Essay on Relationship Transgender Identity

According to the articles, transgender is when someone's gender identity, expression, and behaviors are not conforming with their biological sex.

The term transgender is used to define individuals who do not identify with the sex that they were assigned at birth. For example, if a person who is born female decides later on in her life that she would like to identify as a man, that person would identify as a trans-man, and would most-likely use the pronouns “he” or “him” when describing himself.

According to Hagg and Fellows (2007:4), sex generally refers to anatomy and biology such as male or female, whereas gender refers to the qualities and behaviours society expects from a boy or girl, a man or woman. The definition of transgender refers to a person having no identification with, or no presentation as, the gender one was assigned at birth (Hagg and Fellows 2007:4). The definition of transsexual in Hagg and Fellows (2007:4) refers to a person who had undergone a sex change operation or a person identifying with the opposite sex.

“Transgender: of, relating to, or being a person whose gender identity differs from the sex the person had or was identified as having at birth; especially :of, relating to, or being a person whose gender identity is opposite the sex the person had or was identified as having at birth” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). In the world today, there are many people coming out as transgender, and many accepting it. Due to the fact that this is becoming a common thing, gender reassignment surgery is as well. Many may wonder what a gender reassignment surgery is, and if there are symptoms from it. People may also

In a lot of places around the world more and more people are coming out as “Transgender.” The term transgender means that the person’s gender identity does not correspond with the gender they were assigned as having at birth. From personally having a transgender boyfriend I have since realized that these people experience a lot of discrimination in and from society. Many people simply just do not understand what the term transgender means and they see it as someone just “wants to be a man” or “wants to be a woman.” While there may be people who present it this way, it is more so that the individual just “feels” different, and “feels” as if they are “in the wrong body.” Some people experience this feeling at a young age as my boyfriend did in his elementary age. We live in a world who put these people down for being who they truly are, and no human being wants or needs that.

When discussing transgendered people it is important to understand the difference between sex, and gender. “Sex is assigned at birth, refers to one’s biological status as either male or female, and is associated primarily with physical attributes such as chromosomes, hormone prevalence, and external and internal anatomy,” (APA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns Office). Sex is mainly important for medical reasons. A person can change their sex, through surgery and hormone therapy. “Gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for boys and men or girls and women” (APA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns Office). Gender and sex can coincide or they can be in conflict with each other. Someone whose gender identity matches the sex they are born with is called cisgendered. Cis- is a latin prefix, meaning “on this side”. Contrarily, trans- is a prefix meaning on the “other side of”. A person who is transgender expresses

In society, social categories are based on “real or assumed physical, biological, or genetic differences” (Kirk & Okazawa-Rey, 2013, p. 12) to create privilege, a desired cultural currency, for particular groups (Taylor, 2013). Hence, gender and sexual orientation are two of these social categories (Kirk & Okazawa-Rey, 2013), and transgender people, “whose gender expression, gender identity, and/or sex identity does not match the expectations of the dominant norm of society” (Catalano, McCarthy, & Shlasko, 2007, p. 219), are placed in the subordinate groups of these social categories (Kirk & Okazawa-Rey, 2013). Hence, the subordination of transgender people is based on the misguided premise of the sex/gender binary, which states there are only

Transgendered people in America have made many great strides since the 1990s. They have encountered violence, lack of health care, and the loss of homes, jobs, family and friends. There have been many phases of the struggle of being transgendered in America over the years. The current phase we must be in now is equal rights. There are many variations of discrimination against the transgendered community. In our society we simply do not like what we do not understand. It is easier to discriminate than to try and understand. We are all created different and we should appreciate our differences. The change must come by addressing the views of the public. There is much justification in the unequal rights of transgendered peoples. The Human

