transgender

alternative dated trans-gender · alternative Internet transgener · alternative abbreviation xgender

1. broadlynot comparableOf a person: having a gender (identity) which is different from one's assigned sex; that is, the identity of a trans man, trans woman, or someone non-binary, for example, agender, bigender, or third-gender.First known use 1974

   Christine Jorgensen, the world's first highly publicized transsexual – or "trans-gender" patient – never planned to be famous because of her surgery.

   1979 May 3, Pierre Bowman, “Back in showbiz Christine Jorgensen”, in George Chaplin, editor, The Honolulu Advertiser (People Report Section), Honolulu, Hi.: Thurston Twigg-Smith, →ISSN, →OCLC, page B-1, column 3

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   We have taken to the local radio station, to talk about transgender problems. Carol Fremont is working in this area, and by General Conference we should have some interesting insights and understandings to share regarding transgender persons.

   1978 December – 1979 January, J. J., “The Fellowship Family: News and Notes of MCC People and Events around the World”, in F. Jay Deacon, editor, The Gay Christian: A Journal of Theological Reflection from Metropolitan Community Church, Santa Monica, Calif.: Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, →OCLC, page 23, column 2

   One head of a small gay charity visibly flinched when I mentioned my boyfriend and has been cold towards me ever since. I've even caught someone staring down my top to see if I'm transgender.

   2010 March 3, Jessica Green, “I'm sorry, I'm not lesbian: My being a straight editor of Pink News has confused and angered some – but it shows how far gay rights have come”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 11 Aug 2023

   The film, "Ticked-Off Trannies With Knives," is described by its creator, Israel Luna, as an homage to 1970s exploitation films. But the inclusion of the word "trannie"—a pejorative, in some circles—in the title, and the film's parodic representation of transgender women, has offended many people.

   2010 April 7, Natasha Lennard, “City Room: Transgender film draws protests at festival site”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 Dec 2023

   A Chinese court on Thursday found that a transgender man was unjustly fired from his job, a first-of-its-kind ruling that activists called a step forward in the fight for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights. […] Mr. C, a transgender Chinese man who says he was fired for wearing men's clothes, stands outside a court in Guiyang, China, July 27, 2017, holding the court’s ruling that his dismissal violated his employment rights.

   2017 July 27, Emily Rauhala, “Transgender Chinese man wins first-of-its-kind labor discrimination case”, in The Washington Post (WorldViews section), Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 11 Nov 2017

   When Kim Petras teamed up with English singer Sam Smith on "Unholy," a song about male infidelity and betrayal of the ideal of marriage, she may not have expected to make history. But now, the German pop singer Petras is the first transgender woman to win a coveted Grammy in the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance category. At the Grammy Awards on February 5, 2023, Petras thanked "transgender legends before me who kicked these doors open for me so that I could be here tonight." […] Back in October 2022, the duo Petras and Smith had already become the first publicly transgender and nonbinary solo artists, respectively, to have reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 charts with their single.

   2023 February 6, Stefan Dege, Louisa Schaefer, “Kim Petras: How the trans artist made history”, in Deutsche Welle, archived from the original on 30 Mar 2023

   1. broadlynot comparablestrictlyOf a person: having a gender (identity) which is opposite from the sex one was assigned at birth: being assigned male but having a female gender, or vice versa (that is, not including a non-binary identity).

      What is happening in the world at the time, restrictions or freedom in sex-role choices, or in access to clothing fabrics and styles—none of these have much influence on the transgender person’s desire to be the opposite sex.

      1990, Louis Sullivan, “Epilogue”, in From Female to Male: The Life of Jack Bee Garland, Boston, Mass.: Alyson Publications, →ISBN, page 174

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      Gender identity is whether or not a person perceives him/herself to be a man or woman (see ‘man’ and ‘woman’). The problem arises when a male perceives himself to be a woman, and vise versa.^([sic – meaning vice versa]) Notice I said man or woman, and not male or female. The difference is important. Male and female are biological terms, while man and woman as they are used here are modes of being, ways to be, which are based on psychology and sociology rather than biology. (see ‘gender dysphoria’) Sexual identity is a ‘transsexual’ issue and may involve sexual re-assignment surgery, but may not involve cross-dressing. Gender identity is a ‘transgender’ issue and does not involve surgery, but almost always involves cross-dressing.

