Assigned Gender At Birth (AGAB) or Designated Gender At Birth (DGAB) (also called Assigned Gender or Assigned Sex) is the gender one is assigned at birth based on medical factors, including hormones, chromosomes, and genitals. It is the sex that is put on one's birth certificate and typically corresponds to the gender one was raised as or is assumed to be in childhood. The term is a way to refer to the sex that was put on one's birth certificate, without making assumptions about their current sex, body or gender. Common acronyms are:
- AFAB: Assigned Female At Birth. Also seen as DFAB (Designated Female At Birth), OFAB (Observed Female At Birth) or FAAB (Female Assigned At Birth).
- AMAB: Assigned Male At Birth. Also seen as DMAB (Designated Male At Birth), OMAB (Observed Male At Birth) or MAAB (Male Assigned At Birth).
- AXAB: Assigned X At Birth. Also seen as AIAB: Assigned Indeterminate At Birth. Typically used for intersex individuals.
- UAB or UAAB: Un-Assigned At Birth. Typically a choice by parents who are raising their children without a prescribed gender.
Sometimes, assigned sex may be referred to as "genetic" or "biological gender", however, many members of the transgender community take offense to these and other similar terms, because it seems to imply that gender in general is biological and that their identities are less real than those of cisgender individuals.
Intersex Assigned Genders
Many intersex individuals have genital surgery at infancy, soon after birth, to "correct" their abnormal genitals and other organs of the reproductive system so they appear more perisex. This has led to intersex individuals coining their own terms for assigned genders:
- CAFAB: Coercively Assigned Female At Birth. Also seen as FAFAB (Forcibly Assigned Female At Birth) or IAFAB (Intersex Assigned Female At Birth).
- CAMAB: Coercively Assigned Male At Birth. Also seen as FAMAB (Forcibly Assigned Male At Birth) or IAMAB (Intersex Assigned Male At Birth).
These are exclusive terms referring to intersex individuals only, though the case could be argued for special cases such as boys who had botched circumcisions who had their genitals reconstructed and reassigned female after birth.
History
CASAB terminology was allegedly coined by trans women and a cis individual in 2008,[1] but its use is recorded since at least 2002.
The original abbreviation of AFAB and AMAB was supposedly used to ascribe intersex individuals.[2] Usually, TERFs bring this unverifiable discourse as a way to gatekeep trans individuals from using these terms.
Sex assignment in general is used to describe any individual, regardless of their sex or gender modality.