Transgender

Transgender (トランスジェンダー) refers to a person whose gender identity does not match with the sex they were assigned at birth.

Contents [hide]

1 Overview

2 Non-Binary and X-Gender

3 Related Articles

4 External Links

4.1 English

4.2 Japanese

5 Article in Other Languages

Overview

Transgender (トランスジェンダー, toransujendā), as in the terminology/the word it self, was popularized by American biochemist Virginia Prince in the 1960s (but the term was much more varied). At the time, it was mainly defined as "a designation for those who do not wish to transcend sex at the genital level, but wish to live in a gender/sex role opposite to the sex assigned at birth".

Today, the term is used more broadly, including those with gender identity disorder as simply "those who want to live in the opposite sex/gender role of the sex assigned at birth," and also including "those who self-actualize beyond the sex of male/female".

Among Japanese people with gender identity disorder, the term is often used to refer to those who wish to live up to the second stage of the guidelines described below.

For people with gender identity disorder,

MtF: (a person whose sex at birth is male but gender identity is female) is a transgender woman/trans woman.
FtM: (a person whose sex at birth is female but gender identity is male) is a transgender male/trans male.

and may also be referred to as, respectively.

In addition, the term "body/physical sex" is often used in explaining transgender people when referring to the gender that is the opposite of the gender they self-identify with, but many people are hurt by this terminology. For this reason, the term "sex at birth/gender assigned at birth" is sometimes used to be more sympathetic to the psychology of those involved.

As an example, in the case of MtF, it is more appropriate to say "a woman assigned as male at birth" than to say "a person whose body is male but whose mind is female". A more informal expression would be "a woman who was born with a male body".

Similarly, an FtM would be "a male who was assigned female at birth," than "a male who was born in a female body".

Non-Binary and X-Gender

As mentioned above, transgender includes not only "those who wish to live in a gender / gender role opposite to that assigned at birth," but also "those who self-actualize beyond the gender of male/female".

Specifically, they include those whose self-identified gender is neither female nor male, or both/other genders, those whose self-identified gender differs from day to day, and those who have partially different gender identities or statuses.

In Japan, these people are inclusively referred to as X-gender, or sometimes as MtX or FtX according to their gender at birth.

In other countries, there are various classifications of what falls under the X-gender category, which are more finely defined.

Representative examples:

Non-binary (ノンバイナリー): People who are neither male nor female; sometimes called enby (エンビー) based on the pronunciation of the abbreviation "NB" for Non-binary.
Gender Neutral (ジェンダーニュートラル): A person who is either male or female and identifies as neutral.
Demi-gender (デミジェンダー): People who are not uncomfortable with their sex at birth, but who desire a different way of life than the socially defined gender views and roles.
Third Gender (サードジェンダー): A third gender. Traditionally recognized in some non-Western cultures, for example in India, where it is also recognized as a legal gender.
Genderfluid (ジェンダーフルイド): People whose self-identified gender is fluid and varies from day to day.
Agender (アジェンダー): A person who does not self-identify as any gender).

Non-binary is closest in meaning to X-gender in Japan.

Sex Distinction　Gender　Sex　Gender Identity　LGBT　Trans　MtF　FtM　Non-Binary　X-Gender　Genderfluid