The Diversity of the Transgender Community

"Gender transgression " is a deeply personal experience, and the implications and solutions may not always be obvious to a person at the beginning of their journey....

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We're taught since childhood that there are 2 genders, male and female, determined based on physical anatomy at birth. But there are times when gender is not so simple and obvious, and when psychological gender and physical sex don't match. These can fall into three different general categorical ranges.

"Gender Identity" is when the mind is completely opposite in psychological gender to what the body originally appears to be. A person with a male body and self-identification as female literally finds life to be “backwards” and has to put on a false persona in order to try to live the way that people expect, until this reaches a crisis point in which she accepts that she cannot change her mind to match her body -- and then proceeds to make her body match her identity. It also happens that female-bodied people can identify as male. People with a variance in gender identity often "just know," and are in a state of emotional distress and distraction until it is finally corrected.

There is growing scientific study to support the theory that mental gender and bodily sex are seperately determined in the womb, and that there are mechanisms by which they might end up inconsistent with each other. Research on genetic determination and endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs, such as DES) is as yet inconclusive, but may someday shed more light on gender identity conflicts.

"Gender Expression" is less tangible, and covers a wide range of people who visibly express gender in ways that don't match what is assumed that they should -- however, they may still have an identity that is consistent with their physical sex, and need to step out of that identity from time to time, or be dual-identified (i.e. have a “masculine side and a feminine side”). Women who are considered masculine or "butchy," and men who are considered effeminate fall within this category, although they often don't consider themselves transgender. Other people may feel a need to play with gender expression out of a need to challenge peoples’ preconceptions.

"Intersex" refers to persons born with physical or genetic traits from both genders. Intersex conditions may not always be visible -- genetic conditions such as Klinefelter's Syndrome and Asperger's Syndrome also involve some hard-wired intersexuality. Note that an intersexed person does not always identify as a gender opposite to the one that they've been assigned or live as, but it can happen at times. Chances are, the transgender community will one day become seen as a smaller part of a larger Intersex community rather than the other way around.

There are many different groups within the "transgender" umbrella. Note that the following labels are not definitive, and that many transfolk defy the basic definitions. These labels are a way of helping understand the diversity of the community and to help questioning people learn things about themselves, but transfolk are not restricted to these categories. Labels are only a tool, and are otherwise only good for sowing division.

Transsexuals are those whose gender identities completely differ with their birth or assigned sex. Transsexuality is a recognized medical condition, called "Gender Dysphoria" or "Gender Identity Disorder," and there are standards of surgical, chemical and psychiatric care in place to responsibly deal with this condition. Attempting to "cure" through denial has been recognized by the medical community as a harmful treatment for GID, often resulting in self-destruction and/or suicide.

Drag Queens (or Kings) are at the opposite extreme, playing with gender expression. Drag performers tend not to be so interested in changing their physical sex as they are in defying it, along with the thrill of performance and a draw to an extreme of glamour (there are exceptions in which even transsexuals become a part of drag communities).

Crossdressers cover a large range of people with different motivations. Some identify as the opposite physical sex but feel that their ability to transition is limited by life circumstances (spouses, children, other family and friends, career, fear, appearance, finances, social stigma). Others consider themselves dual identified, in that they need to express themselves as male and female at different times. There are also some whose needs for gender expression are so repressed that they only emerge in sexual terms (transvestites), but this is generally not the primary objective for crossdressers.

Two-spirited peoples refers to the North American Native tradition that reveres those who are felt to have a dual-spirit nature, one male and one female. This encompasses all gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and intersexed persons. The term is sometimes mistakenly borrowed to describe being bi-gendered.

Androgynous / Genderqueer people usually do not consider themselves transgender, but still prefer to play with gender expression (sometimes to a point of gender indecipherability).

Notice that none of these definitions state anything about sexual orientation. Who a person is does not dictate who they love. A male-to-female transperson will not automatically be attracted to men, for example. The two are independent facets of a person.

"Gender transgression" (from which the term "transgender" derives) is a personal experience, and the implications and solutions may not always be obvious to a person at the beginning of their journey. There is also additional information on the albertatrans.org website, and for family and friends who are trying to understand a transgendered person, the book True Selves: Understanding Transsexualism... is an excellent choice of more in-depth reading material about the transgender person’s crisis of identity and how it affects their lives and their actions toward those around them.