Discrimination against transgender men and transmasculine individuals is sometimes referred to as anti-transmasculinity,[1]transandrophobia,[2] or transmisandry.[3][4]
The discrimination experienced by transgender men has been described using various words, but none have seen widespread use. Terms used include anti-transmasculinity, transandromisia and transandrophobia.[1] The rare term transmisandry is also used, though much less frequently than the equivalent term for prejudice against trans women, transmisogyny.[5]
Transmisandry seems to be the first word historically used to speak about transmasculine-specific oppression. There is no known first user, but it appears to have gained popularity sometime in the 21st century, after the coining of transmisogyny.
Transandrophobia was coined around 2018 by tumblr user and Mestizo transgender trans rights activist Saint—who writes under the pseudonym Saint Dionysus—as a replacement to the previously more prevalent transmisandry.
In its most simple definition. Transandrophobia is the way that the fear of men impacts the material reality and mental/physical health of transgender men.
Transandrophobia has been referred to by the coiner as "a specific term for a specific type of oppression that falls under the anti-transmasculinity umbrella."[7]
Anti-transmasculinity was coined as an alternative to the dogwhistle that "transmisandry" usually implies, (...) A theory of Anti-transmasculinity does not validate the idea of misandry. Cis men aren't oppressed for their manhood or masculinity, even when colonized or poor.
—Afrofuturist Abolitionists of the Americas, aka @AbolitionF_ists, 2022[8]
Julia Serano, who coined transmisogyny in 2007,[4] commented in 2021 that "misogyny may intersect with transphobia in different ways" for transgender men as opposed to transgender women, which "doesn't necessarily make transmisogyny 'wrong'; it may simply mean that we need additional language."[9]
Criticisms
The term transmisandry has been condemned by certain transfeminist and trans-inclusive radical feminist communities, for its similarity to the intersectional transfeminine transmisogyny,[citation needed] as well as 'giving legitimity' to the concept of cismisandry—commonly referred to as just 'misandry'—often utilized by the popularly criticized[10]Men's Rights Activists.
Dr. Devon Price, transgender author of—amongst others—Unmasking Autism and Unlearning Shame, has commented on this on his Substack blog:
"(…) there is no systemic "misandry"; men are not oppressed for being men. It is pointless and even damaging to try and create an "intersection" between a genuine form of oppression (such as transphobia) and one that does not exist on any systematic scale ("misandry")."
Transgender men historically did not enjoy much visibility due to lack of awareness that female-to-male transition existed. Historian Susan Stryker notes that though Reed Erickson, a wealthy trans man, funded much of the inchoate, "often-confusing maze" of medical providers in the United States treating trans people, they tended not to be focused on the needs of trans men in practice. In 1968, Mario Martino founded Labyrinth, the first counselling organization exclusively concerned with the care of trans men, to help other trans men navigate the process of medical and social transition through these providers.[12]
Sexual violence
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.[13] 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. In 2023, the ARC Readiness Assessment of providers in New Zealand found that only 29% of those surveyed knew of safe sexual assault recovery/family violence services to refer trans men to, whereas 37% knew safe sources for trans women and 44% knew safe sources for non-binary people. The ARC Readiness report also stated that this knowledge of safe services was "not based on training or knowledge about safety of services for transgender or intersex people."[14]
In 2019 (conducted 2018), Counting Ourselves, an anonymous Aotearoan health survey designed for the transgender and non-binary of all ages, reported that 16% of transgender male participants have been verbally harassed in public bathrooms. 29% of trans men and boys have been told or asked if they were using the wrong bathroom, which includes 42% of younger trans men. 49% have avoided using public bathrooms. Since the age of thirteen, 50% of surveyed trans men have experienced attempted rape, and 33% were made to have sex against their wills.[15]
In 2025 (conducted 2022), the same survey found that 56% of transgender men and boys have been told or asked if they were using the wrong bathroom. 53% were found to have avoided going to the bathroom because of fear of having problems stemming from their trans identities. 40% have been forced, or have experienced an attempt into being forced, to have sexual intercourse when they did not want to.[16]
Misgendering
Transgender men's experience of misgendering—being referred to or categorised with a gender they do not identify with—may vary from receiving verbal insults to experiencing physical assault. Increased rates of misgendering are positively associated with psychological distress among transgender people, including gender dysphoria and anxiety.[17] A 2009 study of transgender men in the San Francisco 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".[18] Even when others generally read them as male, trans men interviewed reported a need to defend their masculinity or carefully avoid conflict to prevent violence from male peers after transition.[18]
Healed double mastectomy (top surgery) scars on a transgender man. Many transgender men undergo gender affirming surgery in order to alleviate gender dysphoria.