      1988, Merissa Sherrill Lynn, “Definitions of Terms Commonly Used in the Transvestite–Transsexual Community”, in Diane Dixon, Jan Dixon, Veronica Brown, editors, The TV–TS Tapestry: The Journal for Persons Interested in Crossdressing & Transsexualism, number 51, Wayland, Mass.: International Foundation for Gender Education, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 22

      She emphasises that being transgender really has nothing to do with your anatomy. There are terms for individuals who have undergone sex reassignment surgery – “transexed”, for example – whereas to be transgender is simply to have the conviction that you are the opposite gender to the body you have been assigned.

      2015 August 29, Ben Machell, “The transgender kids”, in The Times, London: News UK, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 22 Mar 2023

      Biology has a strong effect on whether people identify as female, male, or transgender. A transgender person was born as one biological sex but feels that her true gender identity is that of the other sex. One theory of why gender and biological sex differ for those who are transgender has to do with timing of hormonal events during pregnancy.

      2018, Michael S. Gazzaniga, “Human Development”, in Psychological Science, 6th edition, New York, N.Y: W[illiam] W[arder] Norton & Company, →ISBN, page 367

      Transgender people, who identify as the opposite gender to the one they were born with, should no longer be considered mentally ill, according to a new UN categorisation. The World Health Organization issued a new catalogue Monday covering 55,000 diseases, injuries and causes of death, in which it discreetly recategorised transgenderism. […] Several countries have already taken steps to reclassify transgenderism and take it off the list of mental disorders, including France and Denmark. Say said she thought the text, which is the result of years of discussion among experts, would easily win approval, despite widespread lack of acceptance of transgender people in many parts of the world.

      2018 June 19, “Transgenderism no longer a mental illness: WHO”, in France 24, archived from the original on 19 Jun 2018

      Transgender people report discomfort with their birth sex and a strong identification with the opposite sex. The current study was designed to shed further light on the question of whether the brains of transgender people resemble their birth sex or their gender identity. For this purpose, we analyzed a sample of 24 cisgender men, 24 cisgender women, and 24 transgender women before gender-affirming hormone therapy. We employed a recently developed multivariate classifier that yields a continuous probabilistic (rather than a binary) estimate for brains to be male or female. The brains of transgender women ranged between cisgender men and cisgender women (albeit still closer to cisgender men), and the differences to both cisgender men and to cisgender women were significant (p#61;0.016 and plt;0.001, respectively). These findings add support to the notion that the underlying brain anatomy in transgender people is shifted away from their biological sex towards their gender identity.

      2022 March, Florian Kurth, Christian Gaser, Francisco J. Sánchez, Eileen Luders, “Brain Sex in Transgender Women Is Shifted towards Gender Identity”, in Journal of Clinical Medicine, volume 11, number 6, Basel, Basel-Stadt: MDPI, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, →PMID, abstract

2. broadlynot comparableOf a person: transgressing or not identifying with culturally conventional gender roles and categories of male or female.

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   I think the new punk rockers are going to be more androgynous, more bisexual, more transgender, more ethnically diverse and less willing to take shit than before, as well as less homophobic, racist, and sexist, not because it's politically correct, man, but because all of those things stink of a parent's world of authoritarian bullshit that want to deprive people of their individuality.

   1992 June, Howlin’ Mad Johann [pseudonym], “[Letter]”, in Maximum Rocknroll, number 109, San Francisco, Calif.: Maximum Rock’n’Roll, →ISSN, →OCLC, page [10], column 2

   Less noticed, however, is that gender nonconformists have been working together, with some remarkable successes, to build a political movement. Their first step was to reclaim the power to name themselves: transgender is now the term most widely used, and it encompasses everyone from cross-dressers (those who dress in clothes of the opposite sex) to transsexuals (those who surgically "correct" their genitals to match their "real" gender).

