Before we go further, we must define terminology. Terminology helps us create operational definitions. Definitions help reduce ambiguity. So, without further delay, let us begin -
Gender refers to the roles, behavior, activities and attributes that a particular society considers appropriate for men and women.
Both nature and nurture, to varying degrees, contribute to one's gender.
I distinguish between sex and gender. Sex, to me, implies a biological reproductive role as the producer of the sperm, egg, both, neither, or none of the above. Sex is also the term used for the sexual act, either for pleasure or for reproduction. The sex (biological reproductive role) of a person matters during the act of reproductive sex.
In contrast with sex, the gender of a person is evident and expressed at all times (except in some cases when one's core gender is repressed). Gender of a person exists even when the person is not engaged in the sexual act. In fact, in human society, gender forms a very important aspect of life, with social roles, legal matters, interpersonal privileges, etc.
Gender identity is the gender(s), or lack thereof, a person self-identifies as.
The core gender identity of a person, in my view, is predominantly innate. It cannot be changed after birth. However, the person's gender expression could be influenced by nurture, experiences, limitations, and inclinations.
The gender identity of each individual is supposedly formed prior to birth. At the start of pregnancy, all fetuses have a female brain (not exactly, but close enough for the purpose of this discussion). If the fetus has XY chromosomes, the brain gradually changes its structure from a female brain to a male brain, in most cases. These innate structures in the brain appear to determine an individual's gender identity after birth.
Transgender is a non-medical term used to refer to a person whose gender identity does not conform unambiguously to the gender they were assigned, usually based on their genitals at birth.
A transgender individual is not necessarily homosexual. Most transgender individuals are heterosexual from the perspective of their genetic gender. A transgender individual can be sexually attracted to any gender or to none, the same way as the rest of the human population can.
A transgender person who is genetically female and who identifies as male is often referred to as an female-to-male or FTM transgender person, or as a transman. Likewise, a transgender person who is genetically male and who identifies as female is often referred to as an MTF transgender person, or as a transwoman.
When you refer to a transgender person, it is considered civil to use the pronouns and gender-specific words based on the person's self-identified gender. If in doubt, ask, because a person's self-identified gender may not be easily guessed.
Gender dysphoria is a medial term to explain discontent that transgender individuals feel with the gender assigned to them based on the type of genitals they were born with.
Gender dysphoria is the term applied to the gender-related discontent among individuals with unambiguous genital and chromosome structures. These individuals are healthy, mentally and physically.
Gender dysphoria does not imply infertility or impotence. It is not a mental disorder (although individuals with gender dysphoria may develop other mental disorders due to abuse from society). Gender dysphoria is a natural human condition.
Gender dysphoria is not the term for intersex individuals (ie. people with chromosomal variations XXY, XYY, etc, or genital ambiguity, or androgen insensitivity syndrome). While intersex individuals do not have any choice with their situation, gender dysphoric individuals have a choice between difficult options - live in distress in their assigned gender, or undergo gender transition to live in their self-identified gender, or some combination of both.
While gender dysphoria is often blamed for the distress a transgender individual feels, societal non-acceptance appears to form a significant part of the distress that the transgender individual deals with. If society were more accepting of gender non-conformance and gender variance, individuals with gender dysphoria could more easily live in their self-identified gender and thereby reduce, if not eliminate, their gender distress.
Gender dysphoric individuals are estimated to have the highest suicide rate - about 31% (compared to about 0.003% for the rest of the population) - primarily due to the effects of social ostracism.
Gender Identity Disorder is the professional diagnosis that psychologists and psychiatrists use to describe the condition of individuals who experience significant gender dysphoria.
Not all transgender individuals would be diagnosed with GID.
Transsexual is the medical terminology used to refer to individuals with significant GID.
The term transsexual appears in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The DSM obtained the term from Harry Benjamin's 1966 book "The Transsexual Phenomenon".
Harry Benjamin used the term transsexual to define 3 out of his 6 categories of GID. His categorization of transsexuals (non-surgical, moderate intensity, and high intensity) was based on the intensity of their gender dysphoria and the sexual orientation. It was the first such classification which helped understand the concept of gender dysphoria.
The misplaced assumption of a close relationship between intensity of GID and sexual orientation resulted in the terminology - transsexual. Although it is known today that an individual with severe GID can be sexually attracted to men, or women, or both, or neither, the terminology still continues to be used due to medical usage, common misunderstanding about GID, and unchanged social conventions.
Through common usage, the term transsexual has evolved. Different people have defined this term based on their understanding of transsexualism. Due to the medical nature of the original term, I do not give credence to the non-medical definitions available online.
In addition, I do not use the term transsexual to define myself due to the implicit association with sexuality and sexual orientation. Although I see sexual pleasure as a positive, the incorrect association of transsexualism with sexuality appears to trivialize in the minds of common people the gender dysphoria I have felt in my life. The people who associate my gender dysphoria with sexuality tend to incorrectly view me as a willing subject for sexual objectification and sexual exploitation.
The term transgender has evolved into an umbrella term for all kinds of gender variance, while the term transsexual refers to a subset of the transgender group.
Sexual orientation is a pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions to men, women, both genders, neither gender, or another gender.
