Trans 101: Basic Information About Gender Diversity

You are not alone!

Have you ever worn or wanted to wear clothing associated with another gender?  Have you felt that you do not identify with the sex assigned to you at birth?  You are actually in good company.  About 5% of the population is transgender.  Transgender refers to people who feel that the gender assigned to them at birth (based on their genitals) is a false or incomplete description of who they are. Transgender is an umbrella term which encompasses many different groups.  We are taught in our society that all people are heterosexual, masculine males or heterosexual, feminine females.  In actuality, there is a great breadth of diversity to our sexes, genders and desires.  What follows is a list of definitions commonly found in the Gender Community:

Binary Gender System: The division of the world into polarized opposites of male/female, masculine/feminine or gay/straight

Cross-Dresser: An individual, usually heterosexual, who enjoys wearing clothing associated with a gender different from the one assigned to them at birth on a part-time basis.

Drag King/Drag Queen/Gender illusionist: An individual who engages in gender-based performance art.

Gender Attribution: Communication of gender to others. How people "read" gender through physical cues

Gender Continuum: The acknowledgement and celebration of multiple forms of sex and gender expression

Gender Fluidity: The ability to mix and match gender, to destabilize gender

Gender Identity: Sense of self along the gender continuum. Examples include man, woman, trans, bi-gender etc.

Gender: A social and cultural construct dealing with what society considers "masculine" and "feminine"

Genderqueer: A gender-variant person whose gender identity is neither male nor female, is between or beyond genders, or is some combination of genders. Often a politically-inflected identity which seeks to destabilize the gender binary system.

Intersex: Someone whose sex a physician has difficulty categorizing as “male” or “female.” A person whose combination of chromosomes, gonads, hormones, internal sex organs, and/or genitalia differs from one of the two expected sex groupings. differs from the two expected sex categorization.

Sex: Genitals, gonads, hormones, secondary sex characteristics and other physical markers of the body

Sexual Orientation: Gendered direction of emotional and erotic response and attraction.  Examples: gay, bisexual, heterosexual, asexual, pansexual etc.

Transgenderist: A person who lives full-time in their chosen gender roles but does not want or need sex reassignment surgery (SRS).

Transsexual: A person who totally dis-identifies with their birth sex and who seeks hormone therapy and SRS to live completely in their preferred gender role

For a more complete listing of trans terms, please visit:

http://www.trans-academics.org/trans_and_sexuality_termi

The Trans Movement seeks to secure civil rights for transpeople and promote gender awareness and freedom of gender expression for all people.