   2001 June 24, John Cloud, “Trans across America”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 Mar 2024

3. not comparableOf or pertaining to transgender people (adjective sense 1), or their experiences or identity.

   We have taken to the local radio station, to talk about transgender problems.

   1978 December – 1979 January, J. J., “The Fellowship Family: News and Notes of MCC People and Events around the World”, in F. Jay Deacon, editor, The Gay Christian: A Journal of Theological Reflection from Metropolitan Community Church, Santa Monica, Calif.: Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, →OCLC, page 23, column 2

   3 more examples

   After having lived much of our lives according to a socially accepted prescription, many of us come to realize that we have not been true to ourselves. As full-time or part-time transgenderists, we feel the need to improve the quality of life for ourselves by creating an environment around us which is compatible with the kind of life style we wish to achieve. […] While looking for a change of apartments, I walked into the rental office of a large complex, looked at the models and then proceeded to tell the manager about myself … my work, my hobbies, and, yes, even my transgender lifestyle … but all in a very matter-of-fact and self-confident manner. The result was total acceptance. In fact, they invited me to return as Nancy to the Halloween party they were holding that same evening … and I did!

   1979, Nancy [pseudonym], “Feather Your Own Nest”, in Virginia Prince, editor, Transvestia, volume XVII, number 98, Los Angeles, Calif.: Chevalier Publications, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 Jun 2023, pages 36–37

   A Chinese court on Thursday found that a transgender man was unjustly fired from his job, a first-of-its-kind ruling that activists called a step forward in the fight for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights.

   2017 July 27, Emily Rauhala, “Transgender Chinese man wins first-of-its-kind labor discrimination case”, in The Washington Post (WorldViews section), Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 11 Nov 2017

   The vision of The Matrix as an elaborate transgender allegory is now the ruling framework when considering the film’s historical significance, leapfrogging the initial frenzy over its technical achievements.

   2022, Chuck Klosterman, The Nineties, New York: Penguin Press, →ISBN

4. not comparableOf a space: intended primarily for transgender people.

   The Las Vegas Lounge is the city's only transgender bar.

   2003, Connie Emerson, “Gay and Lesbian Visitors”, in Top 10 Las Vegas (DK Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guides), 1st US edition, London; New York, N.Y.: Dorling Kindersley, →ISBN, page 128, column 2

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   Despite the significant HIV/AIDS risks faced by transgenders, we could locate targeted prevention programs in only a handful of locations throughout the country. […] In Boston, no AIDS prevention messages are posted at the primary drag queen and transgender bar.

   2001, Walter O. Bockting, Sheila Kirk, “Transgender Health and Social Service Needs in the Context of HIV Risk”, in Transgender and HIV: Risks, Prevention, and Care, New York, N.Y.: The Haworth Press, →ISBN, page 46

   Trance […] A thriving transgender bar on the main Itaewon drag, […]

   2011 June, Martin Zatko, “Listings [Drinking and Nightlife]”, in Róisin Cameron, editor, The Rough Guide to Seoul, London: Rough Guides, →ISBN, page 130

   Belgium-based Filipino dancer Joshua Serafin’s performance later this week at the Taipei Arts Festival explores transgender beauty pageants from the Philippines and the politics, culture and hidden colonial past behind the industry, the artist said Tuesday.

   2022 August 30, William Yen, “Culture: Filipino Dancer Decodes Beauty Pageants and Their Colonial Roots”, in Focus Taiwan: CNA English News, archived from the original on 03 Sep 2022

5. not comparableOf a space: available for use by transgender people, rather than only non-transgender people.

   Group wants transgender bathrooms for UMASS [title]

   2002 October 2, Benjamin Gedan, “Group wants transgender bathrooms for UMASS”, in The Boston Globe, Boston, Mass.: The Globe Newspaper Co., →ISSN, →OCLC

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   Why the sudden outcry for transgender bathrooms? The answer is easy, the activists behind this movement are using a petty issue like bathrooms as a medium to throw their lifestyles in the face of every-day students.

