transgender

Etymology

From trans- + gender. The term transgenderism was used by John F. Oliven in 1965 and the terms transgender, transgenderal, transgendered, transgenderist, and similar terms arose in the decades after this; the term transgender had acquired its current senses by the 1990s (by which time it had also largely displaced the earlier term transsexual; see usage notes).

adj

1. Having a gender (identity) which is different from one's assigned sex, or pertaining to a person who does (a trans man, trans woman, or someone non-binary, e.g. agender, bigender, or third-gender).
   We have taken to the local radio station, to talk about transgender problems. Carol Fremont is working in this area, and by General Conference we should have some interesting insights and understandings to share regarding transgender persons. 1979 January/December 1978, J.J., “The Fellowship Family”, in In Unity, The Gay Christian, Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, page 23, column 2
   After having lived much of our lives according to a socially accepted prescription, many of us come to realize that we have not been true to ourselves. As full-time or part-time transgenderists, we feel the need to improve the quality of life for ourselves by creating an environment around us which is compatible with the kind of life style we wish to achieve.[…] While looking for a change of apartments, I walked into the rental office of a large complex, looked at the models and then proceeded to tell the manager about myself ... my work, my hobbies, and, yes, even my transgender lifestyle ... but all in a very matter-of-fact and self-confident manner. The result was total acceptance. In fact, they invited me to return as Nancy to the Halloween party they were holding that same evening ... and I did! 1979, Nancy, “Feather Your Own Nest”, in Transvestia, volume XVII, number 98, Chevalier Publications, →LCCN, archived from the original on 2023-06-19, pages 36–37
   transgender—an individual who lives as a person of a gender different from the one society defines for that person’s sex (e.g., male "transvestites" who wear women’s clothing, hair styles and other body accoutrements, use "feminine" speech and body language, and identify with the gender category woman). Also sometimes referred to as "cross-gendered people" (Blackwood 1984). 1989, Sue-Ellen Jacobs, Christine Roberts, “Sex, Sexuality, Gender, and Gender Variance”, in Sandra Morgen, editor, Gender and Anthropology: Critical Reviews for Research and Teaching, Washington, D.C.: American Anthropological Association, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 455
   One head of a small gay charity visibly flinched when I mentioned my boyfriend and has been cold towards me ever since. I've even caught someone staring down my top to see if I'm transgender. 3 Mar 2010, Jessica Green, “I'm sorry, I'm not lesbian”, in The Guardian
   But the inclusion of the word “trannie” — a pejorative, in some circles — in the title, and the film’s parodic representation of transgender women, has offended many people. 7 Apr 2010, Natasha Lennard, “City Room”, in New York Times
   A Chinese court on Thursday found that a transgender man was unjustly fired from his job, a first-of-its-kind ruling that activists called a step forward in the fight for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights.[…] Mr. C, a transgender Chinese man who says he was fired for wearing men's clothes, stands outside a court in Guiyang, China, July 27, 2017, holding the court’s ruling that his dismissal violated his employment rights. July 27, 2017, Emily Rauhala, “Transgender Chinese man wins first-of-its-kind labor discrimination case”, in The Washington Post, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2017-11-11, WorldViews
   When Kim Petras teamed up with English singer Sam Smith on "Unholy," a song about male infidelity and betrayal of the ideal of marriage, she may not have expected to make history. But now, the German pop singer Petras is the first transgender woman to win a coveted Grammy in the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance category. At the Grammy Awards on February 5, 2023, Petras thanked "transgender legends before me who kicked these doors open for me so that I could be here tonight."[…] Back in October 2022, the duo Petras and Smith had already become the first publicly transgender and nonbinary solo artists, respectively, to have reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 charts with their single. February 6, 2023, Stefan Dege, Louisa Schaefer, “Kim Petras: How the trans artist made history”, in Deutsche Welle, archived from the original on 2023-03-30
   1. (narrowly; see usage notes) Having a gender (identity) which is opposite from the sex one was assigned at birth: being assigned male but having a female gender, or vice versa (i.e., not including non-binary).
      Gender identity is whether or not a person perceives him/herself to be a man or woman (see ‘man’ and ‘woman’). The problem arises when a male perceives himself to be a woman, and vise versa. Notice I said man or woman, and not male or female. The difference is important. Male and female are biological terms, while man and woman as they are used here are modes of being, ways to be, which are based on psychology and sociology rather than biology. (see ‘gender dysphoria’) Sexual identity is a ‘transsexual’ issue and may involve sexual re-assignment surgery, but may not involve cross-dressing. Gender identity is a ‘transgender’ issue and does not involve surgery, but almost always involves cross-dressing. 1988, Merissa Sherrill Lynn, “Definitions of Terms Commonly Used in the Transvestite-Transsexual Community”, in The TV-TS Tapestry, number 51, International Foundation for Gender Education, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 22
      What is happening in the world at the time, restrictions or freedom in sex-role choices, or in access to clothing fabrics and styles — none of these have much influence on the transgender person’s desire to be the opposite sex. 1990, Louis Sullivan, “Epilogue”, in From Female to Male: The Life of Jack Bee Garland, Boston: Alyson Publications, →OCLC, page 174
      She emphasises that being transgender really has nothing to do with your anatomy. There are terms for individuals who have undergone sex reassignment surgery – “transexed”, for example – whereas to be transgender is simply to have the conviction that you are the opposite gender to the body you have been assigned. August 29 2015, Ben Machell, “The transgender kids”, in The Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-03-22