Malgendering
Malgendering is defined as the practice of gendering one correctly with malicious intent, or only when it is to be used against them.
Transgender men are said to be frequently malgendered, in that their social status is maliciously compared to the social status and privilege of cisgender men- with which comes denying their experience of misogyny, or writing it off as 'misdirected/misplaced'.[19] To quote the article "On Hating Men (And Becoming One Anyway)";
"For me, claiming that my childhood experiences of misogyny do not influence my current relationship to gendered power relations is as invalidating as saying that me having had a girlhood means I'll never be a man. To believe that would render my past inexplicable, and leave me with no context for understanding the man I am now, and the ways in which I differ from the cis men I organize with, fuck, and love—as well as the ones who have harmed me."
Trans men and transmasculine people of colour face a unique discrimination as a result of their race, gender and transgender status intersecting,[20] which—in instances of anti-black racism—is sometimes referred to as transandronoir, mirroring the transfeminine transmisogynoir. An interviewee for the project To Survive on this Shore[21][22] discusses racism against black 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 [who] have been effaced in a white-centric and classed framing of cisgenderism and cissexism."[3]
In feminist and lesbian circles
Bradbury-Rance and scholars such as Jack Halberstam connect transphobic hostility towards trans men in feminist and lesbian circles with their repudiation of butch lesbians (lesbians who exhibit a masculine gender identity or presentation).[23] Some trans men were formerly involved in lesbian communities;[24] in the 1970s, growing suspicion towards butch-femme identity from radical feminist circles contributed to a perception of butch identities as "patriarchal gender" which marginalized those with masculine presentations.[25]
Butch flight
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.[26]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".[27]
Trans-exclusionary radical feminism
According to Mimi Marinucci, gender essentialism and sex essentialism are radical feminist views on gender.[28]:74–75 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.[28]:76
Trans-inclusionary radical feminism
Trans-inclusionary radical feminism is a relatively new radical feminist movement. Trans-inclusionary radical feminism is oftentimes considered to have been adopted by cis and trans women alike in negative response to traditional radical feminism's history of abuse towards trans women, and is likewise contrasted in this manner with trans-exclusionary radical feminism.[19] Similarly to the aforementioned trans-exclusionary radical feminism, the trans-inclusionary radical feminist framework insists women- including trans women- constitute a class exploited by men- including trans men.
This attitude is sometimes viewed as a form of malgendering, or otherwise transphobia, on the basis of it punishing transgender men for the act of transition or for their masculine identities.[19]
People who identify with trans-inclusionary radical feminism may otherwise be known as TIRFs (trans-inclusionary radical feminists), or NERFs (non-exclusionary radical feminists).[29]
Medical marginalization
Transgender men and transmasculine people face discrimination in certain medical contexts. This may include difficulty in accessing cervical smears[30] where transmasculine individuals are subjected to misgendering that cisgender women do not generally experience, due to transgender men having gender identities that are often considered 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.[31]
Trans men and transmasculine people are frequently the subjects of medical marginalization, with 42% of surveyed trans men in the U.S. reporting negative experiences with healthcare providers.[13] 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.[32] Transmasculine people are also at an increased risk for experiencing discrimination in medicine that may impact their access to healthcare.[33] This can include transmasculine people with cervixes not being invited for life-saving cervical screenings[34][35] because their gender is legally listed as male or being denied screenings for ovarian cancer for the same reason.[36]
Transmasculine people with uteruses, who choose to retain them, 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".[38]
Transmasculine people who willingly seek out pregnancy may regardless experience misgendering within the medical industry, and— even if visually passing— are unable to completely go stealth. Some transgender men are forced to pause or reverse their transitions for the course of their pregnancies for the sake of their safeties, and possibly experience gender dysphoria because of this.[39]
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.[40] 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."[40] 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.[41] 47% of HIV-positive trans men in the U.S. between 2009 and 2014[40] and 40% of HIV-positive trans men in the U.S. in 2018[42] were black. Omission from medical research leaves trans men vulnerable to illnesses, STDs,[43] and malpractice.
