get doors slammed in my face." - Charley, 2014

Citing Krell, Martino and Omercajic explain that "'racialized transmisandry' helps to explain the policing around Black masculinity for Black transmasculine persons hohave been effaced in a white-centric and classed framing of cisgenderism and cissexism".

Gender essentialism

According to Mimi Marinucci, gender essentialism and sex essentialism are radical feminist views on gender, and are foundational to trans exclusionary radical feminism. She states that, while their bigotry towards transgender women is more visible, transgender men are also routinely targeted by trans exclusionary radical feminists. She argues that gender essentialism in radical feminism demonizes masculinity and maleness as a whole, targeting trans women for their assigned sex at birth and targeting trans men for their transition into manhood. Masculinizing procedures are sometimes called 'mutilating surgery' by radical feminists.

The intersection between discrimination against transgender men and misogyny has split feminist opinion on the place of transgender men within feminism, particularly types of feminism that are concerned with reproductive rights and domestic abuse. Many feminist organizations are welcoming and affirming of transgender men. However, a number of trans exclusive radical feminist organizations do not welcome transgender men on the basis of their manhood. Trans exclusive radical feminist organizations which do welcome transgender men do not see transgender men as men. Other feminist organisations have adopted trans inclusive radical feminism, which includes trans women and some non-binary people, but may often exclude transgender men on the basis of their manhood.

Butchphobia and "butch flight"

Transgender men and transmasculine people may be subjected to butchphobia. Butchphobia is a form of discrimination against butch lesbians, who are lesbians who exhibit a masculine gender presentation. Many trans men were formerly involved in lesbian communities, as they found support in these communities before or during coming out as transgender. Many trans men presented as butch lesbians before their transition, and therefore may have experienced butchphobia. Transgender men and butch lesbians can also be confused and conflated on a visual level by outside observers, and thus transgender men may experience butchphobia as a result. Butchphobia may take the form of ostracization due to proximity to masculinity, which in some cases could be influenced by the propagation of radical feminism in queer spaces - subscribers to radical feminist thought believe that maleness and masculinity are inherently a threat to women. Experiencing butchphobia may also lead to gender dysphoria, as transgender men are implicitly misgendered by the assumption that they are butch women.

Transgender men may be accused of "butch-flight," which claims that butch lesbians who later come out as transgender men are in some way being tricked into transitioning instead of remaining as butch lesbians. As the name "butch flight" implies, transgender men who formerly identified as butch lesbians are viewed as having left the lesbian community en-masse. Notably, this perception of transgender men became more visible starting in the 1970s, and peaking in the 1990s, when transgender issues in general were becoming more visible. Transgender men were enabled to come out, leading to a perception that there was a "flight" from the butch lesbian community as increasing amounts of transgender men felt able to pursue transition. S. Bear Bergman, an American transgender man and author, touched on "butch flight" in his 2006 book ''Butch is a Noun'':

"I hear from butches that they are saddened by what they think of as Butch Flight, that people who once might have lived as butches are now living as men, and it makes them sad. They want back the visibly queer phalanx of butches, and they want the kickass women butches sometimes embodied. Feminism, they insist, is not being helped by the fact of women with masculine qualities decamping from Women’s Space to the Old Boys Network".

Medical marginalization

Transgender men face discrimination in certain medical contexts. This may include difficulty in accessing cervical smears where transmasculine individuals are subjected to misgendering that cisgender women do not generally experience, due to transgender men having gender identities that are incongruent with the gendered medical care they require. Alongside misgendering, transgender men may experience transphobia as a result of not being read as men in a medical setting. The pap smear test is more likely to be inadequate in detecting cervical cancer in transgender men who use masculinizing hormone therapy.

