There is a lot of debate over the “proper” use of the term ”transgender”. Language is fluid and ever-changing. This is particularly true with the word “transgender”. 

One commonly used definition for “transgender” describes someone who feels a significant mis-match between the sex they were assigned at birth and their gender identity, their sense of themselves as male-gendered or female-gendered, or both genders, or neither gender.  That definition is broad enough to encompass a whole range of people.  It can include people who feel such a tremendous mis-match that they wish to undergo transition and live as the opposite sex to that which they were designated at birth . It can include people who are comfortable with their biological sex, but feel it is society’s limitations around what it MEANS to be a man or a woman that are the problem. (Why can’t a man wear a dress, high heels and make-up and still be a man? Why can’t a woman use a gender neutral name, wear suits and ties, and still see herself as a woman?) It can also include people who do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth but do not wish to “transition” to their opposite sex. These people might fit “outside” of the categories of male and female, masculine and feminine. These people sometimes explain that they see themselves as “neither” genders, or “both” genders. Sometimes these people refer to themselves as “in-betweens”, or “walk-betweens”.  These can’t all be right, can they? 

In order to understand the controversy surrounding the word, we have to understand it’s origins as well as its current uses.  Say the word “transgender” to some older transsexuals and they might flinch. In years past, the word “transgender” was coined by a full-time MTF crossdresser named Virginia Price. She had no desire to have any kind of surgical intervention. She came up with the word because she said she wanted to make a distinction between herself and “those mutilating transsexuals”. To some transsexuals who still recall those origins, they might find it offensive to be included under a word that had its origins in transphobia.  

“Transgender” may have begun catching on as an umbrella term to include anyone who expresses “gender variance” due to political factors. In smaller communities where there were lesser numbers of transsexual and transgendered people, the word may have been used as a way to show solidarity and strength in numbers.  In present day, “transgender” is often used more frequently than  the word “transsexual” in the media. This is – in part – a result of the continuous work being done by academic and gender theorists like transgender-identified Kate Bornstein who have been able to get a public forum for their voices. Many transsexual voices, on the other hand, have been left out of public forums because transsexuals have historically wished to “pass”, that is, to move through society quietly as the sex and gender with which they identify. Being out often meant being harassed, abused, discriminated against in terms of housing, employment, and health care. It makes sense that the word ”transgender” has become more common since it is the transgender identified people who have been doing most of the talking.  Yet often we find that in large urban centres where there are large and vocal transsexual communities, there is more stringent separation between the uses of the words transsexual and transgendered. Many transsexuals are very clear that they don’t identify as transgendered.  They might comment that transgendered people don’t have to face the same kinds of barriers that transsexuals  face in trying to access supportive health care, get on hormones, and afford surgeries. (they might be wrong! Transgendered people face lots of discrimination too!)  Transsexuals also sometimes comment that once they have transitioned to live as the man or woman they have known themselves to be, they no longer feel “transgendered” in that they no longer feel “mismatched” between their body and their gender. 

With all of these potential uses of the word transgender, it’s no wonder that someone is going to disagrees with any one “simple” definition. What’s most important here isn’t finding the “universal” definition which will be accepted by everyone, but rather to make sure that we allow others to define themselves. If someone online introduces herself as a transgender woman, we cannot be certain whether this is an MTF transsexual  woman or a non-transsexual biological female who does drag-kinging on the weekends and enjoys wearing a strap-on for sex . Truth is this: when we allow people to label themselves, the label becomes a source of power. When we presume to know enough about a person to label them (or to strip them of a label they have chosen for themselves) the label becomes a source of oppression. (As if trans people didn’t face enough oppression already.)  

Kyle Scanlon 
Trans Programmes Coordinator 
519 Church Street Community Centre 
Toronto, Ontario 
416-392-6878 x104 
mealtran@the519.org