Transgender is an umbrella term, used to cover a lot of gender based differences in humanity. I’d like to help explain the differences between the various terms. I will warn you, however, that some of these terms are not set in stone yet, so they will be what I feel they mean. Before I go into those though, I would to describe a few things which are set in stone, and which confuse a lot of people who are not familiar with the transgendered.
Biological Sex
Your biological sex, or sex for short, is what your genes are and what kind of genitalia you were born with. Not all people are born with male or female genitals, though. These would be known as intersex people. And even all the ones that are, aren’t born with the typical male (XY) and female (XX) genetic structure. Some are born with XXY for instance, and I am sure there are other variations as well. So sex has nothing to do with how you identify or feel like, just how your genetic structure is arranged.
Gender Identity
Gender identity, or gender for short, is what sex you feel like you are inside. This is something determined by your brain. Doctors have begun to try and scan for these parts of your brain, to determine the differences, and to see if it can be used to identify a transgendered person. This is still in its infancy though, so the most common form of identification comes from the person themselves, usually through therapy as well.
That will probably change in the future, but for now the transgendered are only starting to heavily come into the public spotlight, and therefore not much research has been done on it.
Sexual Orientation
This is what sex you fall in love in and want to have relations with (be them romantic and/or sexual). There are a variety of sexual orientations out there. Most of humanity considers themselves heterosexual, or attracted to the opposite sex. Then there is homosexual, which is when a person is attracted to the same sex. Bisexual means you are attracted to both sexes. Asexual means you don’t have a sexual interest in either sex, although you may still have romantic interests.
Sex / Gender Terms
There are a variety of terms that will be used on this website in reference to gender and biological sex, terms which you may not be familiar with.
Transgirl / Transguy / Transperson / Transpeople
Transgirl / transguy is a shorthand version of transgender girl / transgender guy.
Transperson / transpeople is a shorthand version of transgender person / transgender people.
Cisgender / Cisperson / Cispeople
Cisgender means a person’s gender identity matches their biological sex. Basically the opposite of transgender.
Cisperson / cispeople are are just shorthand versions of cisgendered person / cisgendered people.
Cross Dresser
This would basically be near the bottom of the transgender spectrum. People who cross dress feel like they are the gender that matches their birth sex, but occasionally want to dress up like the opposite gender. These feelings could come from a variety of things, including wanting to express ones feminity or masculinity.
Androgyne
Androgyny is a sort of blanket term in itself. There are several things that can actually be covered under androgyny. For some people, it means they feel like both genders, neither gender, or some combination of the two.
Transvestite
It seems it is now usually referred to in the medical community as transvestic fetishism, which means a person who dresses as the opposite sex for sexual thrills. They may go as far as taking hormones and such, but they do it for the sexual thrills they get from it.
Transgenderist
A term I heard of while trying to figure out what I was. Basically, it seems that a transgenderist is almost completely like a transsexual, except that they hold an attraction to the genitalia they were born with and do not desire the correct surgery to replace them. Now, just because a person has yet to get the surgery, does not mean they are a transgenderist. There are a lot of reasons not to get the surgery, including the costs involved, the possibility of losing sexual feeling, and the quality of the surgery itself.
Transsexual
We are now at the opposite end of the transgender spectrum. You can’t go any further than this. A transsexual is a person who was born as one sex, but identifies as the opposite. This is where gender identity comes into play. While their genetic code and body say they are one sex, their mind insists they are the other sex. We can’t change the mind right now, and I think a lot of transsexual people (myself included) would never accept getting the mind changed over the body.
We can change the body though, to a large degree, and that is what a lot of transsexual people will do. You can’t change the genetics, but you can introduce different hormones, get various surgeries, and do other things to help you transition from one sex to the other. Some transsexual people know from as soon as they can talk, while others can take years or decades to realize it. Some people realize it early and repress it, others insist until people help them out.
