'It's a fraught experience just going out in public': The everyday toll of transphobia

Transgender people represent a small minority in our population, and while their visibility has increased, they've been the focus of charged legislative debates and online hate.

Professor Nicole Asquith, a criminologist from the University of Tasmania, told SBS Examines that now transgender people have greater visibility in public spaces, they're also more likely to experience hate crimes. Image credit: Getty Images/SBS

Dr Clara Tuck Meng Soo, a GP based in Canberra, said many transgender people from migrant backgrounds face intolerance from their families, who may believe transgender identity is a Western invention.

“If you talk to most transgender people themselves, they would actually say that being transgender is actually a part of their innate identity,” she said.

“Growing up in Australia has actually given them the opportunity to actually explore and affirm their identity ... it's got nothing to do with being Westernised or actually rejecting their culture of origin.”

It's a belief that Kim, a transgender man from Malaysia, is familiar with.

“A lot of the narratives that I've been told when I was coming out is that being transgender is such a Western thing,” he told SBS Examines.

“But throughout time we have existed, throughout all parts of Asian culture. Whether in India, whether we have the hijra in Indonesia, we have our brother boys and sister girls, all the way down to our Faʻafāfine, as well as in Māori culture in New Zealand."

We exist everywhere. It's just not called transgender, but we're here.

This episode of Understanding Hate looks at the impacts of transphobia in Australia.