What is Transgender?

Section 2 What is Transgender?

Before delving into the transition processes, I want to define common terminology and briefly discuss the transgender community. The scope of this book focuses on binary transgender men. Although non-binary experiences may overlap, I do not have the primary experience, or research to properly discuss them.

According to the American Psychiatric Association, gender dysphoria is the psychological distress that stems from a disconnect between one’s gender identity and their sex assigned at birth. Dysphoria is diagnosable and is categorized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, also known as DSM-5. Not all transgender people experience gender dysphoria, but why? More information is needed.

Similar to the definition of gender dysphoria, transgender is an umbrella term that refers to anyone whose gender identity is not the same as their sex; the difference being that psychological distress may not always be present. A cisgender person, for clarification, is someone whose gender identity and sex match; this term is often used to differentiate people in context and is not a derogatory term. Another term often thrown around is intersex which is a condition where a person’s physical reproductive anatomy or chromosomes are not clearly male or female at birth. This is more of a genetic disorder that may confuse people on someone’s gender based on their sex. There are cases where an intersex person is raised as a female but later learn that they are internally male; there would be no way to discern if they were male or female based on physical attributes. Okay, so why is this confusing to the general public?

Honestly, it took me four years and research for this book to somewhat understand the confusion myself. Within the transgender community, there are major divisions of ideology on whether someone needs dysphoria to be transgender and what classifies as transgender. To simplify it, there are two main groups under the term transgender. First is the binary group, including both trans men and trans women. For example, someone who was born a female and identifies as the opposite sex, male, would be a binary transgender man; vise versa for trans women. Second is the non-binary group which would include anyone who does not identify as either male or female entirely, or partially. Both groups have something to do with self-identity.

Gender non-conforming is a term often confused with transgender. According to the National Center for Transgender Equality, “Being gender non-conforming means not conforming to gender stereotypes. For example, someone’s clothes, hairstyle, speech patterns, or hobbies might be considered more “feminine” or “masculine” than what’s stereotypically associated with their gender.” When it comes to phrases such as “gender is a social construct,” typically they mean gender roles.

We as a society choose what is defined as feminine and masculine, such as the colors pink and blue respectively for example. These definitions are open to change and have changed in the past, just look up why the color for girls was changed from blue to pink. Lastly, gender expression is how a person chooses how to present their gender through appearance like clothes, body language, etc; regardless of their gender identity.

The main takeaway from all of this is that there is a clear separation between one’s own gender identity and how they dress or present themselves. People often label themselves as transgender solely because of how they choose to express themselves but are comfortable with their bodies and how they are perceived; this doesn’t correlate to their gender identity. Generally, binary trans people who have the means to transition do indeed transition and this requires the diagnosis of gender dysphoria through a psychologist. Medical transition, like going on hormones and having surgeries, essentially is a path of treatment to relieve gender dysphoria. There’s a division in the community on whether being trans is a mental illness, which is what the DSM-5 implies. To give my point of view, although the chances of being trans is natural and personal, having a DSM-5 classification is important from the medical and legal perspective. This has to do with insurance coverage of hormones and surgeries, basically saying that gender dysphoria is something real and may need treatment, it’s not a choice. There are many ways to view something, but being objective is a good way to start.