“How can you be non-binary and transgender? Non-binary means you don’t identify as neither male or female. Transgender means you’re transitioning from one gender to the other.” “Transgender is an umbrella term. I call myself a trans-man because I am transitioning. But I call myself non-binary because I’m not there yet.” “What a load of crap.” “Anyway, I gotta catch the bus. By the way, I go by Alex now.” “You’re middle-name? Alex is short for Alexandra, you know.” About a half-an-hour later, Martha drove Larry to work. “Emily is a special little snowflake,” Larry said. “He goes by Alex, now,” Martha said. “Her name is Emily. Our daughter is a special little snowflake, who’s living in a fantasy land. She thinks she’s male. But guess
What does it mean to be classified as “transgender?” When an individual feels his or her biological gender does not match his or her gender identity, he or she may be considered transgender. This feeling of confusion may lead to frustration as well as more complicated issues related to mental health like depression. Some individuals may make the decision to medically change their biological gender to match their gender identity. One such individual, Caitlyn Jenner, made this transition and prompted additional discussion and promoted acceptance of transgender individuals.
For instance, sociologists would argue that characteristics of the male gender in a given society include independence, and dominance whereas females express more passive behavior. Gender identity, on the other hand is an individual’s sense of their gender or in other words, their sense as to whether they are feminine or masculine. Therefore, transgender is a term related to “people whose gender identity is different from the gender commonly socially assigned to them on the basis of their biological sex” (Morrow & Messinger, 2006, p. 7).“Biological theories assume that gender should be consistent with biological sex and there are only two genders and two sexes” which does not correspond to transgender people. Furthermore, transgender is also used as a general term to include people such as transsexuals and cross-dressers
Being Trans gender is when a person’s self identity does not conform with their conventional sex. Talking about people identifying as a transgender individual is a difficult and very controversial topic to discuss. One author, Ruth Padawer has brought the topic to light, presenting us with examples from one of the most prestigious women’s colleges in the United States. In her piece, “Sisterhood is Complicated” from 2014, she ponders on the idea of if people who identify as transgender should be allowed in an all women’s college. In her piece, she states that “Some two dozen other matriculating students at Wellesley don’t identify as women. Of those, a half dozen or so were trans men, people born female who identified as men, some of whom had begun taking testosterone to change their bodies.” All of which made the switch to be transgender after being accepted into the school. So, in a college of all women, some are switching genders and it challenges the idea of an all women’s college. The piece continues to go through and tell us the story of three trans men and their experience at Wellesley college.
Imagine going through life believing that you were born into the wrong body. This is how a transgender feels as they go through life. A transgender is a person who whose self-identity does not conform unambiguously to male or female sex. This topic is very controversial due to many arguments about the differences between the male and female physique. The natural biological differences between males and a females play a huge role in this controversy.
Russell first goes wrong is claiming that transgender people are not the gender they identify as. She seems unaware of the fact that transgender folks are similar to their cisgender counterparts mentally and emotionally even if their genitals are not. In fact, according to an Amsterdam-based study found in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology conducted by endocrinologist Richard Swaab found that forty-two brains of transgender individuals that had gone through hormone replacement therapy, showed similar nucleus structures to their cisgender counterparts (p 47). Nicole also seems to be under the impression that transgender youth rely on fleeting emotions to determine their gender when that is not the case. All transgender individuals, regardless of age, are required to attend gender therapy for a minimum of six months in order for them to receive a referral to an endocrinologist who will decide if they are mentally stable enough to understand the full effects of taking hormones. During that time the therapist works with the individual to break down why they may want to transition. The therapist goes over the person’s past, they talk about any forms of abuse they might have faced, and attempt to have the patient build a support group that can help them during their transition. The same process is also required to receive any sex-changing surgeries because doctors will not preform them without written consent from a certified
However, an umbrella term, or a word that covers more than one specific topic, such as transgender, does not only describe people who identify as the opposite sex; it also describes people who identify with both male and female genders, people who identify as genderless, or people who fluctuate between two or more genders. Many transgender people often refer to themselves simply as “trans.” Transgender does not define one’s sexual orientation, however; gender is considered a social construct while sexuality is not.
Transgender is an umbrella term, meaning an individual’s gender-identity does not align with their assigned sex at birth. Although transgender is a protected class in eighteen states, these individuals still face discrimination within the country and around the world (“Non-Discrimination Laws”). Transgender is not a lifestyle, no one chooses to live their life constantly being discriminated against. Transgender issues should be more educated on and their lives should be more protected.
