As a term, “transgender” has a rich, decades-long history dotted with civil rights advancements, resistance, and liberation.
Though it’s gotten more visibility in the last few decades, many people are still unclear as to what “trans” actually means and who it includes. The simplest explanation of “transgender” is that it describes anyone who is not cisgender, but it’s also a bit more complicated than that.
Angelica Ross, who played Candy on Pose and founded TransTech Social Enterprises, examined the origins of the term “transgender” for Them.
“From its harmful use in medical texts in the '60s to the adoption of the term to denote both a concept and an identity, the term ‘transgender’ has come a long way,” Ross told Them. “But how much do we really know about the word ‘transgender,’ and where did it come from?”
Read below for a break down of how “transgender” became an umbrella term, as well as the evolution of the words “transsexual” and “transvestite.”
What Is Transgender?
Being transgender at its core means not being cisgender, or aligning with the gender you were assigned at birth.
“You either fall under the transgender umbrella or you are cis. While ‘transgender’ can mean many things, hence the ‘umbrella,’ cis means one thing — namely that your gender aligns with the binary sex that you were assigned at birth, either male or female,” Ross said.
Aside from not being cis, the definition of who is trans and who isn’t is fluid. Many non-cisgender people align themselves with transess, while others do not. For example, some agender people are trans, while others say they are not.
The spectrum of trans identity is vast, as many people who are transsexual, gender nonconforming, nonbinary, agender, genderqueer, or genderfluid are also trans. Transness is expansive and includes any gender-variant people who feel they fit under the umbrella.
Ultimately, while there may be a "dictionary definition" of a word like “transgender,” it's a term that only you can decide if you identify with or not.
While older medical definitions of being transgender defined it as experiencing gender dysphoria, many trans people say this definition is antiquated. Plenty of trans people do not experience gender dysphoria at any point in their lives.
What Is the Difference Between Transgender and Transsexual?
Transgender and transsexual are often used interchangeably in media, but is there actually a difference between the two?
In 1965, Dr. John F. Oliven wrote a medical text called “Sexual Hygiene and Pathology” that included one of the first known uses of “transgender.” Oliven wrote using “transsexual” to describe someone who had a desire for gender-affirming medical intervention was incorrect. He said “transgenderism” should be used instead because sexual played no role in people’s internal gender.
“At this point, Dr. Oliven used the word ‘transgender’ as a synonym for ‘transsexual’ in reference to people who transition through surgery,” Ross said.
In the 1970s, activist and trans pioneer Virginia Prince popularized the term through her advocacy and writing. Prince used “transgenderal” to differentiate herself from transexual people in 1969, the same year as the Stonewall Riots commenced the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.
“I, at least, know the difference between sex and gender,” she wrote, “and have simply elected to change the latter and not the former. If a word is necessary, I should be termed a ‘transgenderal.’”
“Her use of the term ‘transgenderal’ clearly differentiated between the ways people choose to transition,” Ross said.
Just five years later, social workers, medical professionals, and activists put together the first ever Transvestite and Transsexual Conference at the University of Leeds in 1974.
“This literature, some of the earliest conference literature available on trans health, made clear distinctions between transvestites (people who dressed as the opposite gender), transsexuals (people who transitioned genders through surgery), and transgender people who did transition but did not elect to undergo surgery,” Ross said.
A year later, in 1975, transgender people were officially written into civil rights laws when Minneapolis passed an ordinance banning discrimination against people for “having or projecting a self-image not associated with one’s biological maleness or one’s biological femaleness.”
In the 1980s, artists like Bruce Laker, who also went by Phaedra Kelly, coined other terms to describe gender variance. These terms spoke to the differences in trans experience like “gender transient” to refer to being transgender, which was still distinct from “transsexual.”
“By the 1990s, the distinction between ‘transgender’ and ‘transsexual’ began to fade,” Ross said. “According to Oxford English Dictionary lexicographer Jonathan Dent, this was around when the wider LGBTQ+ community began to embrace ‘trans’ as an umbrella term that would ‘cover a wide range of identities’ that might not fit with ‘traditional notions’ of gender, similar to ‘queer’ for sexuality.”
Despite its rise in popular media, the term “trans” did not appear in the Oxford English Dictionary until 2019. Since the 1990s, “transsexual” has generally fallen out of favor as a term cis people should use to refer to trans folks. Some trans people self-identify as transsexual, but it’s best to always ask before assuming.
Do Trans People Need to Transition?
Though many popular depictions of transness showcase transition, not all trans people have the same medical journey. Transition can mean different things to different trans people, sometimes including medical intervention and other times not.
Trans people of all medical experiences are valid and do not need to undergo a linear form of medical journey to be considered as such.
In addition to questioning who gets to be trans based on medical experience, there is heated discourse about whether or not gender-variant people are included under the trans umbrella.
“Because the trans umbrella grouping is so new, there is still some debate as to who is or isn’t trans,” Ross said. “Some people believe that drag queens belong under the umbrella because they are gender nonconforming.”
RuPaul famously disagreed in 2018, saying drag is an art exclusively for cis queer men, which he apologized for after receiving backlash.
"You can identify as a woman and say you’re transitioning, but it changes once you start changing your body," he said. "It takes on a different thing; it changes the whole concept of what we’re doing."
“Ru rightfully came under fire for that comment, which many saw as transphobic,” Ross said.
Are Nonbinary People Trans?
There is no hard and fast rule about nonbinary people being trans. Some nonbinary people are trans and others are not, depending on how they interpret and whether they embrace the label.
“A trans nonbinary person is typically someone who doesn’t identify with the sex that was assigned to them at birth (trans) and also has a gender identity that can’t be categorized as exclusively male or female (nonbinary),” Ross said. “Some nonbinary folks who are not trans identify partially with their assigned sex at birth, even while not identifying as strictly male or female.”
Overall, transness encompasses an array of diverse experiences and has a rich history.
“Transgender is a word that denotes both a concept and a series of specific identities,” Ross said. “In its most broad usage today, transgender means to cross the boundary of your original or assigned gender. But, not all people who may transgress this boundary identify as transgender. Regardless, trans and nonbinary people of all identities are powerful and beautiful.”
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