- Assigned Sex
- a person's legal-sex
assigned at birth based on the appearance of their
external genitals at birth. For most people this is a
useful way to assign a newborn's sex.
-
- Brain Sex
- (also called innate-sex or
true-sex)
Brain sex develops as a biological process just like
other sexually differentiated features of the human body;
such as gonads and external genitalia.
- In the absence of mental ill health, an
individual’s brain-sex is the sex which the
individual perceives themselves to be.
-
- FTM
- (sometimes written as FtM, F2M etc)
Abbreviation of the term Female-To-Male
transsexual. FTM distinguishes the experience of males
raised as females from that of females raised as males
(MTF).
The term 'FTM' appears to be gaining popularity in
lesbian communities to refer to masculine-appearing
lesbians who appear to be male ('pass') but who identify
themselves to be female.
-
Gender
- The subjective feeling that you're a girl or a boy,
man or woman. It is often assumed gender has the same
meaning as sex.
Gender refers to the social expression of
sex.
-
Gender Binary
- The classification of people into two categories:
'male' or 'female' - hence the gender-binary (binary
meaning two).
-
Gender Dysphoria
- Dysphoria is a medical term and means 'intense
discomfort'. 'Gender dysphoria' can be applied to
everyone from cross-dressers, transgender people and men
and women with the medical condition of transsexualism.
Some people who experience 'gender dysphoria' have the
physical condition that is called transsexualism.
Not all people with 'gender dysphoria' have the physical
condition transsexualism.
-
Gender Identity
- A person's innate deeply felt psychological
identification as male or female. For
most people this matches their physical body.
-
-
- Identity
- Usually a label from your culture, society, peer
group or language and usually commonly understood by
other people.
-
-
- Intersex
- A grouping of diagnostic conditions where human
development results in having both male and female
characteristics. "Intersex" would contain all those
different variations where individuals had both male and
female sex characteristics (eg., pAIS, AIS, CAH,
Klinefelter's or any of the many other variations in
sexual formation).
Some intersex variations are apparent at birth, others
are discovered later in life, perhaps at puberty or when
infertility is experienced. Transsexualism was first
described by Dr Magnus Hirschfeld in 1923 as an intersex
variation. Many experts in scientific research, medicine
and law consider transsexualism to be within the
nosology of intersex, because of the incongruity
between the sex of the brain and the sex of the rest of
the body.
-
- Legal Sex
- Refers to the legally documented category of 'male'
or 'female' assigned to a baby at birth. This is usually
based on the appearance of the newborn's genitals. A
person's legal-sex is evidenced by their "Birth
Certificate", a legal identity document and recorded in
the legal record of Births, Deaths and Marriages.
Generally, this is a useful way to assign a newborn's
sex.
For men and women who experience transsexualism, this
assignment of legal-sex means they are 100% assigned the
opposite legal-sex at birth.
-
MTF
- (sometimes written as MtF, M2F etc)
Abbreviation of the term Male-To-Female
transsexual. MTF distinguishes the experience of females
raised as males from that of males raised as females
(FTM).
-
Phenotype
- The body - in particular the sexually differentiated
features of the human body: gonads and genitals. (Compare
- genotype:chromosomes).
-
- Rehabilitation/
Rehabilitative
- To conclusively restore the sexually differentiated
features of the body, through hormonal and surgical
treatments, so as to bring it into better harmony with
the individual’s brain sex.
-
- Sex
- Based on a combination of biological characteristics,
such as chromosomes, genitalia, reproductive organs and
the structure and chemistry of the brain (see
phenotype).
Secondary sexual characteristics include the
distribution of body and facial hair, voice pitch and fat
distribution. It is usually assumed that there are two
sexes, male and female. Natural human development
includes people who are born with a combination of both
male and female characteristics (see
intersex).
-
- Sex Affirmation
- (previously known as Sex reassignment)
Rehabilitative hormone therapy and surgical procedures
undertaken to transform the rest of the body to match the
sex of the brain, to the fullest extent possible
(replaces the misleading term "sex change").
-
- Such treatment is rehabilitative in purpose and,
therefore, does not require results that are either
cosmetically or functionally ‘perfect’ or
complete in order to be considered successful. When an
individual with transsexualism publicly reveals or
affirms their innate sex, they can be said to have
transitioned public sexes or to have undertaken the act
of sex affirmation.
-
- Standards of Care (Harry
Benjamin Standards of Care)
- A set of guidelines, which assist medical
practitioners to provide care and treatment to people,
The Standards of Care for Gender Identity Disorders were
developed and regularly updated and revised by the Harry
Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association. Also
called Harry Benjamin Standards.
-
- Transgender - (tg)
- Originally defined by Charles 'Virginia' Prince in
the 1970s, referring to someone who lives in the sex
opposite to their sex identified at birth. Unlike
transsexual people, most transgender people do not have
the desire to under surgery to correct anything about
their body. They 'trans' their gender rather than their
sex. Hence the term transgender. Unlike men and
women with ts, who have a unchanging gender
throughout their life.
Today, it also includes those individuals who have a
core sense of gender which is neither or both
genders and often crosses the traditional gender
binary construct entirely.
The term transgender has crept into usage as an
umbrella term to encompass many diverse conditions and
identities; including transsexualism and other recognised
intersex conditions, as well as behaviours, which explore
gender such as cross dressing and "drag" performance.
Many at the forefront of social, medical and legal
education and reform consider this umbrella usage
counterproductive.
The terms transsexual and transgender
are not interchangeable. They mean different things,
which is particularly significant in medical and legal
contexts.
-
- Transsexualism - (ts)
- One of the many possible biological variations in
human sexual formation.
A condition that exists in someone who at birth has
chromosomes, reproductive organs, and genitals which
appear to be typically of one sex, but whose brain has
sexually differentiated to the other sex.
Men and women with transsexualism are simply male or
simply female - even though their body doesn't correspond
to that sex development. These men and women seek
physical rehabilitative treatment to live according to
the sex they are, rather than the sex they were assumed
to be at birth.
They desire a physical appearance, which reflects
their true sex, and to these ends most want to
rehabilitate their bodies through hormonal and surgical
treatments. Transsexualism is a treatable physical
condition, not a psychological one.
-
- Transition
- The process whereby an individual affirms their
innate sex by social, medical and legal steps to
bring their body and public presentation into harmony
with their innate sex or brain sex, has
undertaken the act of sex affirmation.
Transition also includes adjustment by family members,
friends and workmates.
ATSN speaks of the terminology of
transsexualism as it is experienced by men and women with
transsexualism, rather than as observed by people who
do not experience this condition. The ATSN supports
terms and meanings as a fresh language of liberation for
people with transsexualism which began with Re
Kevin.
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