Trans refers to anyone who has a gender identity; may it be the medical or psychological model, that is different than their birth sex, and/or expresses their gender in ways that contravene societal expectations of the range of possibilities for men and women.

This may include people who self-identify as transgendered, intersex, Two Spirit, crossdressers, transsexuals, bi-gendered, pan-gendered, genderqueer, androgynous, third gender, female and male impersonators, and drag kings/queens, as well as people whose perceived gender or anatomic sex may conflict with their gender expression (such as masculine-appearing women and feminine-appearing men).

The following terms are often used to refer to people who are included in some definitions of the term "transgender." I am aware that most people who visit my website are aware of these terms. This is meant to help educate those who happened on to my website by accident.

• Androgyne: a person who live without appearing or behaving particularly male or female.



• Androgynous & Androgyny: Having both masculine and feminine gender typed traits. According to Sandra Bem, this is an ideal of gender role development. It is preferable to masculinity (having masculine traits but not feminine traits), femininity (vice-versa), or being under differentiated (lacking clear gendered traits).



• BDSM: An abbreviation for "Bondage, Domination, Sado-Masochism" sexuality characterized by the consensual exchange of power. This is exchange of power can be either physical (e.g., spanking), psychological (e.g., teasing), or both. Often BDSM involves gender-related play when the partner with power adopt a male role and the partner without power adopts of female role.



• Bigender: The tendency to flexibly shift between masculine and feminine gender-typed behavior depending on context. While an androgynous person retains the same gender-typed behavior across situations, the bigendered person purposely changes their gender-role behavior for the situation. It is particularly noteworthy that this concept emerged from within the transgender community rather than being adopted by the transgender community after it was created by another sub-culture (e.g. transsexual was defined first by the mental health community).



• Cissexual: A person with a stable sex. This is the opposite of a transsexual and accounts for most people's gender development.



• Crossdresser, Cross dresser & CD: A person who wears clothing of the opposite sex, usually only part-time. Most male crossdressers consider themselves heterosexual and do not want gender reassignment surgery, though some are bisexual or gay. Many are married. Some transsexuals attempt to live for some time as part-time crossdressers to avoid the cost, disruption and social repercussions of gender reassignment.



• Drag Queen: A gay male, who wears women's clothes and makeup, sometimes in a deliberately exaggerated, "over-the-top" fashion, primarily for entertainment purposes. The female equivalent, less common, but increasingly visible, is the drag king.



• DSM: Abbreviation for the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" published by the American Psychiatric Association. It currently lists trans sexuality (gender identity disorder), cross-dressing (transvestic fetishism), and BDSM (sado-masochism) as mental illnesses. It removed homosexuality from its list in 1973



• Female Impersonator: A man who dresses and performs professionally as a specific female celebrity such as Cher, Shania Twain, etc. May be of any sexual orientation.



• Femininity or Feminine: trait, behaviors, thoughts, dress, and other manner viewed by a culture as typical of females. Often a trait is considered feminine if it focuses on establishing and maintaining harmonious human relationships.



• Fetish: sexual interest in an object not typically viewed as sexual (e.g. boots). Though the term originates as a psychological diagnosis, it is also used in alternative sexuality sub-cultures to refer to a style of dress typified boots, leather, and latex. For use as a psychological term, one should note that a person can wear fetish attire without having a fetish (e.g., Gothic) and one can have a fetish for any object regardless of it's role in a sub-culture (e.g., chalk-boards).



• Gender identity disorder (GID): s the formal diagnosis used by psychologists and physicians to describe persons who experience significant gender dysphoria (discontent with the biological sex they were born with). It is a psychiatric classification and describes the attributes related to transsexuality, transgender identity, and transvestism.



• Hermaphrodite: An older term for an intersexual/ inter sexed person; the term is now considered somewhat clinical or even derogatory.



• Intersexual/Intersexed person: A person born with ambiguous genitalia. Many discover they were surgically "assigned" a gender at birth after a cursory genital examination, sometimes with traumatic emotional consequences in later life.



• She-male: A male who has undergone some feminization, such as cosmetic surgery or breast implants, but retains the male genitalia. The connotation is that this has been done for sexual or pornographic purposes; hence, the term is usually considered highly pejorative by other groups within the transgendered community, who stress the emotional rather than sexual aspects of transgenderism. Best only applied to someone who specifically identifies themselves as such.



• Transnatural: A person who lives as a member of the opposite sex, but has decided to forego genital surgery.



• Transsexual: Someone who wishes to be of the opposite sex. Most often applied to those actually seeking gender reassignment. Based on chromosomal sex and surgical intentions or status.



• MTF or M2F Transsexual: Male to Female Transsexual



• FTM or F2M Transsexual: Female to Male Transsexual



• Sexual Orientation: Sexual attraction to a particular group of persons. Typical sexual orientations are to the other sex (heterosexuality) and one's own sex (homosexuality).



• Pre-op/Pre-operative: Intends to have, but has not yet had, genital surgery



• Post-op/Post-operative: Has completed genital surgery.



• Transvestite: An older word for a drag queen or crossdresser, now considered clinical or pejorative. The term survives in the psychological diagnosis of "fetishistic transvestism", for example.



1. TS: Abbreviation for transsexual



2. TV: Abbreviation for transvestite (not considered as pejorative as the original term itself)



• Two-spirited Traditional term used by many First Nations tribes to refer to transgendered persons



• T*: An umbrella term for the transgendered intended to be as inclusive as possible; pronounced "tee-star" (by analogy with the usage of the * in file references to mean "anything").