Dear Anita

Transgender people have faced the stigma of identifying as transgender as being a mental illness since 1994 when the DSM-III (diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders) listed  it as a “gender identity disorder.” (Washington post). The term disorder in mental health tends to lead some people to believe that a person doesn’t fit into the normal order of things and cannot function as a normal person thinks; which has lead to much negative views on how people view of transgender people. However, many transgender activists have fought for trans rights saying that identifying as transgender isn’t a mental illness that impacts a person’s cognitive abilities. Many transgender people once they have transitioned into the gender they identify as feel gender euphoria which is the feeling of a sense of elatedness finally connecting with their body. Being transgender just means that the person’s mind feels that they are a gender identity other than the sex they are born as. Trans is latin meaning “opposite ” so transgender means a person who identifies as a gender opposite of their birth sex. Sex is the biological traits people are born as with females and males. Females produce eggs, can have children, and have wider hips than males who have sperm and cannot have children and grow facial hair as secondary sex characteristics because of testosterone rise in puberty while females develop breasts and start menstruation at puberty. Sex is determined by chromosomes while gender is how people identify. If a person born biological sexed girl identifies as a girl in her gender identity then she is cisgender meaning her gender identity matches her birth sex. Cis is latin for “same” so cisgender refers to people whose gender identity matches their birth sex.

If a person identifies as male in gender identity but biologically sexed female then they are a transmale.

Similarly if a person identifies as female but biologically born male, they are a transmale.

In 2013, the DSM was revised and now the version DSM-IV no longer has transgender in as a mental illness, instead the intense anxiety and discomfort transgender people feel over their bodies called “gender dysphoria ” is now in the manual. Because many transgender people function well in society after they transition, being transgender is no longer seen as a mental illness but rather as a way people identify. The DSM-IV classifies gender dysphoria as a feeling of discomfort varying in intensity between people who identify as transgender. Some transgender people might experience extreme gender dysphoria over parts of their body that they feel don’t correspond to their gender identity. Such as a transmale will experience gender dysphoria over their breasts, hips, thighs because they don’t look masculine enough. One step in expressing their gender identity is social transitioning when they ask friends, schoolmates, or family to call them by a chosen name that better reflects their gender identity. During the social transitioning process, the transgender person might ask others to use different pronouns to indicate their gender identity. A transmale may start asking people to use he/him pronouns while a transfemale may ask a people to use she/her pronouns.

Lately they/them pronouns have been added to merriam websters dictionary to refer to a singular person as well as a group. For some transgender people who have unsupportive family members they may ask their friends to use they/them pronouns as a safe guard. They/them pronouns are used by transgender people and nonbinary people. transgender people encompasses nonbinary people and gender-nonconforming people in the community because transgender is a wide term to describe a person whose gender identity doesn’t match society expectations or the sex they were born as. So in essence, transgender is a catch-all for everyone who doesn’t fit into the binary box of female and male. There are many different gender identities.

Some include:

-Transgender (a catch-all term for people whose gender identity doesn’t match their biological sex)

-Neutrois (a french term meaning gender-neutral for someone who doesn’t identify as masculine or feminine)

– gender-noncomforming (a person who doesn’t follow societal expectations of gender)

-agender (a person who doesn’t identify as any gender)

– gender fluid (a person who exhibits both masculine and feminine traits and can change depending on how they feel)

-gender-neutral (a person who likes dressing as neither gender and enjoys the benefits of both)

-Nonbinary (a person who doesn’t follow gender roles in society, sometimes people questioning their gender identity will identify as this until they explore more)

Also in the gender identity community are intersex people who were born with extra or missing  sex chromosomes and have characteristics of both male and female sex. an intersex person might have both ovaries and testes for instance. Intersex is fairly rare, about 1.7 % of the population and most individuals are sterile (american progress).

Sadly society tends to think that people who don’t fit into the gender identity of society sometimes have a disorder but with more awareness things have changed. Transgender rights is becoming more common with people like Elliot Page, Laverne Cox, and Chaz Bono helping promote activism. Many transgender people seek to medically transition to alleviate their gender dysphoria and it can significantly improve their self-esteem. The transgender community has high risks of suicide compared to other people in the lgbtq community at 43%. Transgender  people have been around in history; sumerian and akkadian texts from 4500 years ago document priests who were likely to be transgender (Wikipedia).