Transgender
TERMINOLOGY
The following definitions will help you understand and explain the terms used when discussing
transgender issues..
Gender Expression: Refers to all external characteristics and behaviors that are socially defined as either masculine or feminine, such as dress, mannerisms, physical characteristics and speech patterns.
Gender Identity: A person’s innate, deeply felt psychological identification as male or female,
which may or may not correspond to the person’s body or assigned sex at birth (meaning what
sex was listed on a person’s birth certificate).
Gender Identity Disorder (GID) / Gender Dysphoria: A psychological diagnosis, recognized
by the American Psychiatric Association, of severe distress and discomfort caused by the conflict between one’s gender identity and one’s sex at birth. Some people who experience this condition are transsexual, but not all transsexual people experience gender dysphoria or are diagnosed with GID. Furthermore, not all people with GID are transsexuals.
Intersexed: One who is born with sex chromosomes, external genitalia or an internal
reproductive system that is not considered “standard” for either male or female. At least one in
every 2,000 children is born with mixed sexual anatomy that makes it difficult to label them
male or female. Sometimes, such people are termed hermaphrodites.3 Although many intersexed people do not identify as transgender, many of the workplace issues relating to transgender people overlap with those that affect intersexed people.
Sexual Orientation: The preferred term used when referring to an individual’s physical and/or
emotional attraction to the same and/or opposite gender. Sexual orientation is not the same as a person’s gender identity.
Transgender: An umbrella term referring to a person whose gender identity or gender
presentation falls outside of stereotypical gender norms.
Cross Dresser: One who wears the clothing and accoutrements that are considered by
society to be more appropriate for a gender other than the gender that person
manifested at birth. Unlike transsexuals, cross dressers typically do not seek to change
their physical characteristics and/or manner of expression permanently. Cross dressers
are also known as transvestites.
Transitioning: The process through which a person modifies his/her physical
characteristics and/or manner of expression to satisfy the standards for membership in a
gender other than the one he/she was assigned at birth. Some people transition simply
by living as a member of the other gender, while others undergo medical treatment to
alter their physical characteristics.
Transsexual: A person who identifies with the roles, expectations and expressions more
commonly associated with a sex different from one he/she was assigned at birth. A
transsexual often seeks to change his/her physical characteristics and manner of
expression to satisfy the standards for membership in another gender (transition). This
may or may not include hormone therapy and eventual sex reassignment surgery. Upon
transitioning, transsexuals may call themselves male-to-female (MTF) or female-to-male
(FTM) to acknowledge their change in appearance to match their gender identity.
Whether a person is transsexual has no direct or predictable connection to his/her
sexual orientation.
Transsexualism: A medical diagnosis, according to the tenth revision of the World
Health Organization’s International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related
Health Problems, defined by the consistent (for at least two years) desire to live and be
accepted as a member of the opposite sex, usually accompanied by the wish to make
one’s body as congruent as possible with the preferred sex through surgery and/or
hormone treatment. This condition is not a symptom of another mental disorder or a
known chromosomal abnormality.
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