Who are the transgender People? A word with many lives inside

Austen hartke* Article Published on the website My Kid is Gay (United States), freely translated by Stefania Solivardi

Definition. "Transgender" it is a term umbrella used to describe people whose gender identity does not correspond to the sex assigned to birth.

I know, it looks like a tongue, but let's go to degrees! Gender identity it is the inner feeling of being male, female, both, or neither of the two, and concerns the perception that each one has of himself. The sex assigned to birth it is the M or F label that is given by the doctors after childbirth, and is based on the external genitalia.

Transgender it is an adjective, and therefore it is used to describe a person. For this reason, call someone "A transgender" it is not correct: it is said "A transgender person". In equal way, it is not correct to say that a person is "Transgendarata". It would be like calling a German "Germanized".

Explanation

Being transgender can mean many things. For example, a transgender person may have been assigned the female sex at birth, but then he understood that he is male gender, or vice versa. There are also transgender people who do not have a purely female or purely male identity. Let's take a look at the other labels that fall under the umbrella definition of transgender:

• Evil-to-female (MTF): an MTF transgender person, or trans woman, is a person who was assigned the male sex at birth, but whose gender identity is feminine. Trans women are sometimes called Dmab, which is for"Designated bad at birth" (defined as male at birth).

• Female-to-maker (FTM): a transgender ftm person, or trans man, he is a person to whom the female sex has been assigned to birth, but whose gender identity is male. Trans men are sometimes called DFAB, which is for"Designated female at birth" (defined female at birth).

• Non-locory: a non-locory trans person does not identify neither as completely male, nor as completely female, and therefore does not appear either of the two common boxes of the genre. Non-locory people could refer to themselves as androgine, agender, intergender, neutrois, genderqueer, etc.

• Genderfluid: a trans Genderfluid person has a gender identity that changes over time. For example, it could be more identified as a male for a period, and then as a predominantly feminine later. It could also come to understand that non-locory identity is the one that best defines it.

• Third kind: long before western society began to understand them, many cultures all over the world recognized and respected trans identity. In some native-American tribes, trans people are called Two-Spirit, to represent the duality present in them. In India there is a group of people who identify with a third kind, called hijra, for hundreds of Years. In samoa, those who have an unconventional identity are called f'afafine. Traditionally, only those who belong to these cultures use ethnically specific terms such as these to define themselves.

NB: some transgender people prefer to use neutral pronouns, such as Anglo -Saxon they/Them/TheirsInstead of the classic male and female pronouns (he and her). Over time, several neopronomists have emerged, including ze, hir, for, xE, eir and many others. The best thing you can do when you don't know that pronouns prefer the person in front of you, it is simply asking him.

One last label to keep in mind iscisgender, which refers to people whose gender identity corresponds to the sex assigned to birth. The prefix "Cis" derives from the Latin "From here from", and it refers to the fact that the genre and sex of the person are aligned. The prefix "trans", on the other hand, derives from the Latin "Beyond, through", and it refers to a gender identity that does not correspond to the sex assigned to birth.

If the sex assigned to birth and gender identity do not coincide, there is nothing wrong! For a very long time the Statistical and diagnostic manual of mental disorders, who is used by mental health professionals to diagnose patients, reported being transgender as a "Gender identity disorder", and he categorized him as a disease. This thing has been changed not long ago, and only in the latest version of the manual (DSM V).

Psychologists and psychiatrists today agree on the fact that the different gender identities are not a problem, while they are the malaise that transgender people feel due to tensions between their gender identity and the sex that was they assigned them. This malaise, this agitation and this discomfort are caused by gender dysphoria.

Although it is true that not all transgender people experience gender dysphoria, the majority of them lives it. For example, imagine you wake up one morning and find yourself with an extra arm that grew over the night, that only you can see. You would go around the house with your new arm that makes you tiring you prepared coffee, or even just thinking, but the people you meet would tell you that they see nothing that does not go. This dissonance can somehow describe what transgender people feel, even if their feeling is more mental than physical.

Transgender people have an internal and external vision of themselves that does not coincide with that of the rest of the world has of them. It is a disorienting experience, and they may want years before the person understands what is happening. Some transgender people understand they are very early, and they remember they have told their parents that they are actually a male or a five -year -old female, while others understand it only once they arrive at 50 or 60 years old.

To align their bodies to their minds and souls, some transgender people choose to undertake the medical transition, which varies from person to person and can include the hormonal therapy replaced (hormone replacement therapy, HRT) and other such reorganization interventions (also called sex reassignment surgery).

Those who want to present themselves as stereotypically more male could decide to take testosterone for injection or gel, while those who want to present themselves as more stereotypically feminine could decide to start the transition by taking on estrogen and oral progesterone. These hormones can be prescribed by a general practitioner who has experience with transgender patients, or an endocrinologist. Even such reorganization interventions can help trans people to feel at home in their body; They include surgical changes to primary and secondary sexual characteristics.

It is important to remember that, for trans people, it does not exist "The operation". There are many surgical procedures, and none of them are necessary to identify themselves as a transgender. Although curiosity is often strong, you must always keep in mind that it is not appropriate to ask questions to a transgender person (or anyone else, if it is for this) regarding his genitals, or the appearance of other intimate parts. The golden rule to remember is: Would you feel uncomfortable if they asked you that question? Then don't do it to others.

It is true that transgender people undergo a disproportionate quantity of discrimination, from those on the workplace to intolerance in public bathrooms, but it is important to remember that many trans people lead very happy lives. Let's try a lot of gender dysphoria, but we also try gender euphoria when someone calls us "Gentleman" or "Lady", when someone uses correct pronouns, when we are reminded that what we are has value.

Being transgender means that it might want more time and efforts to understand who you really are, but once you get there you discover that they have sincerity that not everyone has the pleasure of trying.

Myths to dispel

• "Transgender people are just homosexual people who don't admit they are." Some people believe that trans people decide to face the burden of the medical and/or social transition only because they do not want to be perceived as homosexuals, or that be transgender is as being Homosexual 2.0. The truth is that gender identity and sexual orientation are two very different things, and that a transgender person of any kind can be straight, homosexual, bisexual, asexual or anything else. Think of sexual orientation as of the tastes of ice cream, and gender identity such as pods or grains: they can be mixed and combined in dozens of different ways, but they are not the same thing.

• "Transgender people always feel as if they were born in the wrong body." We often hear the sentence "I am a girl born in the body of a boy" and vice versa, but this does not apply to everyone. For some children it is so, but they say it only because it is the only way to express their feelings. Many adult trans people believe that this concept is problematic, because they are not in someone else's body: that body is them, only that it does not have the desired appearance, and then they could decide to modify it.

• "Transgender people deceive you making you think they are a true/or woman/man." Transgender people don't want to "deceive anyone". Indeed, many of them risk verbal and physical attacks as soon as they decide to express themselves in the most honest and authentic way possible.
When we talk about sex and gender, we must look beyond appearances: women and transgender women are in all respects real women and real men, and the identity of non-bins is equally true and real. Coming out as a trans person is not something we do to hide who we really are, but rather a way to take away the mask that has been put to us by society.

* Austen Hartke is the creator of the series YouTube call Transgender and Christian, whose goal is to understand, interpret and share some parts of The bible that have to do with the gender identity and the lives of transgender people. austen Is a trans and bisexual boy, and he graduated in 2014 from The luther Seminary's Master Of arts In studies on the Old hebrew Testament/Scriptures. you can order austen's Book entitled "Transforming: The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians" on Amazon.

Original text: Defining: Transgender

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