Fearmongering
Anti-trans protesters, such as trans-exclusionary radical feminists and other transphobes, often speak of loss of fertility as a negative and irreparable factor of female-to-male transition.[29] However, there seems to be no theoretical reason or methodical proof as to how testosterone could permanently affect the uterus or hormonal function. Due to the lack of data on the pregnancies of people who take testosterone, this is empirically not known, though it is likely testosterone does not have much effect on fertility. Transgender people who may have little to no fertility issues often do not use contraception as a result of this misinformation, and get pregnant by chance.[44] Not all persons on testosterone experience anovulation, or infertility, to the same or any degree, even if they do experience amenorrhea. Testosterone does not seem to be a valid form of contraception,[45][46][47] although some studies suggest it temporarily does inhibit fertility within new users.[48]
Such worries are also widespread in matters of gender-affirming surgery. For example, in her book, Irreversible Damage, anti-trans journalist and trans-exclusive radical feminist author Abigail Shrier criticizes sex reassignment surgery, as well as the usage of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, by exaggerating the risks associated with these medical interventions.[49] In reality, gender-affirming surgeries seem to be quite safe and positively received by transgender patients, as well as tending to have little unexpected complications. Puberty blockers are a type of completely reversible gender-affirming care.
Mental health impact of discrimination against transgender men
Transmasculine people face social abuse, including bullying and harassment.[50] 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.[51] 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.[52] Remembering Our Dead, a website which collects reports of transgender people lost to violence, reports on transgender men who have lost their lives to suicide.[53][54]
Notable cases of discrimination against transgender men
Ewan Forbes' primogeniture challenge
Ewan Forbes was a Scottish trans man and doctor, who in 1965 was challenged to his right to inherit his father's baronetcy by his cousin, through the means of invasive medical testing involving Forbes' body. He won the baronetcy after a court case conducted under strict secrecy; the ruling was not properly recorded or published, which prevented British transgender law from drawing upon it as precedent. Zoe Playdon wrote that secrecy around the case was 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.[55]
In December 1965, Forbes' older brother William Forbes-Sempill (19th Lord Sempill and 10th Baronet Craigievar) died,[55]:108 leaving open the question of who would inherit the baronetcy. Baronies may be passed to a daughter or a son and therefore passed without issue to Forbes-Sempill's eldest daughter, Ann.[55]:110 The baronetcy of Craigievar could only be passed to a male relative, and since Forbes was legally male, he would have been next in the line of succession.[55]:110 However, Forbes' cousin John Forbes-Sempill challenged his right to the baronetcy on the grounds that he had been registered as female on his birth certificate and therefore could not be a male heir.[55]:113
At this time, it was only possible to re-register a birth in the United Kingdom in a limited number of circumstances. One of these circumstances permitted a birth certificate to be re-registered if the sex of a child was indeterminate at birth and it was later discovered an error had been made when registering the sex of the child, i.e. the child was born intersex but this was not discovered until a later date. Forbes is generally now understood to be a non-intersex transgender man;[56]:170–171 he had been socially and medically transitioning for many years.[56]:170[55]:22–23 Forbes had his birth re-registered in 1952 and formally changed his name to Ewan.[55]:71 That same year he married Isabella Mitchell at Brux Lodge.[55]:72 He last appeared in public wearing a dress in 1935.[55]:38
His cousin's legal challenge threatened to impact Forbes' life in several ways. A loss for Forbes in court would have meant the dissolution of his marriage (if he had been declared female instead of male his marriage would have been considered same-sex, which was illegal at that time) as well as gravely impacting his medical career and social standing.[55]:107 The case was heard in secrecy at the Court of Session and heard by a single judge (Lord Hunter) with twelve medical experts invited to give evidence.[56]:170 Several of the experts were of the opinion the tests were inconclusive, while some were of the opinion Forbes' condition was closer to that of a female-to-male transsexual. However, Forbes' profession as a doctor enabled him to procure a sample of testicular tissue (of unknown provenance), which he then presented as his own to the court. The judge ruled that based on the case presented by Forbes, that he was intersex as a matter of probability. As a result of this ruling Forbes was able to inherit the baronetcy of Craigievar in December 1968.
Lou Sullivan's campaign for the right to gender-affirming surgery for gay transgender people
Lou Sullivan was an American gay transgender man who was repeatedly denied access to gender-affirming 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.[57] Sullivan's experiences prompted him to start a campaign against the inclusion of homosexuality as a contraindication for gender-affirming surgery.[58]
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 gender-affirming surgery from sympathetic doctors at the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality, who accepted his sexuality.[58]
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."[57] He died from AIDS-related complications in 1991.
