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What Is Transgender?
by Keely Savoie, 09.03.02
Roses are red and violets are blue ... or are they? Lots of people think gender is the same as sex, but it doesn't have to be. For many people, sex and gender don't match up. What does it mean to be transgender?
Gender and Sex Are Not the Same
The world is not quite what we were told to expect as kids. We've done away with a lot of the old myths we've heard. The tooth fairy, the boogeyman — they were the first to fall. And now we know that women can be mechanics and men can stay at home and take care of the kids. We know that you can be attracted to girls or boys, or girls AND boys.
The more you learn, the more it seems there aren't a whole lot of hard and fast rules in the world. A lot of people take for granted that their sex is the same as their gender. Think again.
Your sex is biological, a combination of the physical parts you were born with — like your genitals — and hormonal differences that start long before birth.
Gender refers to society's expectations about how we should think and act as girls and boys, and women and men. As Mary Boenke, the chair of the Transgender Network of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), puts it, "Sex is between your legs, and gender is between your ears." For example, women in many cultures are expected to be passive and emotional and men are expected to be aggressive and rational.
Gender identity is how you feel about and express your gender and gender roles — clothing, behavior, and personal appearance.
The term transgender (or trans, TG, or genderqueer) can be used to include a lot of different people. For some, being transgender means their sexual anatomy conflicts with their gender identity. For example, someone being born with a penis might be declared a boy at birth, but grow up thinking, feeling, and wanting to be more like a girl. Some trans people take hormones and/or have surgery to alter their physical bodies to match their gender identity.
Transgender can also include those who do not accept the strict gender roles society dictates for them and those who enjoy "playing" the other gender.
- Cross-dressers are people who dress and act as the opposite sex. Drag kings and drag queens are cross-dressers who generally exaggerate stereotypical gender roles for entertainment and performance.
- Transvestites are people who cross-dress for sexual arousal.
- Transsexuals are people who live as their preferred gender full-time and may take hormones to alter their secondary sex characteristics — like voice, body hair, and muscular development. Some transsexuals have surgery to change their genitals to match their preferred gender. Transsexuals can be female-to-male (FTM, or transmen) or male-to-female (MTF, or transwomen).
- Intersex people may have sex organs that appear to be somewhat female or male or both. Or they may have sex chromosomes that are different from the usual XX (female) or XY (male). Many intersex people do not identify as trans.
There are many trans people out there. Some people know from a very early age that their feelings about their gender are not what society expects of them. For others, it takes years or decades to understand their gender identity. While it is still not easy to be trans, there are now more resources for information and support available to trans people and their friends and families. Finding information and other people who know what it is like to be transgender are first steps for trans people to gain understanding and acceptance.
QueerAmerica is a database published by OutProud, the National Coalition for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth. It offers resources, information, and support groups for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer and questioning teens. |
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