Many people cannot imagine a world in which there are no clear boundaries between being a man and being a woman. For them, everyone must have a clear gender and behave as such. Unfortunately, some of these people react fearful when someone shakes their clear worldview - for example, by introducing themselves with “Hi, I am Stefan”, even though they seem to have a female body. This is understandable to a certain point - we all have to sort countless information that pours down on us every day into drawers and categories, otherwise we would be completely disoriented. In some cases, however, the fear of the unknown turns into anger and aggression. These aggressions can, for example, turn against people with a different skin color, people with a physical disability, or against transsexual people. This is called 'transphobia' (phobia roughly means 'pathological fear'). Many people who identify themselves as transsexual suffer and experience rejection, insults or even violence.
However, it is important to remember that there are also many people who think very differently and can also support you. Fear of transphobia should not tempt you to suppress or hide your gender. In this case, it can help you as a first step to contact a counselling center such as the FeM-Mädchenhaus - also here in the protected area.