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Transphobia (by analogy with homophobia) can entail any of an irrational fear, hatred of, discrimination against, or disapproval and refusal to accept transsexual and transgender people.
Transphobia can have consequences as severe as homophobia for the targeted person; also, many transpeople experience homophobia as well, from people who erroneously associate gender identity disorder as a form of homosexuality (see Homosexuality and Transgender).
Like other forms of behaviour such as homophobia, the discriminatory or intolerant behaviour can be direct and can take on the form of harassment, assault, or murder, or can be indirect, including refusing to take steps to ensure that transgendered people are treated in the same way a non-transgendered person would.
However, direct forms of transphobia can manifest itself in ways that are not related to violence - for example, there is the case of Tyra Hunter where she was involved in an automobile accident, and rescue workers who were dispatched to the accident, on discovering her birth sex, backed away and stopped the administering of treatment.
Transwomen are sometimes denied entry to women's spaces, and their reasons and policies for doing so are often felt as being transphobic, most notably the example of the Michigan Women's Music Festival.
Transgender people depend largely on the medical profession to receive not only hormone replacement therapy and sex reassignment surgery, but also other vital care. Often it can be difficult for gender patients to receive proper health care and treatment, because medical gatekeepers who are transphobic (or who misunderstand the nature of gender identity disorder) will refuse to administer necessary treatment; in at least one case that included the refusal to treat a transman for ovarian cancer, of which he subsequently died.
Although the word transphobia is widely used, the phenomenon can be thought of, in some instances, as a paranoia more than a phobia.
Two well-noted victims of transphobia were Brandon Teena and Gwen Araujo.
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