With the “Orange Is the New Black” star, Laverne Cox being transgender and permitted to play a vivid character as “Sophia”, Caitlyn Jenner’s announcement on the Diane Sawyer interview in 2015, and the arsenal of social media, being non-cisgender (not the gender assigned at birth) in general, has been discussed more than ever. Due to the Internet’s broadness, people who met this classification are unraveling new identities such as non-binary and genderqueer (only people who are this can say this word as “queer” is a slur). Being cisgender is the norm in society. I am also non-cisgender and this is an unique thing that possessed many scars.
Non-binary gender itself is an umbrella term for a person’s gender identity that does not fit in the “normal” gender binary. A form of non-binary erasure is the wrong, but nonetheless commonplace, idea that the only two genders (male and female) exist and any other gender(s) are just imaginary. (“Discrimination”) A further example of non-binary erasure is purposely using the incorrect pronouns (called misgendering) as harassment for “being a non-existent gender.” Non-binary erasure also takes place on a more systematic scale as well. For example, all US identity documents (such as passports, birth certificates, driver’s license, etc) only have two listed genders, male and female, with zero non-binary options available. This makes acquiring health care or certain jobs, without misgendering themselves, very uncomfortable for most non-binary people. Also, in some places, anti-discrimination laws might protect binary transsexuals but will not protect non-binary transsexuals. The concept of non-binary gender is, admittedly, not that well-known and is fairly complicated to some people. As such, it is far easier, intentionally or not, to discriminate against people whose gender is not part of the “normal” gender
“The federal government and almost every state recognize transgender people’s right to change their name and to have identification documents with the gender marker that matches their gender identity.” (Jami Kathleen Taylor, 2007) There are a lot of misconceptions on what the meaning of transgender is, some think that they only become the person whether it is male to female, or female to male after surgery. What people fail to realize is that every transgender person transitions in their own way.
Valentine’s book Imagining Transgender gives rise to the category transgender. He advocates for gender variant people who identify as Trans- (or have been identified as) as a group or individual identity, all with rights to political and social engagement. The politics surrounding transgendered groups are relative to legal frameworks, health and or social provisions, and various other systems that are inclusive to the hegemonic patriarchal society. The differences Valentines creates for the identity categories constructed from the encounters of the participants made notable individualizations especially for persons of color or lower socioeconomic levels. Valentine maintained that social justice for identity politics had much to do with attention
When an individual identifies themselves as transgender, it means that they feel that their biological gender does not match with their psychological gender. To put that into a simple man’s term, the individual feels they “were born in the wrong body”. For example, a man feels that he was meant to be born a woman and vise-versa. It does sound rather unusual, but why should that matter? An individual should be able to make his or her own decisions about how they live their life. Unfortunately though, not everyone feels the same way about this. That is how the controversy is created. This is why transgender rights should be strengthened in America not only because it is morally correct, but also because it would ease the lives of the people within this group, reduce the discrimination and harassment rates of transgender individuals, and help establish awareness.
Imagining if I transformed into the opposite sex for a week, my experiences of truth and reality would be quite different, yet strikingly similar to my life as a woman. Although my peers would accept me the same and know nothing altered, my mindset would have done a complete 180 degree flip. Although it is the expectation that humans identify with a single gender, multitudes of modern Americans refuse to succumb to this idea and prefer to identify with a sense gender fluidity. “The term "gender identity” . . . refers to a person's innate, deeply felt psychological identification as a man, woman or some other gender, which may or may not correspond to the sex assigned to them at birth” (par. 2). Some refuse to accept that gender is as one may say black or white, male or female. However, if I transfigured into a man, I would need to adjust my sense of reality in regards to the new expectations that come with the given gender.
Gender is seen as a spectrum, and one can fall anywhere on this spectrum. Again, according to Sam Killerman, being transgendered means living "as a member of a gender other than that expected based on sex assigned at birth." Just because a person is born with male genitalia does not mean they have to be male.
Clinically speaking, a person who was assigned female at birth but identifies and lives as a man is referred to as a transsexual man, or transman, or female-to-male (FTM); a male-to-female (MTF) person is a transsexual woman or transwoman (Glicksman). Some people drop the transgender label after they have transitioned to their new gender. However, they want to be referred to only as a man or a woman. But what if our gender identity, our sense of being a boy or being a girl, does not match our physical body? From a very early age we will start to feel increasingly uncomfortable. For some this is a mild discomfort, for others it is so traumatic they would rather die than continue to live in the wrong body. Unfortunately as transsexual people are a small minority of the population the condition has been labeled by Psychiatrists as "Gender Identity Disorder". With the transgendered, the disordered assumption is that the