What Does It Mean to Be Transgender?

Transgender or trans is an umbrella term used to describe those who challenge social gender norms, including genderqueer people, gender-nonconforming people, transsexuals, crossdressers and so on. People must self-identify as transgender in order for the term to be appropriately used to describe them. Transgender people feel that the gender to which they were born, or assigned at birth, does not fit them.

Transgender people include people born female who identify as male (female-to-male) and people born male who identify as female (male-to-female). Transgender people also include people who identify as gender queer, gender neutral, gender non-conforming, and/or gender-free — people who may not identify as either male or female or identify somewhere along the gender identity spectrum. Transsexual people are those who choose to medically transition to the gender that is right for them. Crossdressers are people who like to wear the clothes of another gender but who don’t identify as another gender. You may find yourself identifying with one or more of these definitions pretty strongly or with none of them at all. No one has to rush to self-label, now or ever, and some people choose different identities that express more clearly how they see themselves. Continue reading