Trans men and transmasculine people are frequently the subjects of medical marginalization, with 42% of trans men reporting negative experiences with healthcare providers. There is a lack of credible research about how to provide adequate healthcare to transgender men undergoing medical transition, notably with doctors having difficulty diagnosing breast cancer in people who have undergone top surgery. Transmasculine people are also at an increased risk for experiencing discrimination in medicine that may impact their access to healthcare. This can include transmasculine people with cervixes not being invited for life-saving cervical screenings because their gender is legally listed as male or being denied screenings for ovarian cancer for the same reason.

Trans men are sometimes omitted from discussions about reproductive rights, menstruation, and bodily autonomy because they are seen exclusively as "women's issues". This includes healthcare professionals neglecting to discuss contraception to prevent unwanted transgender pregnancy.

Trans men and transmasculine people are at a greater risk of developing HIV or AIDS. Between 2009 and 2014, trans men accounted for 11% of HIV-positive transgender individuals in the U.S. with 60% of them being virally suppressed for at least one year. This study conducted by the American Public Health Association states that "transgender men who have sex with men are at increased risk for HIV acquisition and . .constitute 15.4% of the newly diagnosed HIV cases among transgender persons. Transgender men are an understudied population lacking evidence-based HIV interventions to address their needs." The majority of PrEP medications such as Descovy that are meant to prevent contraction of HIV have not been tested for people who were assigned female at birth. 47% of HIV-positive trans men in the U.S. between 2009 and 2014 and 40% of HIV-positive trans men in the U.S. in 2018 were black. Omission from medical research leaves trans men vulnerable to illnesses, STDs, and malpractice.

Mental health impact of discrimination against transgender men

Transmasculine people face social abuse, including bullying and harassment.Brian A. Rood, Julia A. Puckett, David W. Pantalone, and Judith B. Bradford.LGBT Health.Sep 2015.270-275.http://doi.org/10.1089/lgbt.2013.0048 Stigma and negative attitudes towards transmasculine people's manhoods contribute to widespread mental health problems in the community.

Suicide risk

According to a 2018 study, 50.8% of transgender boys (ages 11–19) have attempted suicide. The researchers asserted that " ere is an urgent need to understand why transgender, female to male, and non-binary adolescents report engaging in suicide behavior at higher levels than other adolescent transgender populations. ... Previous research in adults reveals that transgender men report higher levels of gender discrimination compared with transgender women, which may help to explain this difference in suicide behavior." In addition, a 2013 study on transgender men's sexual health suggested that trans men's psychosocial health vulnerabilities may contribute to sexual risk behaviours and HIV and STD vulnerability. TDOR, an organisation which collects reports of transgender people lost to violence, reports on transgender men who have lost their lives to suicide caused by prejudice against their transmasculinity.

Notable cases of discrimination against transgender men

Ewan Forbes' primogeniture challenge

Ewan Forbes was a Scottish trans man, who in 1968 was challenged to his right to inherit his father's baronetcy by his cousin, through the means of invasive medical testing and procedures. He won the baronetcy, but the case was subsequently hidden so as to not enable future cases in British transgender law to draw upon it as a precedent. Zoe Playdon wrote that the hiding of this case is due in part to discrimination against transgender men and ultimately had the effect of delaying transgender acceptance in the United Kingdom for the next 50 years.

Lou Sullivan's campaign for the right to sex reassignment surgery for gay transgender people

Lou Sullivan was an American gay transgender man who was repeatedly denied access to sex reassignment surgery on the basis of his identity as a gay trans man from 1975 onward. This was due to the expectation at the time that transgender people should conform to heteronormative relationships in their acquired gender. Sullivan's experiences prompted him to start a campaign against the inclusion of homosexuality as a contraindication for sex reassignment surgery.

in 1976 Sullivan was rejected from a gender dysphoria program at Stanford University due to his identity as a gay trans man. This experience led to a brief re-closeting lasting three years. However, in 1979 he was able to access hormone replacement therapy and then sex reassignment surgery from sympathetic doctors at the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality, who accepted his sexuality.

