Understanding the lexicon of the transgender movement is perhaps the best place to start in getting to grips with changing ideas around gender, and cultivating acceptance and sensitivity around trans rights and other gender-related concerns.
These terms and definitions will steer your comprehension of broader themes as they develop over the course of the pages on this website.
It is, however, important to note that gender identity is a personalised experience that differs among gender-questioning individuals, who experience their gender as it makes most sense to them. The explanations here are meant to act as a guide to currently accepted conventions in most societies. As South African writer Mark Gevisser says: “These are shifting sands, as the lexicon of a long misunderstood group of people establishes itself as common usage, outside of pathologising discourse.”
Sources: Vox; The Pink Line by Mark Gevisser; UP Trans Protocol
Broadly speaking, transgender people feel that their internal sense of gender does not match their assigned sex at birth. In other words, identifying as a trans person means that you adopt a form of gender identity and expression that aren’t related to your body parts.
So, for instance, someone who was assigned female at birth might over time realise that they identify as a man. The person may have gender-affirming surgery to medically transition to be male, or may not have surgery at all, choosing instead to socially transition i.e. make others aware of their gender identity.
But “transgender” is also an umbrella term that describes a wide range of people who feel that their gender isn’t congruent with their assigned sex, including those who don’t feel their gender can be pigeon-holed. This includes non-binary/genderqueer people who reject the idea that people should be organised into either male or female categories, with socially constructed roles and identities based on external genitalia.
It is also important to note that there isn’t one way of being non-binary i.e. placing your gender identity somewhere in between male and female.
“Transgender”, then, is a term used to refer to people who challenge ideas of gender as fixed, dichotomous and inextricably linked to one’s biological sex, according to UP’s Trans Protocol, which was adopted as a guideline to respond to the needs of trans, intersex, gender non-conforming and non-binary staff and students. “Gender is more accurately viewed as a multi-dimensional spectrum, rather than as a dichotomous construct,” it says.
Linking someone’s sexual orientation to their gender identity is a common misconception. For instance, a transgender person who was assigned male at birth but who identifies as a woman can be “straight’ (attracted to men), gay (attracted to other women), bisexual, asexual (sexually attracted to no one), or attracted to someone who subscribes to an undefined gender.
These slogans used by the transgender movement are useful in understanding the difference:
My gender is between my ears; my sex is between my legs.
My gender identity is who I go to bed as; my sexual orientation is who I go to bed with.
Sex is what I do with my clothes off; gender expression is what I do with my clothes.
Here are a few useful definitions as outlined by UP’s Trans Protocol, which contains an exhaustive list of accepted terminology.
Cisgender (or cis): A term describing a person whose perception and expression of her or his own gender identity matches the sex she or he was assigned at birth.
Sex assigned at birth: The determination of an infant’s sex at birth upon inspection of their external genitalia, which are only one of the generally accepted sex descriptors. Others include the number and type of sex chromosomes, sex hormones and internal reproductive organs, all of which can have significant variation. Inspection of the external genitalia therefore provides an incomplete concept of what sex is.
Gender: The socially constructed roles, behaviour, activities and attributes that a particular society considers appropriate for men and women.
Gender identity: A person’s private sense of being male, female or another gender. This may or may not match the biological sex that they were assigned at birth.
Gender diversity: The range of different gender expressions and identities that span the historically imposed male-female binary.
Gender non-conformity relates to displaying gender traits like identity, role or expression that are not normatively associated with a person’s biological sex in a culture. “Feminine” behaviour or appearance in a male is considered gender non-conforming, and vice versa. Transgender people may be perceived as or may perceive themselves as gender non-conforming before transitioning, but might not be perceived as such after transitioning.
Transgender (or trans): A term for people who have a gender identity that is different to the sex (and assumed gender) they were assigned at birth. The term encompasses genderqueer people and those who defy what society tells them is appropriate for their gender. Trans people could be heterosexual, bisexual, same-sex attracted or asexual, as gender identity is mutually exclusive of sexual orientation. The term transsexual is often used interchangeably.
Trans(gender) man: A person who was assigned “female” at birth, but identifies as male.
Trans(gender) woman: A person who was assigned “male” at birth, but identifies as female.
Genderqueer/non-binary refers to gender identities that are not exclusively male or female. Genderqueer people may identify as having an overlap of, or indefinite lines between, gender identity; having two or more genders (bigender, trigender or pangender); having no gender (agender, non-gendered or genderless); moving between genders or having a fluctuating gender identity (genderfluid); or being third gender or other-gendered, a category which includes those who do not place a name to their gender.
