trans-a compromise

[Inna]

as I have this particular take on what the term trans means to me, frees me from getting caught in a predicament of inability to venture beyond the boundaries of preconceived terminology.

I truly believe that transness is a compromise of clinical/medical/societal terminology which still to this day misses the gravity of whats at stake!
I don't believe anyone is in fact born TRANS, in fact we are born boy, girl, or gender fluid, yet being trans is simply a period of time from start of journey to congruency until such is reached.

I am sure that in the (hope) near future, people with gender dysphoria will be looked upon as natal of the inner gender, resulting in being addressed and living their lives as true self, whether female or male or simply non gender specific. And the term TRANS will no longer be the limitation or boundary!

What do you think?

[RachelReaper]

I sincerely hope you are on the mark, but I don’t think it will happen in the near future. Right now, we must hope that society will politely accept and protect trans people as the gender they declare themselves to be. But to be looked upon as a natal female or male, well, that might take a very long time and it might only happen after there is clear and generally accepted medical evidence to support gender incongruence in females AND males.

[ReineD]

I truly believe that transness is a compromise of clinical/medical/societal terminology ...

A compromise, or the process of change? The term "transness" is all too vague, given the variety of people who experience a desire to either present or live as the sex opposite that which was assigned at birth.

I think that "transsexual" is a perfect word to describe people who are in the physical process of transitioning. "Trans" means "across, beyond, through, on the other side of" and "sex" is the physical/sexual characteristics of people who are either XX or XY. Although the chromosomes do not change, transitioners do in fact change (go across, move to the other side of) their physical characteristics in order to align them with their internal gender identity (their sense of self), through a combination of HRT/other surgeries and procedures/SRS.

After transition, there is no more "trans", a person is now their target sex.

Some people still may use the term TS (or transman, transwoman) to explain their origin and the fact that they did transition, but all this is in the past. If there is no desire to explain the past, then I do not see the necessity for a transitioned TS to continue to refer to him/herself as such. To your point though, if a person after transition is still read as their birth-sex and the onlooker then believes that they are the corresponding gender, this is indeed unfortunate. Yes, people in general do need to internalize the idea that for some people, internal gender identity does not match birth-sex and their gender-identity defines who they are, not their birth-body.

The term "transgender" always confused me. It indicates that a person is changing their internal concept of self, their gender identity, which I didn't think was possible. Unless a person is gender-nonconforming, or bigender, or gender fluid, or any one of several other terms that are used to describe this, a person either identifies as one or the other gender no matter what their body looks like. This condition is present in childhood and it does not change even if it takes a while to come to the full realization that one's gender identity does not match one's physical sex.

I do think the word "transgender", in a purely literal sense, defines a person who solidly identifies as one gender/sex (i.e. male), but who has occasional forays portraying the physical characteristics and the manner of presentation of the other gender/sex (i.e. female). So in my view, "transgender" more accurately defines a crossdresser than a transsexual.

[Angela Campbell]

I get quite annoyed at the use of "transgender" especially if used to describe a transsexual. Trans "gender" would mean changing from one gender to another.....I was always female in gender, just had the wrong body sex.

Gender is in the head...sex is in your pants.

[RachelReaper]

The word transgender has nothing to do with “changing”, it has everything to do with “being”. I trust that you and I were born transgender. A Transgender person is generally defined as a person that does not have congruence between physical gender (sex) and brain gender. I guess one can argue that after HRT and surgeries, one’s physical sex and brain gender are congruent, and therefore the person is no longer transgender (or transsexual, or any other label), although they were born transgender.


I don’t get hung up on labels because I believe that all transgender people—crossdresser, transsexual, bigender, genderqueer, etc.---are born with some degree with gender incongruence, and the feeling may fluctuate over time. In other words, the whole group of labelled people was born transgender. No subgroup can make a claim to having a greater understanding of the transgender condition than any other subgroup, although some may have tried harder to stake a claim.

[kimdl93]

Philosophically, I agree with the notion that labels might someday be superseded by the recognition of a person's gender identity. The terms can be useful too, if they are applied correctly. I too get annoyed but those who conflate transgender with transsexual. As someone with a somewhat muddled gender identity, I suppose transgendered is appropriate if less precisely descriptive.

[Angela Campbell]

The word transgender has nothing to do with “changing”, it has everything to do with “being”. .

Uhhhh the prefix "trans" doesn't mean being. It pretty much means changing.

Either way I am not transgender.

[Jennifer-GWN]

Interesting that the Google dictionary refer to sex and gender as synonyms. I'm with you Angela. ... I have sex and I am female. Mew are debating antiquated terms to some degree which have not kept pace with the increasingly complex and somewhat polarizing state of society that has to attach a label to everything.

Sorry for the rant.

Cheers... Jennifer

[Eringirl]

my gender is female. When my sex = my gender, I am not trans, my gender is female and my sex will be female. No longer "transing" , I am there.
But that is just me, really late at night, just finishing work, so may not be coherent....

Erin

[Leah Lynn]

"Trans-" can also refer to crossing. Transatlantic means crossing the Atlantic Ocean, not changing it.

Leah

[noeleena]

Hi,

And when your gender is nether male or female gender means total nothing ,

about the body, when its a mix of both or nether male or female ,

hormones are a mix of both and on it goes ,

Have you seen a butterfly with one wing totaly coloured completely different from the other .like two different butterflys joined to gether . except for us its all mixed up ,or 1/2 is male and other is female so dont think he knows ooops she oh dear what is it.....

And can we change from male to female or other way , some may and have others no,our own hormones can change us ;that means ...NO... externaly meds or drugs in the body

and our bodys some of us seems strange yet is right for us just some of our organs are different . or non functioning or none .

so the ? is are we normal myself and others ,

...noeleena...

[Traci Elizabeth]

I can not add to what has already been stated but I do what all of you to know that I felt all of your responses were well thought out and articulated perfectly. And I totally agree with those of you who stated that "Transsexual" involves a journey and once that journey/transition is complete you are no longer trans anything - period. We are then the the gender we were meant to be. A congruent whole person.

[Promethea]

Uhhhh the prefix "trans" doesn't mean being. It pretty much means changing.

Either way I am not transgender.

I see it quite different.

I have changed the gender I present as, so I am transgendered. I am going to change some secondary sexual characteristics of my body, not my sex. My sex is defined by genes and as such I can´t change it. My gender doesn´t match what is expected by my sex, so I guess that makes me transsexual. I have no target sex because that can´t be changed. I had a target presentational gender and I´ve hit it.

But then, words are just words.

I don´t try to hide that I´m trans. I see no reason to ever hide that fact (although whether I advertise it or not is another story).

I really wish that days comes when we realize there doesn´t have to be a correlation between sex and gender, and even gender does change during life as does sexual orientation.

[arbon]

Being transgender, transsexual, trans whatever, gets old.

[Aprilrain]

Amen, sister!