Transsexual vs Transgender

I see a lot of people recently taking back the term “transsexual” and using it to self describe. Heck even recently the man, the myth, the legend; Buck Angel himself made a post on Twitter decreeing his desire to be described as transsexual rather than transgender.

I’m not against it, and often refer to myself as transsexual too. But all the same I think its worth a little critical analysis and investigation. From what I know… I think this is a symptom of a lot of unrest in the trans community. I’ve had my own run ins with it. TERFs have noticed it and pounced on it as an opportunity to divide and conquer and… well… I don’t think its going to go away until we actually talk about it.

As always though, first a little history. Where did these terms come from? What do they mean? What are the benefits to either or? Please praise Jesus for Wiktionary.

According to Thomas E Bevan’s book “The Psychobiology of Transsexualism and Transgenderism: A New View Based on Scientific Evidence” both terms came into common usage in the 1960s. “Transsexual” coined in 1949, came from Magnus Hirschfield’s “transsexualismus” coined in 1923. And “transgender” was coined in 1965 by John Olivern and “popularized by various transgender people who pioneered the concept and practice of transgenderism”.