      Biology has a strong effect on whether people identify as female, male, or transgender. A transgender person was born as one biological sex but feels that her true gender identity is that of the other sex. One theory of why gender and biological sex differ for those who are transgender has to do with timing of hormonal events during pregnancy. 2018, Michael S. Gazzaniga, “Human Development”, in Psychological Science, 6th edition, W. W. Norton, →OCLC, page 367
      Transgender people, who identify as the opposite gender to the one they were born with, should no longer be considered mentally ill, according to a new UN categorisation. The World Health Organization issued a new catalogue Monday covering 55,000 diseases, injuries and causes of death, in which it discreetly recategorised transgenderism.[…] Several countries have already taken steps to reclassify transgenderism and take it off the list of mental disorders, including France and Denmark. Say said she thought the text, which is the result of years of discussion among experts, would easily win approval, despite widespread lack of acceptance of transgender people in many parts of the world. 19 June 2018, “Transgenderism no longer a mental illness: WHO”, in France 24, archived from the original on 2018-06-19
      Transgender people report discomfort with their birth sex and a strong identification with the opposite sex. The current study was designed to shed further light on the question of whether the brains of transgender people resemble their birth sex or their gender identity. For this purpose, we analyzed a sample of 24 cisgender men, 24 cisgender women, and 24 transgender women before gender-affirming hormone therapy. We employed a recently developed multivariate classifier that yields a continuous probabilistic (rather than a binary) estimate for brains to be male or female. The brains of transgender women ranged between cisgender men and cisgender women (albeit still closer to cisgender men), and the differences to both cisgender men and to cisgender women were significant (p = 0.016 and p < 0.001, respectively). These findings add support to the notion that the underlying brain anatomy in transgender people is shifted away from their biological sex towards their gender identity. 2022 March, Florian Kurth, Christian Gaser, Francisco J. Sánchez, Eileen Luders, “Brain Sex in Transgender Women Is Shifted towards Gender Identity”, in Journal of Clinical Medicine, volume 11, number 6, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-07-25, Abstract
2. (loosely, inexact) Transgressing or not identifying with culturally conventional gender roles and categories of male or female.
   I think the new punk rockers are going to be more androgynous, more bisexual, more transgender, more ethnically diverse and less willing to take shit than ... 1992, Maximum rocknroll, number 109
   Their first step was to reclaim the power to name themselves: transgender is now the term most widely used, and it encompasses everyone from cross-dressers (those who dress in clothes of the opposite sex) to transsexuals (those who surgically "correct" their genitals to match their "real" gender). 20 Feb 1998, John Cloud, “Trans across America”, in Time
3. (of a space) Intended primarily for transgender people.
   In Boston, no AIDS prevention messages are posted at the primary drag queen and transgender bar. 2001, Walter O. Bockting, Sheila Kirk, Transgender and HIV: Risks, Prevention, and Care, page 46
   The Las Vegas Lounge is the city's only transgender bar. 2011, Connie Emerson, Top 10 Las Vegas
   Trance A thriving transgender bar on the main Itaewon drag, […] 2013, Norbert Paxton, The Rough Guide to Korea
   Belgium-based Filipino dancer Joshua Serafin’s performance later this week at the Taipei Arts Festival explores transgender beauty pageants from the Philippines and the politics, culture and hidden colonial past behind the industry, the artist said Tuesday. 08/30/2022, William Yen, “Filipino dancer decodes beauty pageants and their colonial roots”, in Focus Taiwan, archived from the original on 2022-09-03, Culture
4. (of a space) Available for use by transgender people, rather than only non-transgender people.
   2002 October 2, Boston Globe, Group wants transgender bathrooms for UMASS, quoted in 2010, Sheila L. Cavanagh, Queering Bathrooms →ISBN
   Why the sudden outcry for transgender bathrooms? 2010, Harvey Molotch, Laura Noren, Toilet: Public Restrooms and the Politics of Sharing, page 199
   In contrast, in a democratic conversation or dialogue, the speaker would begin by identifying the larger public issues that connect to the availability of transgender bathrooms: equality, civil rights, […] 2013, William Keith, Christian O. Lundberg, Public Speaking: Choice and Responsibility
5. Crossgender.
   Of course some unhappiness is simply a transgender phenomenon. Realists learn to expect a day in which perhaps 40 to 80 per cent is made up of repetition of what was done the day before and the day before that. Any set of normal days with over 20 per cent of excitement in them would be extraordinary. Consequently, the mere fact of being human, whether male or female, requires endurance, tolerance, a sense of moderate wholesome expectations. 1967 March, John P. Leary, “Woman in American Society Today”, in Thought: A Review of Culture and Idea, volume XLII, number 164, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 116
   Unless we have identified "male" and "female" aspects of thought, however, the claim of gender bias is an empty one. I do not doubt that disciplines are also shaped by transgender interests, values, and concepts, which women, whether or not they engage in maternal practices, may fully share. 1982, Sara Ruddick, “Maternal Thinking”, in Rethinking the Family: Some Feminist Questions, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 91
   Unlike capitalism, under socialist transformation there is a normative basis for maintaining the principle of collective (transgender) responsibility in the activity of reproduction and childrearing, as in everything else. 1984, Rosalind Pollack Petchesky, “Conclusion: The Feminist Movement and the Conditions of Reproductive Freedom”, in Abortion and Woman's Choice: The State, Sexuality, and Reproductive Freedom, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 391
   Not only do men share in the responsibility for children - but also, toxic chemicals that affect women’s reproductive health do not bypass the male reproductive system. In Bhopal, for example, impotence and loss of libido were reported among a large proportion of exposed males. Reproductive effects are a transgender issue that men as well as women should address. 1988, Tara Jones, “Against Toxic Capital”, in Corporate Killing: Bhopals Will Happen, Free Association Books, →OCLC, page 273