In 1986 Sullivan was diagnosed with HIV and told he only had 10 months to live. It is believed that Sullivan was the first known case of a transgender man contracting AIDS. Sullivan was a keen diarist and wrote with regards to his rejection from the Stanford program, saying "I took a certain pleasure in informing the gender clinic that even though their program told me I could not live as a Gay man, it looks like I'm going to die like one." He passed away from AIDS-related complications in 1991.

Sullivan's identity as a gay transgender man had been used against him to prevent him from being able to access sex reassignment surgery and the initial rejection had a profoundly negative affect on his mental health, which is generally poor amongst transgender men who have experienced discrimination on the basis of their trans manhood. Sullivan notes that it looked like he was going to die like a gay man, after contracting AIDS, in spite of Stanford University's rejection of his homosexuality (and therefore also his manhood).

Assault and murder of Brandon Teena

Brandon Teena was a trans man who was raped and murdered in December 1993 in Humboldt, Nebraska. His death, alongside two of his friends, Phillip DeVine and Lisa Lambert, is thought to be a hate crime motivated by his status as a transgender man. His murderers, Marvin Nissen and John Lotter forced Teena to remove his trousers at a Christmas party to prove to Teena's partner that he had a vulva. Nissen and Lotter then forced Teena into a car and drove to a meat packing plant in Richardson County, where they beat and raped him. They then took him to Nissen's home and forced him to shower. Teena escaped from the bathroom window and sought refuge at Tisdel's house. Tisdel convinced Teena to file a report to the police despite Teena's fear of reprisals, as Nissen and Lotter had threatened they would "silence him permanently" if he did.

At the police station a rape kit was assembled for Teena, but he did not receive the kit and it was subsequently lost. Later, Sheriff Charles B. Laux, focused in his interview on Teena's status as a transgender man, and Teena refused to answer some questions, finding them questions 'rude and unnecessary'. Nissen and Lotter learned of Teena's police report and began to search for him. Before they found him however, they were taken in for questioning. However, Sheriff Laux refused to arrest them, reportedly because Teena had presented himself as a man when previously arrested, but now presented himself as a woman to access a rape kit due to his ability to get pregnant.

Many reproductive healthcare settings require the affected person to be perceived as female, or healthcare will not be dispensed. For example: access to the emergency contraceptive pill is restricted to people who appear as cisgender women in many UK pharmacies and sexual health clinics. Cisgender men cannot buy or otherwise obtain the pill to give the person who will take it, as the duty of care of pharmacists means that they must see the individual who is going to take the pill in person and assess their suitability for it. Due to transphobia and cissexism, transgender men who pass as cisgender men may be denied pregnancy terminating reproductive healthcare on the basis that pregnancy in men is still largely unheard of. As a result of these kinds of barriers to reproductive health, Teena presented himself as a woman to the police station in order to avoid any delays in assistance. Sheriff Laux is reported to have said "What kind of a person was she? The first few times we arrested her she was putting herself off as a guy." in defence of his refusal to arrest Nissen and Lotter.

On 31 December 1993 Nissen and Lotter broke into the home of Lisa Lambert, where Teena was hiding. They subsequently killed every adult in the house, including Teena, Lambert and Phillip DeVine.

Teena is buried in Lincoln Memorial Cemetery, in Lincoln, Nebraska. His headstone misgenders him as a "daughter, sister, friend."

Media Coverage

The media coverage of Teena's death is somewhat controversial. Several scholars have pointed out the inaccuracies of subsequent film adaptations of the events leading up to Teena's murder in 1993. Televised coverage also drew criticism, after Saturday Night Live cast member Norm MacDonald remarked "Excuse me if this sounds harsh, but in my mind they all deserved to die" during the program's 400th episode broadcast on the 24th February 1996. This was received negatively by many trans and lesbian communities, who viewed the comments as inflammatory towards the transmasculine community.

See also

* Masculism
* Misandry
* Men's movement
* Transmisogyny
* Violence against men

References

Further reading

*
*
*
*

{{Authority control

Discrimination against LGBTQ people
transgender men
Misandry
Transphobia
Anti-LGBTQ sentiment