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Timothé C.
3 juin 20228 min de lecture

Gender and transgender identities : an explanation

June just started, and it means for many the end of the scholar year. But it is also Pride month, a month to raise awareness about the LGBT+ community. Unfortunately, this community is often misrepresented : when we say LGBT+, most people think about gay people, sometimes bisexuals and rarely pan and asexuals ( Here is another article of the journal if you want to know more about asexuality : Asexuel, aromantisme et LGBT+ ). But this only takes in account the sexual minorities, people that are not straight. Staying in this view of LGBT+ community, it means forgetting about trangender people. In this article, we are going to explain exactly what we mean when we say “transgender” or “ non-binary”, and we will answer some frequent questions and remarks that trans people are asked.


A few definitions


First of all, let’s specify the terms related to trans identities. A trans person is not “ a man who becomes a woman ”, this saying is wrong and hurtful in that it does not correctly represent the diversity of trans people. Actually, someone who is trans is someone whose gender assigned at birth does not match their current gender. Let’s give some more specific definitions :

The assigned gender at birth ( agab for short ), it’s when we say “ It’s a boy ” or “ It’s a girl ” about a newborn ; we assign them a gender just by looking at their genitals. The gender identity of someone is the feeling they have about their own gender. If this feeling match with their agab, they are cisgender, and if it doesn’t they are trangender.

The gender identity of an individual does not have to be binary, man or woman, it is possible to feel something else than those two categories and therefore be non-binary. There is a lot of gender behind the label non-binary, since it only means we are not a girl nor a boy, non-binary people can be agender, meaning they don’t have a gender, genderfluid, meaning their gender identity varies from time to time, demiboys and demigirls, …


Then there are the pronouns used. Most people use he/him and she/her, but we can also use they/them, used a lot among non-binary because it’s gender-neutral ( there are a lot of people who are confused because they think they/them can only be used to refer to plural people, but it can also be used in a singular way, for example in the sentence “ Someone dropped their wallet ” ). There are other pronouns, called neopronouns, like ze/hir or xe/xem, but they are less common.



In this article, these are the definitions we are going to use, but they are not universal, some people can use other definitions. In fact, there are non-binary people who do not consider themselves as trans, while with our definitions they are.


FAQ


Here are some questions that are often asked about trans identity :


Shouldn’t we consider that someone’s sex is more important than their gender ?


Something that really is misunderstood is that acknowledging gender identity does not mean denying the existence of someone’s biological sex. Sex is in the field of biology, and gender is in the field of social relationship. When we speak to someone, we care about the social background : the feelings, the life story, the name of the person, we don’t care about their genes or their body. In most cases, we consider people within social relationships. That’s why knowing someone’s biological sex isn’t relevant unless you’re a physician or a biologist.

Furthermore, this conception does not take intersex people into account. We can’t always categorize people in the two boxes “ biological male ” and “ biological female ”, there are people born with XXY chromosomes, some born with XY chromosomes but who have female genitalia, people born with androgynous genitals, … And it’s not just a tiny part of the population : around 2% of the world population would be intersex.

This makes the “categorisation” of people way harder, and biologists don’t all agree about what biological sex is, for geneticists, it’s the chromosomes, for physicians it’s genitals and secondary sex characteristics, for evolutionary biologists it’s the gametes you produce, …



It’s only really recently that we see all those questions about trans identity, couldn’t it be a modern trend ?


That’s also what we can hear about homosexuality : it wasn’t there before, which means it is a modern trend. In fact, we only think that there were no trans people before because they were invisibilized in our western societies. But in other societies, we have proof that it existed : in Native American societies, the label Two-Spirit refers to a diversity of gender non-conforming people, and they were often considered as healers. In Hawaiian culture, there are Māhūs, a “third gender” for people who didn’t feel like a man or a woman. After the colonization, an important part of that culture was destroyed, judged heretical by Catholics, but a part survived, and now those identities are part of the LGBT+ community. Trans people didn’t appear in the 21st century, they were always here, just not acknowledged.



How can I know someone is trans ?


We cannot know someone’s gender through what they look like. Our appearance is not related to our identity : some men are crossdressing ( dressing as the stereotypical opposite gender ) while being certain of their identity as a man, women can have beards, non-binary people can dress androgynously or not. You can only know someone’s gender if they mention it. But their gender is often irrelevant : you can discuss, be friends with someone without knowing their gender, what is most important to ask are the pronouns they use, because you need pronouns to refer to people.