   2002 November 26, Olaf Aprans, “Transgenderism”, in The Minuteman, Amherst, Mass.: The Minuteman, undergraduate students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, →OCLC; quoted in Olga Gershenson, “The Restroom Revolution: Unisex Toilets and Campus Politics”, in Harvey Molotch, Laura Norén, editors, Toilet: Public Restrooms and the Politics of Sharing (NYU Series in Social and Cultural Analysis), New York, N.Y.; London: New York University Press, 2010, →ISBN, part III (Building in the Future), page 199

   In contrast, in a democratic conversation or dialogue, the speaker would begin by identifying the larger public issues that connect to the availability of transgender bathrooms: equality, civil rights, […]

   2013, William Keith, Christian O. Lundberg, Public Speaking: Choice and Responsibility, Belmont, Calif.: Andover, →ISBN

6. datednot comparableSynonym of crossgender (“across multiple genders”).First known use mid 20th c.

   Unlike capitalism, under socialist transformation there is a normative basis for maintaining the principle of collective (transgender) responsibility in the activity of reproduction and childrearing, as in everything else.

   1984, Rosalind P. Petchesky, “Conclusion: The Feminist Movement and the Conditions of Reproductive Freedom”, in Abortion and Woman’s Choice: The State, Sexuality, and Reproductive Freedom (Longman Series in Feminist Theory), New York, N.Y.: Longman, →ISBN, page 391

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   Of course some unhappiness is simply a transgender phenomenon. Realists learn to expect a day in which perhaps 40 to 80 per cent is made up of repetition of what was done the day before and the day before that. Any set of normal days with over 20 per cent of excitement in them would be extraordinary. Consequently, the mere fact of being human, whether male or female, requires endurance, tolerance, a sense of moderate wholesome expectations.

   1967 March, John P. Leary, “Woman in American Society Today”, in Thought: A Review of Culture and Idea, volume XLII, number 164, Bronx, New York, N.Y.: Fordham University Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 116

   Those are the winning entries in the Chicago Association of Business Communicators' contest to find pronouns to replace she and he [ey], him and her [em], his and hers [eir]. […] [C]ontest winner Christine M. Elverson of Skokie says her words are "transgender pronouns." She formed them by dropping "the" from the familiar plural pronouns, they, them, and their. For example, a speaker might use these new transgender pronouns when ey addresses an audience of both men and women.

   1975 August 23, Judie Black, “Ey has a word for it”, in Clayton Kirkpatrick, editor, Chicago Tribune (Tempo (1C) section), number 235, Chicago, Ill.: Tribune Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 2, columns 1–2

   Unless we have identified "male" and "female" aspects of thought, however, the claim of gender bias is an empty one. I do not doubt that disciplines are also shaped by transgender interests, values, and concepts, which women, whether or not they engage in maternal practices, may fully share.

   1982, Sara Ruddick, “Maternal Thinking”, in Barrie Thorne, Marilyn Yalom, editors, Rethinking the Family: Some Feminist Questions, White Plains, N.Y.: Longman, →ISBN, page 91

   Not only do men share in the responsibility for children—but also, toxic chemicals that affect women’s reproductive health do not bypass the male reproductive system. In Bhopal, for example, impotence and loss of libido were reported among a large proportion of exposed males. Reproductive effects are a transgender issue that men as well as women should address.

   1988, Tara Jones, “Against Toxic Capital”, in Corporate Killing: Bhopals Will Happen, London: Free Association Books, →ISBN, part 2 (More Bhopals), page 273

   Synonyms: crossgender

plural transgenders · alternative dated trans-gender · alternative Internet transgener · alternative abbreviation xgender

1. countableoffensiveoftenusuallyA transgender person

   Nat spent years being victimised as a male to female transgender but was too scared to report it.

   2015, Helen Davies, “Transgender woman forced to move house after death threats and knife in her front door”, in Liverpool Echo, Liverpool, Merseyside: Trinity Mirror Merseyside, →ISSN, →OCLC

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   "If you understand trans-genders," she [Christine Jorgensen] says, choosing the word she prefers to transsexuals, "then you understand that gender is different than sexual preference. It doesn't have to do with bed partners, it has to do with identity." Jorgensen says she knows of some male-to-female trans-genders who have settled into lesbian relationships. She herself is heterosexual.

