What does a Transgender Mean?
Many of us nowadays are being confused of what is really meant by a Transgender. Some says that they are the opposite side of being a GAY's and some are a cross-dresser like to be. But do you really even know what was a transgender means?
"Transgender" is an umbrella term that describes people whose gender identity or expression does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. For example, a transgender person may identify as a woman despite having been born with male genitalia.
A person's internal sense of being male, female or something else is their gender identity. For cisgender, or non-transgender people, their gender identity matches their sex at birth. For transgender people, the two do not match.
Sometimes, a person's gender identity doesn't fit neatly into two choices. People who see themselves as being both male and female, neither male nor female or as falling completely outside these categories may identify as genderqueer, according to the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy organization. (LGBTQ refers to the community of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer or questioning individuals.)
How a person communicates their gender identity — through dress, behavior, voice or body characteristics — is their gender expression. A person's gender expression may or may not line up with society's expectations of masculinity or femininity, according to the HRC. The term "gender non-conforming" refers to people whose gender expression is different from conventional expectations of masculinity or femininity. However, not all gender-non-conforming people identify as transgender, and not all transgender people identify as gender non-conforming.
Being transgender is not a mental disorder. It cannot be "cured" with treatment. Transgender people do experience a persistent disconnect between their assigned sex and their internal sense of who they are, according to the HRC. Medical professionals refer to this disconnect as gender dysphoria because it can cause pain and distress in the lives of transgender people.
The American Psychiatric Association in 2012 announced that a new version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) would replace the term "gender identity disorder" with the more neutral term "gender dysphoria."
Research has shown that transgender people are at high risk of experiencing prejudice and mental-health problems. The 2014 National Transgender Discrimination Survey found that 60 percent of health care providers refuse treatment to transgender people. Additionally, the research found that 64 to 65 percent of the transgender people surveyed suffered physical or sexual violence at work, and 63 to 78 percent suffered physical or sexual violence at school.
It is important to note that many children question their gender identities without being transgender. Safer advised parents to be respectful of the child's feelings and recognize that there will be no actual medical intervention until the child begins puberty. Even then, initial medical treatments are reversible, he said.
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