Transgender men and transmasculine people face prejudices that affect their everyday lives. This discrimination especially affects those who are not often perceived as cisgender men. Generally, there is less research into trans men's experiences than those of cisgender LGB people or trans women, which makes difficult to find data on the discrimination they face. Experiences of trans men in low- and middle-income countries are also understudied compared to those of trans men in high-income countries.
Transgender men experience discrimination in a variety of settings. In the public sphere, this includes employment, housing, and medical discrimination. Trans men are especially vulnerable when attempting to access reproductive healthcare. Trans boys often experience bullying and harassment in the school setting. In the private sphere, trans men experience high rates of intimate partner violence, rape, violent crime, and physical assault. Trans men who have not gotten hysterectomies are also uniquely vulnerable to reproductive coercion, especially in the context of domestic violence and corrective rape.
Discrimination against transgender men and transmasculine individuals is sometimes referred to as anti-transmasculinity, transandrophobia, or transmisandry.
Terminology The discrimination experienced by transgender men has been described using various words, but none have seen widespread use. Terms typically used include anti-transmasculinity and transandrophobia. The rare term transmisandry is also used, though much less frequently than the term for prejudice against trans women, transmisogyny.
Julia Serano, who coined transmisogyny in 2007, commented in 2021 that "misogyny may intersect with transphobia in different ways" for transgender men as opposed to transgender women, which "doesn't necessarily make [the term] transmisogyny 'wrong'; it may simply mean that we need additional language."
History and context Transgender men historically did not enjoy much visibility due to lack of awareness that female-to-male (FTM) transition existed. Historian Susan Stryker notes that though Reed Erickson, a wealthy trans man, funded much of the inchoate, "often-confusing maze" of medical providers in the United States treating trans people, they tended not to be focused on the needs of trans men. In 1968, Mario Martino founded Labyrinth, the first counselling organisation exclusively concerned with the care of trans men, to help other trans men navigate the process of medical and social transition through these providers.
Erasure The relative invisibility of transgender men and transmasculine people in society is sometimes ascribed to erasure. Jamison Green, an American transgender man and activist, recalled in his memoir that ahead of presentations given by him, audiences were told a transsexual would be speaking. When Green walked into the room, they were visibly disappointed, assuming that the transsexual person had not showed up. Green also writes of panels that were convened to discuss the needs of transgender men that were instead spent by explaining to the audience what transgender men were.
In some legal cases involving trans men, including the 1965 primogeniture case involving Ewan Forbes, judgements have been sealed or otherwise not been properly recorded or published, preventing subsequent legal cases from drawing upon the precedents set in these cases. In her 2021 book about Ewan Forbes' case, Zoe Playdon writes that due to the strict secrecy and subsequent erasure of the case, transgender acceptance in the United Kingdom was delayed for the next 50 years.
Harassment and violence Transmasculine people face social abuse, including bullying and harassment.Brian A. Rood, Julia A. Puckett, David W. Pantalone, and Judith B. Bradford.LGBT Health.Sep 2015.270-275.http://doi.org/10.1089/lgbt.2013.0048
Misgendering Transgender men's experience of misgendering—being referred to or categorised with a gender they do not identify with—may vary from receiving verbal insults to experiencing physical assault. Increased rates of misgendering are positively associated with psychological distress among transgender people, including gender dysphoria and anxiety. A 2009 study of transgender men in the San Francisco Bay Area interviewed nineteen trans men on their experiences post-transition. The study reported that nearly all interviewees "claimed that their fear of violence or harassment stemmed from the worry that other men would react violently if they judged the interviewees' masculine practices as effeminate or not appropriately masculine". Even when others generally read them as male, trans men interviewed reported a need to defend their masculinity or carefully avoid conflict to prevent violence from male peers after transition.
Sexual violence Transgender men and transmasculine people are at a high risk for sexual assault, sexual violence and rape. The 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey found that 51% of trans men reported being sexually assaulted at least once in their lives.
In 2019 (conducted in 2018), Counting Ourselves, an anonymous health survey of transgender individuals in New Zealand reported that since the age of thirteen, 50% of surveyed trans men have experienced attempted rape, and 33% were made to have sex against their will.countingourselves.nz/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Counting-Ourselves_Report-Dec-19-Online.pdf 40% have been forced, or have experienced an attempt to be forced, to have sexual intercourse when they did not want to.countingourselves.nz/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Counting-Ourselves_2022-Findings_DIGITAL_v10.pdf
A survey conducted by the National Center for Transgender Equality showed 51% of surveyed trans men had been sexually assaulted at some point in their life, compared to the 47% of all trans and gender diverse participants. Another U.S. study showed 43% of transgender men (compared to 24% of transgender women) had experienced past year physical violence, with an even greater difference of 42% and 14% when only counting sexual violence.