   1979 September 23, Jerry Parker, “A woman with no regrets”, in Stanley Green, editor, LI: Newsday’s Magazine for Long Island, Suffolk edition, Melville, N.Y.: Newsday Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 18, columns 3–4

   transgender—an individual who lives as a person of a gender different from the one society defines for that person's sex (e.g., male "transvestites" who wear women's clothing, hair styles and other body accoutrements, use "feminine" speech and body language, and identify with the gender category woman). Also sometimes referred to as "cross-gendered people" (Blackwood 1984).

   [1989, Sue-Ellen Jacobs, Christine Roberts, “Sex, Sexuality, Gender, and Gender Variance”, in Sandra Morgen, editor, Gender and Anthropology: Critical Reviews for Research and Teaching, Washington, D.C.: American Anthropological Association, →ISBN, page 455

   In a patriarchal society in which machismo rules, MTF [male-to-female] transgenders represent a challenge to traditional masculinity due to their renouncing of the male position of social power.

   2005, Walter Bockting, Eric Avery, Transgender Health and HIV Prevention: : Needs Assessment Studies from Transgender Communities across the United States (International Journal of Transgenderism; volume 8, issues 2–3), New York, N.Y.: Haworth Medical Press, →ISBN, page 116

   There were divisions for [netball] teams of men, women, mixed and transgenders. Individual transgenders could compete in any division; however, transgender teams could not play against biological women's teams.

   2006, Caroline Symons, Dennis Hemphill, “Transgendering Sex and Sport in the Gay Games”, in Jayne Caudwell, editor, Sport, Sexualities and Queer/Theory (Routledge Critical Studies in Sport), Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 122

   This public presentation of the mutilation of the penis is not obviously very different from the forms of disassembly of the penis engaged in by male body modifiers—particularly nullos and transgenders—on the Body Modification Ezine website.

   2014, Sheila Jeffreys, Gender Hurts: A Feminist Analysis of the Politics of Transgenderism, Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 70

   Synonyms: transgenderal

   1. countableoffensiveoftenuncountableusuallypreceded by theTransgender people collectively.

      Synonyms: transgenderal

2. rareuncountableusuallySynonym of transgenderism (“the state of being transgender”).

   Before we can answer this question, we need to consider two other phenomena – transsex and transgender – which also expose the muddle within conventional categories of sex.

   2007, Alison Stone, “Sex”, in An Introduction to Feminist Philosophy, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire; Malden, Mass.: Polity Press, →ISBN, page 41

   2 more examples

   In spite of not "rootin' and tootin'" as a trans-gender case, in recent years [Christine] Jorgensen has been a staple on the college lecture circuit, speaking – of course – about trans-gender and herself.

   1979 May 3, Pierre Bowman, “Back in showbiz Christine Jorgensen”, in George Chaplin, editor, The Honolulu Advertiser (People Report Section), Honolulu, Hi.: Thurston Twigg-Smith, →ISSN, →OCLC, page B-1, column 6

   The Scientific Humanitarian Committee published a yearbook that reported on movement activities. It also documented literary, cross-cultural, cross-historical and scientific studies on same-sex love and transgender.

   2004 June 10, Leslie Feinberg, “The love that dared to speak its name”, in Workers World, New York, N.Y.: WW Publishers, →ISSN, →OCLC

   Synonyms: transgenderism

present singular third person transgenders · participle present transgendering · participle past transgendered · past transgendered · alternative dated trans-gender · alternative Internet transgener · alternative abbreviation xgender

1. offensiveoftentransitiveuncommonTo change the gender of (someone).

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   […] and one that is still dominated by male nominees, women nominees might be seen as either contributing to the regendering, or the transgendering, of the Cabinet. […] This chapter examines women secretaries-designate in terms of their contributions to regendering or transgendering a cabinet office, to a gender desegregation or integration of the cabinet.

   2005, Sue Tolleson-Rinehart, Jyl J. Josephson, Gender and American Politics, →ISBN, pages 15 and 205

2. broadlyoffensiveoftentransitiveuncommonTo change the sex of (someone).