Sunday October 4, 2009
Trans-terminology
Two members of the transgender community pose during a rally to celebrate an Indian court’s ruling decriminalising gay sex between consenting adults, in Mumbai, India, on July 2. – AFP GENDER identity and sexual orientation are different.
Gender: A socially constructed system of classification that ascribes qualities of masculinity and femininity to people.
Gender identity: The gender one sees oneself as – masculine/feminine, male/female, including refusing to label oneself with a gender. Gender identity does not cause sexual orientation. For example, a masculine woman is not necessarily a lesbian.
Sexual orientation: Aka sexuality, the deep-seated direction of one’s sexual (erotic) attraction, for example:
·Heterosexual, or “straight” – a person who experiences sexual, emotional, and/or romantic attraction to a sex other than his own (“attraction to the opposite sex”).
·Homosexual, or “gay” – a person who is attracted to the same sex.
Given the extistence of intersexualism, transsexualism and transgenderism, these definitions are limiting and not entirely accurate.
·Bisexual, or “bi” – a person who is attracted to two sexes or two genders (not necessarily simultaneously or equally.)
·Pansexual – a person who is fluid in sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
Transsexualism is not a sexual orientation.
Transsexual: Someone who experiences a mismatch between his/her biological sex and gender identity, and can be of any sexual orientation.
According to reports from the Malaysian transsexual community, they number close to 20,000, says sociology Prof Teh Yik Koon from the National Defence University of Malaysia. (In her 2002 book, The Mak Nyahs: Malaysian Male to Female Transsexuals, she estimated their numbers at 10,000.)
Transitioning: A transsexual may undergo medical and/or surgical treatment to change his/her physical sex to match his/her gender identity. This is a complicated, multi-step process that can take years and may include sex reassignment surgery.
Trans man: A female-to-male transition (FTM).
Trans woman: A male-to-female transition (MTF).
All transsexuals are transgender, or “trans” persons, but not all trans-persons are transsexuals.
Transgender people: Those whose gender identities differ from the social expectations for the physical sex they were born with, including transvestites (cross-dressers), transgenderists (people who live mostly in a gender role different from their biological gender), gender queers (people who blur the boundaries of gender even further), and people who identify as neither female nor male. “Transgender” is not a sexual orientation; transgender people can be of any sexual orientation.
Finally, a person can be in (secretive) or out (open with others) about his/her sexual orientation and gender identity in varying degrees.
If you’d like to learn more about such ins and outs, start at:
·Columbia Foundation Glossary of Terms Relating to Sexuality and Gender at columbia.org/resources_fr.htm (under Human Rights);
·Transsexual Road Map at tsroadmap.com;
·Mike’s Transgendered Planet at michael7668.tripod.com/ mikestransgenderedplanet.
Related Stories:
Talking straight
A question of sex
‘Sick’ definition
My journey
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