Despite transgender men and transmasculine people's high rates of sexual assault victimization, many rape and sexual assault crisis centres are not open to men, cis or trans, leading to transmasculine people being put at risk of not having any resources after a sexually motivated crime. In 2023, the ARC Readiness Assessment of providers in New Zealand found that only 29% of those surveyed knew of safe sexual assault recovery or family violence services to refer trans men to, whereas 37% knew safe sources for trans women and 44% knew safe sources for non-binary people. The ARC Readiness report also stated that this knowledge of safe services was "not based on training or knowledge about safety of services for transgender or intersex people."
Homicide Transgender men may be murdered in hate crimes. One notable case is that of Brandon Teena, an American transgender man who was raped and murdered in December 1993 in Humboldt, Nebraska. His death, alongside two of his friends, Phillip DeVine and Lisa Lambert, is thought to be a hate crime motivated by his status as a transgender man. His murderers, Marvin Nissen and John Lotter, forced Teena to remove his trousers at a Christmas party to prove to Teena's partner that he had a vulva. Nissen and Lotter then forced Teena into a car and drove to a meat packing plant in Richardson County, where they beat and raped him. They then took him to Nissen's home and forced him to shower. Teena escaped from the bathroom window and sought refuge at Tisdel's house. Tisdel convinced Teena to file a report to the police despite Teena's fear of reprisals, as Nissen and Lotter had threatened they would "silence him permanently" if he did.
A rape kit was administered to Teena after he sought care at a local hospital, but it was subsequently lost. Later, Sheriff Charles B. Laux, focused in his interview on Teena's status as a transgender man, and Teena refused to answer some questions, finding them "rude and unnecessary". Nissen and Lotter learned of Teena's police report and began to search for him. Before they found him however, they were taken in for questioning. However, Sheriff Laux refused to arrest them, stating, "What kind of a person was she? The first few times we arrested her, she was putting herself off as a guy." in defence of his refusal to arrest Nissen and Lotter. On 31 December 1993, Nissen and Lotter broke into the home of Lisa Lambert, where Teena was hiding. They subsequently killed every adult in the house, including Teena, Lambert and Phillip DeVine.
The media coverage of Teena's death is somewhat controversial. Some scholars have pointed out the inaccuracies of subsequent film adaptations of the events leading up to Teena's murder in 1993. Televised coverage also drew criticism, after Saturday Night Live cast member Norm MacDonald remarked "Now, this might strike some viewers as harsh, but I believe everyone involved in this story should die." during the program's 400th episode broadcast on 24 February 1996. This was received negatively by many in the trans community and the lesbian community, who viewed the comments as inflammatory towards transmasculine people.
Abuse in prisons and detention centers Like other LGBTQ people, transgender men face violence in prisons and detention centers. In the United States, transgender men are imprisoned at disproportionate rates compared to the average, with 10% spending time in prison during their lives. Like transgender women prisoners, transgender men experience sexual violence and solitary confinement at high rates. Incarcerated trans men report sexual assault under the guise of strip searching. One man told reporters that he had been forced to bend over and expose his genitalia in front of a crowd of women prisoners during a strip search. Mulltiple transgender men report being forced to grow out their hair, shave their beards, and wear women's underwear as a way to humiliate them. Many were also denied access to gender-affirming medical treatment while incarcerated.
Some instances of abuse in detention are particularly notable. Between 2023 and 2025, three transmasculine people (Mario Garcia-Valenzuela, Kenia Campos-Flores, and Monica Renteria-Gonzales) and one anonymous queer cisgender woman (identified only as Jane Doe) were subject to abuses including forced labor, sexual assault, denial of medical care, and solitary confinement while detained at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, Louisiana. A complaint filed with the United States Department of Homeland Security alleges that former assistant warden Manuel Reyes approached the detainees separately to recruit them for an "unsanctioned, late-night forced labor scheme that targeted transgender and gender non-conforming detained people." In this work program, the detainees claim to have been forced to move heavy cabinets and cinder blocks and use industrial-strength cleaning chemicals without protective equipment. When this work resulted in injuries, Reyes taunted them, saying "Aren't you a man? Can't you do manly work?" Detainees were paid less than $5USD a day for this work. They were repeatedly sexually assaulted, stalked, and harassed. In retaliation for speaking out, they were denied medical care and medication, and placed in solitary confinement.
Healthcare