Traditionally speaking, most people view sex and gender as interchangeable, synonymous, and biological. As more studies and research are done, more professionals are realizing the vital difference between the two terms. Sex, according to sociologist Doctor Zuleyka Zevallos, is the “biological traits that societies use to assign people into the category of either male or female, whether it be through a focus on chromosomes, genitalia, or some other physical ascription”. She goes on to say that the definition of gender is “the cultural meanings attached to men and women’s roles; and how individuals understand their identities including, but not limited to, being a man, woman, transgender, intersex, gender queer, and other gender identities” (Zeyallos, 2014). We see sex as something we are assigned at birth due to the body parts we are born with, and we see gender as the way one identifies with their assigned sex. In the majority of cases, assigned sex and gender identity line up, but less often it does not. In these cases, we see individuals who are transgender, gender queer, gender fluid, and more. More people are coming forward about these different ways they are experiencing gender, so many people assume these ways of experiencing gender are new.

When I think of transgender people, I think of people who feel inside their body that they are not the gender that was assigned to them. For example, a person who is assigned to be a girl based on her genitalia and other bodily characteristics feels in her brain and her

Living a life feeling out of place, with the wrong feelings, and in the wrong body, for a person with Gender Identity Disorder, this is how they feel day to day. According to the DSM-IV-TR, Gender Identity Disorder is characterized by a strong, persistent cross-gender identification, persistent discomfort with his or her sex or sense of inappropriateness in their gender role of that sex. According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA), children, adolescents and adults who exhibit a preoccupation with getting rid of or losing their primary and secondary sex characteristics, associated with different mannerisms and actions of the opposite sex; while holding a belief that he or she was born the wrong sex are believed to be classified

Transgender, denoting or relating to a person whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond with their birth sex. Many people don’t feel comfortable as their birth sex, and they switch so it is better for them even though a lot of people find it wrong. Transgender people should be treated the same way as non-transgender people.

Many people do not understand what it is like to be transgender but choose to speak over transgender people even when they say it is wrong and not how it is. If people would just listen to trans people then there would be less issues. To help people understand what is going on in this world for trans people I will explain what is happening in today’s world. I will show you some of the issues trans people face in the public eye. Even with talking about all of theses different experiences they are still not everyone's point of view and can not be taken as something every trans person experiences. There are trans people who will never experience any of this hate and others will only experience the hate and none of the good parts.

When someone calls themself transgender, it means that they do not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. For example, someone who was born as a man may later realize that they are in fact a woman; this person would be called a trans woman. There is much debate over transgenderism and, specifically, whether society should treat transgenders as their biological sex or their gender identity. For example, if a transgender man (biological sex being female) wants to use the men’s restroom, should he be able to? The laws that would allow this are known as transgender inclusion laws, and the debate over passing such laws has always been extremely heated. Transgender inclusion laws should be passed in all areas, as there has been no increase in crime rates as a result of transgender use of public facilities, transgenderism is absolutely real and should be recognized as such, and these laws only brings benefits for any trans-friendly environments.

The social issue that I chose which affects society today is transgender inequality. These issues are more recently gaining attention and becoming a prevalent topic of inequality within our country. A transgender person is someone whose gender identity, gender expression or behavior does not conform to that typically associated with the sex to which they were assigned at birth. As more and more transgender people share their stories in the media, the social problems that arise from these stories are discrimination within their everyday lives. They suffer from scrutiny and judgment from their peers, and thus many hide their gender identity from family and society. This social injustice can be as simple as a glance or staring, or offensive comments and questions to violent hate crimes. Transgender people are prone to violence and harassment, and often not feeling safe in any aspect of society. They are fired from jobs, denied medical insurance, and being murdered left and right solely for being transgender. “A staggering 41% of respondents reported attempting suicide compared to 1.6% of the general population, with rates rising for those who lost a job due to bias (55%), were harassed/bullied in school (51%), had low household income, or were the victim of physical assault (61%) or sexual assault (64%)” (National Center for Transgender Equality). The structure of this paper will consist of adding all the research that was gathered over the semester, news articles and peer