Transitioning refers to the adoption of the outward or physical characteristics of the gender with which one identifies, as opposed to those associated with one’s sex assigned at birth.
Gender-affirming surgery/treatment/procedure: Also sometimes referred to as “sex reassignment surgery”, this refers to medical treatment and other procedures that trans people could choose to undergo in order to make their bodies more congruent with their gender identity.
Social transition: Also called “coming out”, this encompasses the social portion of a transition, in which a transgender person makes others aware of their gender identity.
Legal transition: The process of changing one’s identification documents to reflect one’s gender identity.
Transphobia: Fear, hostility, violence, anger, hatred or discomfort felt or expressed towards people who do not conform to the gender expectations of society.
Intersex refers to a variety of characteristics (genetic, physiological or anatomical) in which a person’s sexual and/or reproductive features and organs do not conform to dominant and typical definitions of biosex “female” or biosex “male”.
Dead name: “Dead-naming” is the action of calling a trans person by their former name instead of their new name.
Reu’s story
“I am a trans woman, and my pronouns are ‘she/her’. Like everyone else, I have an inherent feeling of what’s right for myself and my body, and that feeling points me much more in a feminine direction than a masculine one. The thing that tells me that I am trans is the joy and peace I feel when I’m allowed to present how I’d like to, and when people refer to me using my chosen name and as a woman. For me it’s simple: you feel like you are a woman. In the end, any woman’s interpretation of their gender will be grounded in that; the same holds true for me.
“So how did I come to terms with this? Even when I was closeted and in the dark about what being trans even is, I had a persistent, all-consuming feeling of ‘wrongness’. I first started noticing it at 12 years old, and it only got worse. Now I know that the displeasure I felt upon looking at my face and body, and the disgust I had for my identity was intertwined with my gender. But I didn’t know that then and there was nothing at the time to educate me on trans people, apart from bigoted jokes.
“Eventually, at 23, I came to understand that the pain I felt had to do with me living my life as a fake person. I had no attachment to my identity, and my fashion choices were just a way to cover what I felt was my disgustingly masculine body. Only after I had begun experimenting with my appearance and taking control of my body did I start to feel better about my features. One night, I came to the realisation that I’d always been a woman, and that the goals and expectations I had of myself were grounded in womanhood. In that moment of realisation, I began weeping. I wept because of all the pain I’d been through, all the pointless things I’d done and for all the pain still waiting for me. But mostly, I wept to mourn the younger me that was never at peace with herself.
“In the weeks that followed, I tried to deny my realisation, mostly out of fear, but I kept coming back to the understanding that I’d only be happy if I fully committed to transitioning. I read up about hormone therapy and that sealed it for me – the thought of having a passably female face and body within a year made me realise that I absolutely wanted this. The hormones were not for changing me into a woman – I already am one – but for making my body support my mind in a way that it wouldn’t before, and to empower me to be brave enough to present the way I would like to in public.
“I have been on hormones for six months, and my mental state is far better than at any other point in my life. My friends and family have accepted me as I truly am, and I feel safer and more secure in my relationships. When I look at my body, it doesn’t seem alien any longer; it feels like just another part of myself.
“The trans experience is much bigger than just my slice of it, and this short piece is just a slice of a slice. Coming to terms with their gender is different for everyone. Above all, being trans is about the journey that you go through to become your true self. That journey will never be predictable.”
Nia’s story
“I identify as non-binary and use the pronouns ‘they/them’. This means that I do not conform to the gender binary – being a man or woman. I definitely have a gender, but it isn’t something that can be understood through the gender binary.
“I grew up in a Christian household, and was taught that anyone who wasn’t cisgender or heterosexual was a sinner. The young closeted me became more open-minded at around the age of 11 or 12, and it took me about a year to realise that I was pansexual and not cisgender. But I couldn’t figure out whether I was transgender or genderfluid. I spent my junior years in high school identifying as genderfluid before I felt like I was ‘sinning’ and reduced my feelings about my gender to ‘delusions’.
“I ended up deciding that it was easier to live as a woman, especially as I was at an all-girls high school. It wasn’t until Grade 12 that I realised how bad my mental state had become from the repression of my dysphoria. That was my breaking point. I had a series of meltdowns, which forced me to accept that I wasn’t a woman. I still didn't know what my gender was for a while. I thought I was genderfluid again, then transgender, then agender, and so on.
“After speaking to a lot of queer individuals and doing a lot of research, I understood myself to be a non-binary individual. That’s who I am today and that’s who I have always been.”
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