Bullying is very negative and continues to be a persuasive problem in our society. Many people have been the victim of various forms of bullying. Bullying has an impact on the health and happiness of the person. The most vulnerable ones to these harassments are those who do not conform to the binary gender norms. Transphobic bullying is bullying based on bias or adverse attitudes, views or beliefs about Trans individuals. It affects not only young people who are Trans or those questioning their gender identity but also affects students who are not Trans but do not conform to gender stereotypes. Not all transgender (Trans) young people experience bullying and not all transphobic bullying is directed at Trans young people.

Transphobic bullying includes making comments about your gender or sexuality that deliberately make you uncomfortable, calling you names and testing you, hitting, punching, or hurting you, making sexual comments or asking you sexual questions, ignoring you or excluding you, making about you online etc. All these have a huge impact on their lives and bearing the weight of this bullying, many of them have also decided to end their up their tiring lives. In addition to this, many of these incidents also affected individuals psychologically. Schools are the places where most of the bullying takes place and on that fear, many students who do not conform to binary gender norms are forced to stop their studies rendering them jobless. Apart from this, the parents are not ready to accept them and therefore such individuals are sent out of their houses. When they are out in society, people humiliate them and are not ready to give them jobs. Thus, they find it difficult to make ends meet.

How can we help them to overcome bullying?

The mental trauma which these people are facing is huge. Therefore, the clinical practices need to incorporate the investigation of bullying experiences into patient care and acknowledge the role of bullying in problems with anxiety and self-esteem to best serve to help transgender and gender-diverse youth. Schools, where most of the bullying occurs, have a major role in supporting them, and future studies should investigate the efficacy of educational programmes that can teach acceptance and non-toleration of bullying. What can we do to stop bullying?

Bullying does not stop on its own. Something has to be done to stop it from happening. School-based LGBT+ equality campaigns such as “Rainbow Week” are effective for creating awareness and promoting equality in schools and also all schools must adopt an accessible, comprehensive, and inclusive anti-bullying policy. A large portion of the people still believe that some people are Trans because of their faults, we have to educate such people and teach them to accept people the way they are and we have to create a fair and beautiful world for them after all they are also humans like us. The government should build and enforce strict laws to stop all forms of bullying.

Bullying has to stop. It is not just an LGBT youth issue. It is an all-encompassing youth issue. Quoting Caitlyn Jenner “Trans people deserve something vital. They deserve your respect. And from that respect comes a more compassionate community, a more empathetic society, and a better world for all of us.”


I am a student studying in Jyoti Nivas College, Bangalore. I am majoring in psychology, journalism and communicative English. I like painting, reading books, dancing, and photography.