A transsexual person may have any sexual orientation (same is true for all transgender and all cisgender people). It is inappropriate to assume the sexual orientation of any person. It is especially inappropriate to assume the sexual orientation of a transsexual person, merely based on their decision to undergo gender transition.
Transsexual individuals undergo gender transition to reduce the distress they feel with their own bodies, not due to their sexual orientation (although in some transsexual individuals gender distress and sexual orientation may coincidentally be addressed through the same gender transition process).
Cisgender is a term used to refer to individuals who are comfortable with living in the gender that they were assigned at birth.
The term cisgender is used to contrast with transgender, just as heterosexual is used to contrast with homosexual. The term heterosexual appears to have helped the gay rights movement by creating a better way to distinguish between homosexuals and the rest of the population. It seemed to reduce the misconception that homosexuals were somehow unnatural or abnormal. The use of the word heterosexual helped by depicting homosexuality as just one type of sexuality, heterosexuality being another type. It remains to be seen how much the word cisgender helps with the transgender rights movement.
Passing, in the context of gender identity, refers to a person's ability to be accepted or regarded as a member of the sex or gender with which they identify, or with which they physically present.
Passing is a very important aspect of the lives of transgender individuals, even more important than Sexual Reassignment Surgery (SRS), because passing as a member of their self-identified gender not only helps ease their gender distress, but also helps them live a fulfilling life without social scorn and violence.
However, passing is a process that involves not only the transgender individual, but also the observer.
Each one of us human beings have this sub-conscious mental reflex of determining the gender of everyone we see. Every day of our lives, when we see another human being, within a split second we conclude that somebody is male or female, without checking their chromosomes, genitals, gender identity, birth certificate, passport, etc. How do we do it? We reach the conclusion about a person's gender via a quick observation of his/her most prominent secondary sex characteristics (eg. visible hair patterns on the face and scalp, skin texture, bone structures, height, body fat distribution, voice pitch, voice resonance, etc) and their presentation (name, mannerisms, language constructs, expressions, clothing, etc).
The best a transgender individual can do to pass is to adopt as many secondary sex characteristics and presentation styles as possible that are traditionally associated with members of their self-identified gender. Correction of primary sex characteristics (eg. genitals) through SRS often becomes less urgent to a transgender individual when he/she cannot pass well in their self-identified gender.
Sex reassignment surgery is a term used for the set of surgical procedures by which the physical appearance and function of a person's existing primary sexual characteristics are altered to resemble that of the other sex.
Current medical technology cannot create functioning reproductive organs of the opposite genetic sex. Hence, sterility is a necessary consequence of SRS. However, cryogenic preservation of sperms or eggs can be done prior to starting along the path to SRS, if the individual intends to have genetic offspring in the future with a partner of the opposite genetic sex.
SRS is also known as Genital Reconstruction Surgery. Contrary to popular belief, SRS/GRS does not involve chopping away anything. The SRS/GRS procedures involve transforming the existing tissue of the existing primary sex organ into the desired sex organ in both shape and functionality. Note that sex organs are not the same as reproductive organs, although the two are linked.
A transsexual person may or may not choose to undergo SRS/GRS, for varying reasons - money, fear of surgery, age, health concerns, sexual function, spouse's preferences, lack of necessity, etc. One cannot be classified as transsexual or non-transsexual merely based on their status with or desire for SRS/GRS.
Gender transition is the process of social and/or medical transition from one gender to another.
Medically-assisted gender transition may involve hormone therapy, surgeries (eg. mastectomy among FTM, facial feminization surgery among MTF, SRS/GRS, etc), and cosmetic treatments (eg. for hair growth or hair removal).
The social transition involves living as a member of the self-identified gender, usually accompanied with a name-change and/or gender-change on official documents.
SRS/GRS is not necessarily the desired end-point of gender transition for all transsexuals because each individual is different. Gender transition implies doing as much as would be necessary to minimize or eliminate the gender dysphoria of the concerned individual.
It is discriminatory to use SRS/GRS as a checkpoint before granting name-change or gender-change requests of transsexual individuals, who are usually already struggling with their own bodies and with social ostracism.
Cross-dressing implies wearing clothing and accessories commonly associated with the "other" gender in the specific culture.
Genetic women often cross-dress, when they wear anything that resembles mens-wear. In Scotland, men wear skirts called kilts. Cross-dressing is a harmless activity. In some cases, people cross-dress as a fetish for sexual arousal. Not all cross-dressers are transgender.
Some cross-dressers are transgender. Most cross-dressers who are transgender identify with their birth-assigned gender and they merely indulge in cross-dressing as an outlet or vacation from their regular lives. Most cross-dressers do not feel the persistent need to continue in their cross-dressed role play.
Some transgender cross-dressers are transsexual and wish to live in their self-identified gender role regularly, but they do not go ahead with their gender transition process due to limitations of money, health, marriage, family obligations, societal rules, appearance, religion, etc, or due to fear, or due to lack of information.
At early stages, many transsexuals start off with cross-dressing which is a low-cost easily-reversible temporary gender-change. It helps them judge how good or bad they would feel if they were to live in their desired gender role full-time.
Having covered most of the commonly used terms here, I can now continue my musings in posts ...
