Transgender people are those whose sex assigned at birth does not match their gender identity. Possibly because the brain, which develops much later than the genitals, is not always formed by the same hormones. They used to be called transsexuals.
In general:
- Don’t hate: Trans people are people too, just like everyone else – except when viewed through transphobia.
- Learn! The more you know, the less likely you will sound ignorant. Listen especially to trans people. The mass media can be misleading, even when well-meaning, even when letting trans people speak.
- Understand: Chelsea Manning (pictured above) has always been Chelsea Manning – we just did not know it till she came out. She was not “born a boy” or “became a girl” – she was always a girl. Some trans people are gender-fluid, but most have been the same gender all along.
- Do not misgender: Use a person’s preferred name and pronouns – and do not put them in scare quotes either! Even when talking about their closeted past. If you are not sure, ask, “What pronouns do you use?” If you cannot ask, go by their gender expression or use the singular “they” (which is perfectly good English: “Someone left their shoes in the hallway!”).
- Never out anyone! You could get someone killed.
In particular:
bathroom bills – far-right fearmongering.
born a boy – use “assigned male at birth” (AMAB).
biologically male – use “assigned male at birth” (AMAB).
cis – short for “cisgender”.
cisgender – not transgender.
drag queen – Not trans. Most are gay men who like to dress up as women for fun.
gender identity disorder – now known as “gender dysphoria” since 2013.
genderqueer – same as non-binary (see below).
genetically female – use “assigned female at birth” (AFAB).
hermaphrodite – use “intersex”. Some trans people are intersex, but most are not.
medical history – as with cis people, it is none of our business. And it is TMI (too much information).
non-binary – refers to those who see themselves as neither male nor female. They generally go by the pronouns “they” and “them”. They count as trans.
passing – use “not visibly transgender”.
pre-op, post-op – see medical history.
sex change – use “transition”.
sex change operation – see medical history.
slurs – tranny, shemale, ladyboy, trap, thing, it, he-she, shim, mangina, transvestite, hermaphrodite, faggot, etc. Avoid, even when someone uses the term for themselves. These words are hurtful and many have transmisogyny built right in, questioning a trans woman’s womanhood (shemale, ladyboy, he-she, shim, mangina, faggot, transvestite), desirability (trap), or even humanity (it, thing).
trans – short for “transgender”.
transgendered – use “transgender” or “trans” instead. “Transgender” is an adjective, not a noun or verb.
transgenders – use “trans people”.
transsexual – use “trangender” or “trans” instead. This use to be the general, polite term for trans people, but it mixes up sex with gender, so now it just means someone who has medically transitioned, which is TMI and does not cover most trans people.
transvestite – use “cross-dresser”. Not trans. Most are straight men who like to sometimes wear women’s clothes and make-up.
– Abagond, 2019.
Sources: mainly GLAAD (retrieved 2019), Riley J. Dennis (2017, video, 9 minutes), National Geographic (January 2017).
See also:
- trans women – comments on its dated language led to this post
- Janet Mock
- CeCe McDonald
- Chelsea Manning
- cisgender
- gender dysphoria
- Tips on writing about Asian America
541
my counselor was wearing a pin today that said ‘my pronouns are she her hers’ she agreed to my supposition of it as a trans-friendly show of support? i still like ‘hen’, cuts out a lot of overhead!
LikeLike
I think you mean does not match their gender identity. Also, it’s probably not appropriate for cis people to refer to trans people as “not visibly transgender.”
LikeLike
I have a problem with this because people are not always assigned a gender at birth that matches their chromosomes, ie, it is possible not to have XX chromosomes and yet be assigned female at birth.
Any other terminology available which is less offensive but more accurate?
LikeLike
“Some trans people are gender fluid, but most have been the same gender all along.”
I just want to add that most people who are genderfluid or agender have also been that way all along.
“Some trans people are intersex (having both male and female DNA), but most are not.”
I’m not sure if this sentence meant to imply that all intersex people have both male and female DNA, but that isn’t the case. There are a number of possible physiological causes, some of which can occur in people who have XY or XX chromosomes. For example:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androgen_insensitivity_syndrome
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progestin-induced_virilization
LikeLike
@ Jefe
“it is possible not to have XX chromosomes and yet be assigned female at birth.”
I think that is the whole point of saying “assigned female/male at birth” — to acknowledge that such assignment is typically given only from observation of external genitalia.
To the best of my knowledge, the language “assigned female/male at birth” actually began with the intersex community and moved from there to the trans community.
I’m not aware that the phrasing is considered offensive by anyone, although it is certainly possible as the language has been evolving rapidly. I know that “transgendered” (with the -ed suffix) becoming unacceptable was something I missed when it first happened.
LikeLike
@ Jefe
Just to clarify further: Abagond is saying that instead of using “genetically female/male” to describe a trans person, the better phrasing is “assigned female/male at birth.” But he isn’t saying that these two wordings mean exactly the same thing. They aren’t synonyms.
