Editing Transphobia (section)

==Origins==
[[Transfeminist]] theorist and author [[Julia Serano]] argues that the root of transphobia is "oppositional [[sexism]]", i.e. the belief that male and female are "rigid, mutually exclusive categories, each possessing a unique and nonoverlapping set of attributes, aptitudes, abilities, and desires". She contrasts this against the belief that males and [[masculinity]] are superior to females and [[femininity]] along with people's insecurities about gender and gender norms, which she calls "traditional sexism".<ref name="serano">Julia Serano. ''Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity'', Seal Press, 2007. {{ISBN|978-1-58005-154-5|1-58005-154-5}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=September 2021}}

Other transgender rights authors argue that a significant part of the oppositional sexist origin of transphobia and violence towards transsexual people is linked to psychological claims of difference between male sexuality and female sexuality in the brain's protection mechanisms from committing sex crimes. These authors argue that the paradigm of acceptable sexual behavior that assumes men's [[sexual arousal]] is category-specific and women's sex drive is lower and more inhibited causes allegations that transsexual people have neither safety system in the brain and are therefore sex criminals. They argue that studies that claim to show such sex differences have flaws, such as the possibility that more men are deterred from participating in sexual arousal studies than women due to fear of being alleged to be inappropriately sexually aroused.<ref>Protection of Sexual Minorities Since Stonewall: Progress and Stalemate in Developed and Developing Countries: Phil C. W. Chan Routledge, 2010</ref><ref>Sexuality and Equality Law; Suzanne B. Goldberg 2017</ref>{{clarify|this whole paragraph is hard to follow. "safety system in the brain" needs elaboration!|date=December 2017}}

Others have argued that hostility towards transgender identity is in part due to the challenge it poses to the idea that gender is based on observable physical and behavioral characteristics determined at birth.<ref name="Rad2019">{{cite journal |last1=Rad |first1=Mostafa Salari |last2=Shackleford |first2=Crystal |last3=Lee |first3=Kelli Ann |last4=Jassin |first4=Kate |last5=Ginges |first5=Jeremy |title=Folk theories of gender and anti-transgender attitudes: Gender differences and policy preferences |journal=PLOS ONE |date=30 December 2019 |volume=14 |issue=12 |pages=e0226967 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0226967 |pmid=31887173 |pmc=6936834 |bibcode=2019PLoSO..1426967R |issn=1932-6203|doi-access=free }}</ref> Rad and colleagues surveyed a sample of 1323 American adults, asking them to identify the gender of transgender people who [[Sex reassignment therapy|medically transitioned]], finding that the type of transition procedure mattered but its direction did not. Specifically, biological changes resulted in the target being more identified with their self-identified gender than their birth-assigned gender, but there were no significant differences between male-to-female and female-to-male transitions. Moreover, compared to male test subjects, female test subjects were more likely to identify the targets as their self-identified gender. This gender difference was larger in younger, more liberal, and less religious non-Midwestern respondents. The authors further showed that gender category beliefs (ratings of the transgender person's post-transition gender identity) were strongly associated with attitudes and feelings of warmth towards transgender people. However, gender category beliefs performed better in predicting bathroom policy preferences compared to feelings in unseen data, indicating that beliefs about what gender is and how it is determined are significantly linked to transphobia and support for anti-transgender policies. The authors argue that this pattern is consistent with theories that transphobia is rooted in a hierarchical social classification system where low-status groups (e.g., females) view the hierarchy in less [[Essentialism|essentialist]] ways than high-status groups (e.g., males).<ref name="Rad2019" />

Transgender author and critic Jody Norton believes that transphobia is an extension of homophobia and [[misogyny]]. She argues that transgender people, like gays and lesbians, are hated and feared for challenging and undermining [[Gender role|gender norms]] and the [[gender binary]], and the "male-to-female transgender incites transphobia through her implicit challenge to the binary division of gender upon which male cultural and political [[hegemony]] depends".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Norton|first=Jody|title="Brain Says You're a Girl, But I Think You're a Sissy Boy": Cultural Origins of Transphobia|journal=International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies|year=1997|volume=2|pages=139–164|doi=10.1023/A:1026320611878|issue=2|s2cid=141097763}}</ref>

Drawing on theory of [[radicalization]], Craig McLean argues that discourse on transgender-related issues in the UK has been radicalized in response to the activities of what he terms the "anti-transgender movement," claiming that the movement pushes "a radical agenda to deny the basic rights of trans people (...) under the cover of 'free speech.'"<ref>{{cite journal |author-last1=McLean |author-first1=Craig |title=The Growth of the Anti-Transgender Movement in the United Kingdom. The Silent Radicalization of the British Electorate |journal=International Journal of Sociology |date=2021 |volume=51 |issue=6 |pages=473–482 |doi=10.1080/00207659.2021.1939946 |s2cid=237874806 |url=http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/46370/9/The%20Growth%20of%20the%20Anti%20Transgender%20Movement%20in%20the%20United%20Kingdom%20The%20Silent%20Radicalization%20of%20the%20British%20Electorate.pdf }}</ref>

Some authors have linked transphobia's origins to colonialism, arguing that [[gendercide]] against [[third gender]] people carried out during the [[European colonization of the Americas]] reflect the historical roots of transphobia.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Goldie |first1=Peter D. |last2=Chatterjee |first2=Isha |date=6 October 2021 |title=Examining the elevated risk of COVID-19 in transgender communities with an intersectional lens |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-021-00255-x |journal=SN Social Sciences |language=en |volume=1 |issue=10 |pages=249 |doi=10.1007/s43545-021-00255-x |issn=2662-9283 |pmc=8492083 |pmid=34693307 |quote=As such, it is necessary to acknowledge that transphobia is rooted in white supremacy and colonization, as trans people (and trans PoC in particular) threaten the cisheteropatriarchy established by White settlers.}}</ref>