Making trans-inclusive bathrooms, that’s going too far.


That is a debate often brought up when it comes to trans people : they should used the bathrooms of their agab, because it could scare cis people, and it would make them feel uncomfortable. But the people who feel the most uncomfortable in bathrooms are trans people. They feel threatened by the harassment they could face, and according to the report of the 2015 Transgender Survey in the U.S., more than half of trans people avoided using a bathroom because of that fear. And up to 8% of trans people developed a urinary infection or another condition due to this.

This problem plays such a big part in trans people’s lives that apps were created to list trans-inclusive bathrooms, like Refugee Restroom. Teagan Widmer, who launched the app, shows the impossible choice trans people face in classic bathrooms through the beginning of her transition : “ If I go into the women's room, I might get yelled at. If I go into the men's room, I might get assaulted. ”.



We shouldn’t let children be aware of that, they are too young to understand.

Unlike what people would think, it is at a very early age that trans people realize they are trans. It is therefore important to talk to children about transness, for the trans kids to understand their feelings and the cis kids to understand that everyone does not feel the way they feel. According to the 2015 US Transgender Survey, 60% of trans people felt that their gender was different from their agab before they turned 10.

Making kids aware that trans people exist will not turn kids trans ( yes, some people do believe that ), it will only help trans children be who they are and teach cis children how to be more respectful.



They are not oppressed, they only pretend to be to raise attention to them.


According to the 2015 US Transgender Survey :

  • 8% of trans people were kicked out of their house and families when they came out to them, and 10% ran away by themselves because of the harassment.

  • 25% reported discrimination or harrassment from a healthcare provider, and 23% avoided going to the doctor due to the fear of mistreatment.

  • 39% of transgender people experienced serious psychological distress, compared to only 5% of the global US population.

  • 77% of those who were out during their education reported violence because of their identity in school.


How can I be an ally ?


What is most important is educating ourselves about trans people. In the sources, there are several links to informatives articles, or articles that give tips to respect trans people. When you talk to a trans person, speak like you would with a cis person. Don’t ask questions about genitals, their agab, it is never relevant. If you want to talk about their transition, be really careful because it can trigger trauma, you don’t know what they’ve been through. The best thing is to wait until they mention it by themselves, and to not rush them !

Obviously, we should respect everyone’s name and pronoun when we speak about them, whether the person in question is here or not. Also, do not make a big deal out of it if you get it wrong, just apologize and move on ( overapologizing is often awkward and eager to hurtful sentences such as “Sorry, it’s just that I still see you as a girl ”).

We can also avoid the phrasing “ Ladies and gentlemen ” and use “Y’all” or “Everyone” when we address a crowd, so we can be sure to include everyone.



Do not hesitate to check the sources, some of them are really short and easy to read ! You can also search for other articles if you want to know more, in this one I only covered the basis of transness, there is a lot more to it than just what I wrote.


Happy Pride Month to everyone !




Sources :


How to help the LGBT+ Community :


Transphobic Conspiracy Theories Video that fact-check some transphobic theories with humor.


Identity: A Trans Coming Out Story | Philosophy Tube ★ A more serious video about trans and more globally about identity under a more philosophical lens.


Tips for Allies of Transgender People | GLAAD GLAAD is a really complete site to inform yourselves




A rapid review of gender, sex, and sexual orientation documentation in electronic health records An article that depicts precise terms about the LGBT+ communities

Proposed sexual and gender minority Table with the proposed terms from this study








Sources informatives plus sérieuses si vous avez le courage


THE REPORT OF THE 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey My main source for this article, and as far as I’m aware the most important survey about trans people



Genderqueer and Non-Binary Identities & Terminology More terms to qualify the LGBT+ community



Trans Woman Releases Bathroom-Finder App Refuge Restrooms Teagan Widmer launch Refugee Restroom





Experiences of surgery readiness assessments in British Columbia Study depicting what are the afterthoughts of trans people after their surgery readiness assessments, which they have to undergo before their gender-affirming surgeries








How sexually dimorphic are we? Review and synthesis There are 2% of intersex in humans







Sources images :


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