Unlike “genetically female/male,” the phrase “assigned female/male at birth” says nothing about the individual’s genetics or chromosomes.
And in fact, “assigned female/male at birth” has been used for decades now to describe intersex people, including those who fit your example of having been assigned female at birth while not having XX chromosomes.
LikeLike
I have a trans acquaintance at work. She sent me her journal while she was transitioning. This was several years ago. Believe me, most people are ignorant, myself included, about trans people. However, I have learnt more since speaking openly with this person. I can only empathize with them and try not to less ignorant.
LikeLiked by 3 people
‘to be’
LikeLike
I have had a number of transgender acquaintances, past and present, and I thought I was pretty solid on a lot of this. But recently one of my young family members has come out as trans. It is really, really, really hard not to accidentally misgender someone you have known all their life as a girl, someone you first held when they were only a few days old, someone who for 19 years has been always referred to along with their sister as “the girls.”
Luckily he understands that these slips are inadvertent and that we are trying hard to get accustomed to referring to him by his preferred name and pronouns. I think what’s most important is that he knows we accept him and love him, that these slip-ups are arising from long habit and not from resistance to his transitioning. But it’s still embarrassing. I want to do better.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bradley Manning is, and will always be a man. A mentally ill, pathetic, freak of a man.
If I identify as a puppy dog, does that make me a puppy dog?
LikeLiked by 1 person
This a very evolved post. My admiration for C. Manning’s moral character can’t be higher than it is, so why am I unable to overlook that perpetual “five o’clock shadow” in all her pictures?
“Bradley Manning is, and will always be a man. A mentally ill, pathetic, freak of a man.”
They, B/C Manning, will always be a bigger person than Joe Schmoe even if that louse lives a thousand lifetimes.
“If I identify as a puppy dog, does that make me a puppy dog?”
If you can find a surgeon to help you transition, go for it.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I’m sorry, but this is nonsense. Don’t @ me
LikeLike
To my knowledge this is not uncontroversial among trans people. I think Natalie Wynn (Contrapoints) says she was a man until she transitioned.
LikeLike
This confusing society. They teach us that gender is fluid and a social construct, but when it comes to trans folk all of that construct talk goes out the window. They say natural is better and we should all learn to accept our God-given bodies, but it’s okay to fill your body with hormones and knife up your chest and genitals. Sigh.. I agree that our gender roles need to be relaxed and reorganized so that there is less of a difference between masculine and feminine in our modern industrialized society, but all of these labels and twitter sociologist are making America backwards and unnecessarily complex.
LikeLiked by 3 people
“This confusing society. They teach us that gender is fluid and a social construct, but when it comes to trans folk all of that construct talk goes out the window. They say natural is better and we should all learn to accept our God-given bodies, but it’s okay to fill your body with hormones and knife up your chest and genitals.” – kngjah91
Exactly and Amen to that kngJah!
1 Corinthians 14:33 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.
LikeLike
@ Solitaire
I got rid of the words “(having both male and female DNA)”. I do not want to get lost in the weeds of intersexdom on this post.
LikeLike
@ jefe
The people who say “genetically female”, in nearly all cases, are trying to sound scientific without basing it on actual science, like a DNA test. Instead they are just going by the assigned sex at birth but want to dress it up as science. So “assigned female at birth” is the better way to put it.
Those armed with a DNA test will generally define what they mean, like in stories on Olympic athletes.
LikeLike
@ Sheena
Thanks for the correction!
As to “not visibly transgender”, I am going by GLAAD, to whose authority I defer on these matters:
https://www.glaad.org/reference/transgender
They say:
LikeLike
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6897269/Workers-transgender-clinic-quit-concerns-unregulated-live-experiments-children.html
No confusion. The agenda is proceeding as planned.
View at Medium.com
https://www.thecut.com/2017/02/salon-shouldnt-have-unpublished-its-pedophilia-article.html
LikeLike
[…] via Tips on writing about transgender people — Abagond […]
LikeLike
That second article about incest was sickening as well.
LikeLike
Some of those accepted terms will be unacceptable and considered slurs ten years from now. The set of acceptable terms is always shifting around and doesn’t stay static for long, in order to keep everyone else on their toes at all times.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The most common reason for acceptable words shifting to unacceptable is because of pejoration, a form of semantic drift:
http://wstyler.ucsd.edu/posts/r_word.html
https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/11/07/362273449/why-we-have-so-many-terms-for-people-of-color
LikeLike
@ rdorsey
This post will likely seem dated in ten years. I wrote it because the language in a post I wrote about trans women six years ago is already becoming dated.
This post will become dated not just because of pejoration caused by transphobia, but also because Western ideas about gender are changing.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Project ENGAGE.
LikeLike