Transgender

Transgender (often shortened to trans) is a term referring to people who do not identify as the gender assigned to them at birth. It commonly refers to men who were assigned female at birth (trans men), and women who were assigned male at birth (trans women), these examples being known as binary trans people. Many non-binary people identity as trans, meaning their gender does not fall strictly into the categories of male and female used in western society, although some non-binary people choose not to identify as trans.

Many transgender people experience dysphoria, a feeling of discomfort or self hatred stemming from a disconnect between their internal sense of gender and their outward appearance, or how other perceive them. Dysphoria can range in intensity, ranging from severe, to mild, to none at all, and reasons for dysphoria are different for everyone, and can sometimes change over the course of one's life. Some, but not all, transgender people choose to medically transition with hormone replacement therapy and gender affirming surgeries.

When writing about trans people the word trans should be as any other adjective. For example, one should not write "transwoman" or "trans-woman", but should rather write "trans woman", as trans is adjective to describe a category of women in this case. Sometimes trans is written as trans+, or less commonly trans*. The asterisk or plus sign are meant to include all transgender people (such as trans/nonbinary identifying people). It can also represent drag queens and cross-dressers. This spelling is not commonly used in the modern day. Many drag queens are trans or non-binary, and use drag as a way to explore their gender identity, however preforming drag does not inherently make one trans or associated with the trans community, which is why the spelling is not commonly used.

The opposite of transgender is cisgender.