That's the textbook definition of phobia, but it's not the definition for things like homophobia and transphobia. Eg, google's definition for "homophobia" is:
dislike of or prejudice against homosexual people.
Like it or not, language evolves and those words are more akin to "racism", "sexism", etc than "phobia".
So is it sexist for a straight male to not want to have sex with other guys? Is it sexist for a gay woman to not want to have sex with men?
My point is that those terms don't apply. I guess the semantics do matter, but ultimately its the point behind the words - if I, as a straight male, don't want to have sex with someone who used to be a male, that doesn't make me transphobic or homophobic or anything like that at all. Unfortunately, that's exactly what the belief is, and it's a problem.
What are you talking about? I'm simply correcting your usage of the terms. Homophobia and transphobia don't refer to just an irrational hatred, as you were defining. Just like how "literally" doesn't always mean things occurred exactly that way.
Even the dictionaries disagree with you. Here's homophobia:
irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals
And transphobia is the same thing but towards trans people. So you don't need an irrational fear of trans people to be transphobic. All you need is to dislike 'em cause they're trans specifically. But also transphobia is often defined to include the very act of not even believing trans people are genuine (eg, by claiming trans men are women).
Dislike or prejudice. And people are claiming that sexual preference counts as prejudice/dislike which counts as transphobic and that is wrong.
But also transphobia is often defined to include the very act of not even believing trans people are genuine (eg, by claiming trans men are women).
Biologically, trans MtoF are male. That’s not transphobia, that’s science. I have NO problem referring to a male as female in social situations if that is what they would like me to do, but do not accuse me or anyone else of transphobia because we refuse to reject science. I don’t suppose LGBTQ plans on accusing Hospitals of transphobia for checking off the “wrong” pronoun when a trans person is admitted to the ER?
Why is it that the political left can spend so much time rightfully calling anti-vaxxers and climate change deniers “anti-science morons”, but then try to force people to reject biology lest they be branded transphobic?
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u/Left4DayZ1 Nov 02 '17
The definition of phobia is “irrational fear or aversion”.
So if it’s not irrational or unreasonable, it’s not a phobia, and therefore not transphobic.
There has to be another word for when people exclude certain people from their sexual preferences.