Transphobia consists of negative attitudes, feelings, or actions towards transgender people or transness in general. Transphobia can include fear, aversion, hatred, violence or anger towards people who do not conform to social gender roles. Transphobia is a type of prejudice and discrimination, similar to racism, sexism, or ableism, and it is closely associated with homophobia. People of color who are transgender experience discrimination above and beyond that which can be explained as a simple combination of transphobia and racism.
Matt Walsh is an American right-wing political commentator and podcast host. He hosts the podcast The Matt Walsh Show, and regularly appears on the American conservative website The Daily Wire. Walsh has authored four books and starred in The Daily Wire documentary films What Is a Woman? and Am I Racist?
Deep Green Resistance (DGR) is a radical environmental movement that perceives the existence of industrial civilization itself as the greatest threat to the natural environment, and calls for its dismantlement and a return to a pre-agricultural level of technology. Although DGR operates as an aboveground group, it calls on others to use underground and violent tactics such as attacks on infrastructure or assassination. A repeated claim in DGR literature is that acts of sabotage could cause a cascading effect and lead to the end of civilization. DGR and far-right ecofascists use similar accelerationist and anti-majoritarian tactics, seeking systemic collapse.
Feminist views on transgender topics vary widely.
The Swedish Women's Lobby is a Swedish feminist organization that strives to achieve and improve women’s rights and freedoms.
TERF is an acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist. First recorded in 2008, the term TERF was originally used to distinguish transgender-inclusive feminists from a group of radical feminists who reject the position that trans women are women, reject the inclusion of trans women in women's spaces, and oppose transgender rights legislation. Trans-inclusive feminists assert that these ideas and positions are transphobic and discriminatory towards transgender people. The use of the term TERF has since broadened to include reference to people with trans-exclusionary views who are not necessarily involved with radical feminism. In the 2020s, the term "trans-exclusionary radical feminism" is used synonymously with or overlaps with "gender-critical feminism".
Transgender rights in the United Kingdom have varied significantly over time.
Magdalen Berns was a British YouTuber. Berns, a lesbian radical feminist, became known for her series of YouTube vlogs in the late 2010s concerning topics such as women's rights and gender identity. She co-founded the non-profit organisation For Women Scotland, which campaigns against possible changes to the Gender Recognition Act 2004, among other things. Some transgender rights activists characterised her vlogs as being transphobic and Berns as a TERF.
The anti-gender movement is a global phenomenon that opposes concepts often referred to as "gender ideology" or "gender theory". These loosely-defined terms are commonly used by the movement to critique a range of issues related to gender equality, LGBT rights, and gender studies. Originating in the late 20th century, the movement has drawn support from right-wing populist groups, conservative religious organizations, and social conservatives and the far-right worldwide. It views advances in gender inclusion and LGBT rights as threats to traditional family structures, religious values, and established social norms.
Woman's Place UK (WPUK) was a British political advocacy group founded in 2017. The group was opposed to gender self-identification for transgender people in the UK, and has advocated restricting access to women-only spaces on the basis of "sex, not gender".
The Women's Declaration International (WDI), formerly the Women's Human Rights Campaign (WHRC), is an international advocacy organisation founded in the United Kingdom. WDI has published a Declaration on Women's Sex-Based Rights, and has developed model legislation to restrict transgender rights that has been used in state legislatures in the United States.
Gender-critical feminism, also known as trans-exclusionary radical feminism or TERFism, is an ideology or movement that opposes what it refers to as "gender ideology". Gender-critical feminists reject transgender identities and consider the concepts of gender identity and gender self-identification to be inherently oppressive constructs tied to gender roles. They believe that sex is biological, immutable, and binary, and that people should only be identified based on their biological sex rather than their gender identity.
What Is a Woman? is a 2022 American documentary film about gender and transgender issues, directed by Justin Folk and presented by conservative political commentator Matt Walsh. The film was released by conservative website The Daily Wire. The title, "What is a woman?", has become a widespread rhetorical question in anti-trans discourse. In the film, Walsh asks various people "What is a woman?" with the goal of showing them that their definition of womanhood is circular. Walsh said he made the film in opposition to "gender ideology". It is described in many sources as anti-trans or transphobic. The film was released to subscribers of The Daily Wire on June 1, 2022, coinciding with the start of Pride Month.
Transphobia in the United States has changed over time. Understanding and acceptance of transgender people have both decreased and increased during the last few decades depending on the details of the issues which have been facing the public. Various governmental bodies in the United States have enacted anti-transgender legislation. Social issues in the United States also reveal a level of transphobia. Because of transphobia, transgender people in the U.S. face increased levels of violence and intimidation. Cisgender people can also be affected by transphobia.
Kellie-Jay Nyishie Keen-Minshull, also known as Posie Parker, is a British anti-transgender and gender-critical activist. She is the leader of the political party Party of Women. She describes herself as a woman's rights activist, but says that she is "not a feminist". She is known for popularising the anti-trans slogan "adult human female".
FiLiA is a British gender-critical feminist charity founded in 2015 that describes itself as part of the women's liberation movement. FiLiA organizes a conference, held first in 2008 as Feminism in London, in different cities, which it now describes as the "largest annual grassroots feminist conference in Europe". FiLiA is gender-critical, and states that it supports "sex-based rights" and opposes what they refer to as "gender ideology." It has lobbied against gender recognition reform and considers gender self-identification a threat to "women's protected rights." Critics describe it as anti-transgender and transphobic. FiLiA is critical of the sex industry and as a result, it considers pornography harmful. It has campaigned on behalf of women internationally, and has held campaigns in countries such as Iran, Cyprus, and Kenya. It has been described as one of "the most important 'gender critical' groups" alongside Women's Declaration International. FiLiA has faced protests and attempted cancellations, notably in 2023 when the venue Platform attempted to cancel the conference due to alleged transphobia. In 2024 FiLiA launched the book The Women Who Wouldn't Wheesht, on what the authors describe as a campaign for "sex-based rights" by J.K. Rowling and others.
Transphobia in Norway has evolved over time. Since the late 20th century and into the early 21st century, acceptance of transgender people has greatly increased. Norway has made significant progress in transgender rights, with strong support from political parties ranging from the most left-wing to the Conservative Party. In the 2020s, Norway has seen an increase in the anti-gender movement, from both gender critical radical feminist groups and the far right. Recently, hate crimes against transgender people have increased, and several anti-trans groups campaign against transgender people. The 2024 Extremism Commission's report cited sources that pointed to "the connections between radical feminism and Christian conservatism" in relation to anti-trans activism, noting that "these are groups and individuals who use violent and dehumanizing language and are also threatening and extremely active."
The early 21st century has seen a rise in and increasing organisation around anti-transgender sentiments in the United Kingdom. The most common strain is that of gender-critical feminism, although these views are not confined to any specific political alignment. This development has caused some to refer to the United Kingdom by the nickname "TERF Island" and has led to substantial rollbacks in the rights of transgender people, including in the areas of gender self-identification, access to gender-affirming care, education, sports, the justice system, and access to social services.
On November 18, 2024, Nancy Mace introduced an anti-transgender bathroom bill in the US House of Representatives to ban newly elected member Sarah McBride from using bathrooms other than those of her sex assigned at birth. Two days later, US House speaker Mike Johnson declared that Mace's ban was being ushered in.
"Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government" is an executive order issued by Donald Trump on January 20, 2025, the day of his second inauguration as president of the United States.