noun

1. (countable, now often offensive) A transgender person.
   In a patriarchal society in which machismo rules, MTF transgenders represent a challenge to traditional masculinity due to their renouncing of the male position of social power. 2005, Walter Bockting, Eric Avery, Transgender Health and HIV Prevention, page 116
   Individual transgenders could compete in any division; however, transgender teams could not play against biological women's teams. 2006, Jayne Caudwell, Sport, Sexualities and Queer/theory, page 122
   This public presentation of the mutilation of the penis is not obviously very different from the forms of disassembly of the penis engaged in by male body modifiers – particularly nullos and transgenders – on the Body Modification Ezine website. 2014, Sheila Jeffreys, Gender Hurts, page 70
   Nat spent years being victimised as a male to female transgender but was too scared to report it. 2015, Helen Davies, “Transgender woman forced to move house after death threats and knife in her front door”, in The Liverpool Echo
2. (uncountable, rare) Transgenderism; the state of being transgender. (Compare transsex.)
   Before we can answer this question, we need to consider two other phenomena – transsex and transgender – which also expose the muddle within conventional categories of sex. 2007, Alison Stone, An Introduction to Feminist Philosophy, page 41

verb

1. (uncommon) To change the gender of; (used loosely) to change the sex of. (Compare transsex.)
   […] and one that is still dominated by male nominees, women nominees might be seen as either contributing to the regendering, or the transgendering, of the Cabinet. […] This chapter examines women secretaries-designate in terms of their contributions to regendering or transgendering a cabinet office, to a gender desegregation or integration of the cabinet. 2005, Sue Tolleson-Rinehart, Jyl J. Josephson, Gender and American Politics, pages 15 and 205
   For quotations using this term, see Citations:transgender.