Transphobia

Transphobia can be expressed through misgendering, invasive questions about a person’s body or transition, denial of someone’s identity, harassment, and exclusion. It also operates in less visible ways through policies, practices, and institutional systems that enforce the gender binary—such as discouraging people from transitioning, limited access to gender-affirming facilities, forms that exclude diverse gender identities, or barriers to updating names and pronouns in official records. 

Transphobia can appear through unsafe classroom environments, faculty or peers refusing to use correct names or pronouns, lack of gender-inclusive washrooms and housing, and inadequate access to gender-affirming healthcare and supports. Trans students are also underrepresented in leadership and decision-making spaces, and often face barriers that affect their mental health, safety, and ability to fully participate in campus life. Building trans-inclusive campuses benefits everyone by creating learning environments where all students can learn and participate freely—without fear of being excluded or erased because of who they are. 

Comments about someone’s body, name, or “real” identity are common microaggressions for trans students. Repeated over time, they erode safety and create barriers within housing, classrooms, and services.

Macroaggressions are overt, obvious, or institutionalised forms of discrimination. These can be individual actions, like slurs, harassment, exclusion, or targeting someone because of their identity. They can also be systemic patterns, such as inaccessible buildings, biased policies, or a lack of support for marginalised students.  

Where microaggressions are often subtle and unintentional, macroaggressions are more direct, and their impact is immediate, harmful, and serious.