Assault and murder of Brandon Teena
Brandon Teena was a trans man who was raped and murdered in December 1993 in Humboldt, Nebraska.[59] 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.[60]
A rape kit was administered to Teena after he sought care at a local hospital, but it was subsequently lost.[61][62] 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 "rude and unnecessary".[60] 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, stating "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.[60]
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.[63]
Media coverage
The media coverage of Teena's death is somewhat controversial. Some scholars have pointed out the inaccuracies of subsequent film adaptations of the events leading up to Teena's murder in 1993.[64] Televised coverage also drew criticism, after Saturday Night Live cast member Norm MacDonald remarked "Now, this might strike some viewers as harsh, but I believe everyone involved in this story should die."[65][66] during the program's 400th episode broadcast on 24 February 1996. This was received negatively by many in the trans community and lesbian community, who viewed the comments as inflammatory towards transmasculine people.[66]
↑Vergopoulo, Stavroula (2024). Gender Representation in Commercials. Frank & Timme GmbH. p.29. ISBN978-3-7329-1073-1. Within this category, the term 'transmisogyny' (used to express dislike of, contempt for, or prejudice against transgender women) is used much more frequently than the rare term 'transmisandry' (used to express dislike of, contempt for, or prejudice against transgender men).
↑Stryker, Susan (2008). Transgender History. Berkeley, Calif: Seal Press. p.105. ISBN978-1-58005-224-5.
12James, S.E.; Herman, J.L.; Rankin, S.; Keisling, M.; Mottet, L.; Anafi, M. (2016). The Report of the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey(PDF) (Report). Washington, DC: National Center for Transgender Equality.
↑Jharna M. Patel, Shelley Dolitsky, Gloria A. Bachman, Alexandre Buckley de Meritens, "Gynecologic cancer screening in the transgender male population and its current challenges", Maturitas, Volume 129, 2019, Pages 40-44, ISSN 0378-5122, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.maturitas.2019.08.009.
↑Ashley E. Stenzel, Kirsten B. Moysich, Cecile A. Ferrando, Kristen D. Starbuck, "Clinical needs for transgender men in the gynecologic oncology setting", Gynecologic Oncology, Volume 159, Issue 3, 2020, Pages 899-905, ISSN 0090-8258, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ygyno.2020.09.038.
↑Hoffkling, A., Obedin-Maliver, J. & Sevelius, J. From erasure to opportunity: a qualitative study of the experiences of transgender men around pregnancy and recommendations for providers. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth 17 (Suppl 2), 332 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-017-1491-5
↑Yoshida A, Kaji T, Imaizumi J, Shirakawa A, Suga K, Nakagawa R, Maeda K, Irahara M, Iwasa T. Transgender man receiving testosterone treatment became pregnant and delivered a girl: A case report. J Obstet Gynaecol Res. 2022 Mar;48(3):866-868. doi: 10.1111/jog.15145. Epub 2022 Jan 6. PMID 34994036.
↑Krempasky, Chance; Harris, Miles; Abern, Lauren; Grimstad, Frances (February 2020). "Contraception across the transmasculine spectrum". American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 222 (2): 134–143. doi:10.1016/j.ajog.2019.07.043. PMID31394072.
↑Taub, Rebecca L.; Ellis, Simon Adriane; Neal-Perry, Genevieve; Magaret, Amalia S.; Prager, Sarah W.; Micks, Elizabeth A. (August 2020). "The effect of testosterone on ovulatory function in transmasculine individuals". American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 223 (2): 229.e1–229.e8. doi:10.1016/j.ajog.2020.01.059. PMID32044312.
↑Shrier, Abigail (30 June 2020). Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters. Regnery Publishing. ISBN978-1-68451-031-3.
12345678910Playdon, Zoe (2021). The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes. Bloomsbury.
123Barnes, Lesley-Anne (2007). "Gender Identity and Scottish Law: The Legal Response to Transsexuality". Edinburgh Law Review. 11 (2): 162–186. doi:10.3366/elr.2007.11.2.162.
↑Muska, Susan; Olafsdottir, Greta (1999). "Crime and Responsibility". Great Plains Quarterly. 19 (2). University of Nebraska Press: 127–132. ISSN0275-7664. JSTOR23533134.
Currah, Paisley (2008). "Expecting Bodies: The Pregnant Man and Transgender Exclusion from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act". WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly. 36 (3): 330–336. doi:10.1353/wsq.0.0101. S2CID85314058. SSRN1326451.
Gazzola, Stephanie Beryl; Morrison, Melanie Ann (2014). "Cultural and Personally Endorsed Stereotypes of Transgender Men and Transgender Women: Notable Correspondence or Disjunction?". International Journal of Transgenderism. 15 (2): 76–99. doi:10.1080/15532739.2014.937041. S2CID144592753.
Leppel, Karen (2016). "The labor force status of transgender men and women". International Journal of Transgenderism. 17 (3–4): 155–164. doi:10.1080/15532739.2016.1236312. S2CID151646166.
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