My Understanding of Transgender
Considering the President just removed specific protections for Transgender kids, I wanted to write something and share some information about some important terms and ideas about the Transgender community. To my Trans friends, if I’m missing something or mess anything up, please comment or message me and we’ll get it sorted.
Biological sex is not the same thing as gender. ‘Man’ is not a perfect synonym for ‘male,’ nor ‘woman’ for ‘female.’ While the words can be interchanged in normal use, when discussing sex and gender and these issues, a more specific use is important. It’s like giving directions, in the country ‘about three miles’ works, but in the city you give much more specific directions like ‘go 2 blocks’. You don’t usually use a person’s last name unless there are two people with the same first name in the room. Generalities work in the general, but when you get specific, exact terms help.
Using the correct terms is also a way to show respect. Most trans people i’ve talked or listened to understand that not everyone knows or uses the right terms and even I mess them up often. But when corrected, responding with respect and humility and an “I’m sorry, what words should I use?” will go an incredibly long way. Imagine if someone kept calling you the wrong name even after you kindly corrected them? It very disrespectful and invalidating. The main question is, ‘Are you more interested in respecting people and honoring them as human beings, or being the one that gets to define and determine the value of others?’
Transgender is an umbrella terms that includes people whose gender doesn’t match their sex ( about 0.3–0.6% of all people (estimates are often low because of social pressures). It includes transsexual people (a female that identifies as a man, etc), genderqueer (also an umbrella term, but usually used by people who don’t identify as single gender or people who reject the man/woman gender binary). It also can include intersex people whose biological sex at birth is ambiguous or otherwise does not fit the binary male/female (chromosomal abnormalities, etc (about 1.7% of all people — notice intersex is bigger than Transgender, not all intersex people are or identify as transgender.)) For some context, the Jewish people are about 0.2% of world population. And those terms are just the basics.
Cis means ‘on the same side’ as opposed to trans which means ‘across from’ If your gender matches your sex as determined at birth, you are cis (your gender is ‘on the same side’ as your biological sex. The vast majority of people are cis. The term doesn’t typically include sexual orientation either.
Transgenderism is not automatically a psychological disorder. It can fit into gender identity disorder or gender dysphoria, but only if the person experiences distress. It is not up to other people to determine an individual’s distress or to cause that distress by forcing our perceptions about them onto them. I believe the vast majority of distress the trans community feels is not because of their internal gender identity but because of the often violent pressure to conform to other’s expectations.
Like all language, the meanings and connotation of these words aren’t solid, especially in public use. However, Cisgender as a term has been around since mid 1990, and is widely used in scientific literature.
A very good thing to remember about these terms is that in their proper usage they are merely descriptive. They talk about what is, not what should be, and do not attribute value. Being trans or cis or straight or gay or queer or lesbian or man or woman or genderqueer or whatever does not automatically make you a good or bad person. Your actions and choices do that.
Our understanding of the world is growing and that means our language must grow to accommodate.
I also feel the need to say that while it is a tiny group of people, they are some of the most silenced and vulnerable in society and are disproportionately victims of violence and sexual assault. They also commit suicide at much higher rates. And to be clear, while they are a very vulnerable group they are not weak or pathetic or bad. They are an amazingly diverse, strong, and incredible group of people that mostly just want to live their lives in peace and safety and enjoy the rights all people are guaranteed, just like you do. .
Here is a good write up from an authoritative source, the American Psychological Association.
