Let's take two situations, and then extrapolate backwards. Obviously passing vs not isn't this simple, but let's take the extreme situation: completely-passing trans woman vs a completely passing trans man.
Let's say, that in each of these cases, these passing trans people use bathrooms of their genders (trans man in men's, trans woman in woman's). Now let's say they're subsequently "revealed" to be trans.
Who do you think is going to have worse treatment here? Do you think the trans man is going to be thrown out of the men's? Do you think the trans man is going to be called a monster, and a pervert, and shunned?
No. At worse, he's not going to be taken seriously. Which kinda sucks. But whatever.
But the trans woman will face all of that. And, as we're seeing in the US right now, she may risk criminal charges. And that is precisely because of fear over the "big scary masculine" person in women's bathrooms. Cis butches will experience this too.
People know trans men exist. At this point of trans discourse, this isn't a matter of people "forgetting trans men" or "erasure". Trans people as a whole, men, women, and all others, have rocketed forward in visibility recently, for better and worse. Trans men are known. Yes, even to transphobes.
There are barriers and toxicity around trans men entering mens spaces. I'm not denying that, nor am I denying that trans men experience transphobia.
What I am saying is that y'all need to check yourself when perpetuating fears that target any woman perceived as "masculine", because you're not facing those issues and you can't generalize these issues to all trans people. Again, the primary parallel is between trans women and cis butches, and a lot of transmisogynistic rhetoric now is recycled lesbophobic propaganda.
If your perspective is that bathroom bills are about enforcing AGAB as opposed to policing femininity, my genuine read on you is that you've never had to read the text if these laws and/or news articles about how they're enforced, because it doesn't affect you.
My toxic side of this (which I welcome counterarguments to) is that I'm becoming slightly numb to "erasure" being a primary example of transphobia towards transmascs that doesn't exist in transfemmes. Most instances of transmasc erasure I've seen pointed out tend to fall into one of two categories. The first is this situation: an issue where people know that transmascs exist, but they simply don't care to direct hate at them. The second is a situation where all trans voices are being erased, and even if transfemmes are talked about more, it's only as a scare tactic, and actual transfemme voices are also being suppressed.
This isn't like. A steadfast belief of mine, but it's something I feel creeping in, and I genuinely would like to be corrected if someone thinks I'm on the wrong course.
Again, transmascs, you have a LOT of things uniquely difficult and I will be the first to acknowledge that. This is one I've been struggling to see lately, however.
