LogFAQs > #966492313

Krazy_Kirby posted...

well the literal meaning of phobia is fear

As a suffix, it's just as frequently used to refer to any aversions. Hydrophobic residues, for example, aren't afraid of water (oil has no nervous system, after all), they just avoid it. That applies socially as well.

Though that's not to say transphobia isn't frequently rooted in fear. A major component of it is homophobic men being afraid that they'll end up being attracted to somebody that used to be a man, which is why MtF trans people face so much more overt hatred than FtM's. There are also people that object on the basis of a poor understanding of science and health, which is less fear-based (although one could potentially argue that it stems from a poorly substantiated fear of going against established science, which could qualify as a phobia), but you certainly cannot pretend fear isn't a factor when so much anti-trans rhetoric consists of explicit fearmongering ("men" sneaking into women's bathrooms and other gendered spaces to rape them, trans women pushing cis women out of sports, etc.).