Table 1 Key terminology
Core gender | one’s individual and core sense of being male or female, both or neither |
Cisgender | refers to individuals whose gender identity is consistent with the gender they were assigned at birth |
Female-to-male spectrum (FTM) | a trans man or a female-to-male transsexual or transgender person or a genderqueer person along the masculine spectrum |
Gender spectrum | refers to the fact that gender occurs on a spectrum, rather than as discrete categories; an individuals’ sense of core gender may fall at varying points along that spectrum |
Genderqueer persons | refers to people whose gender identities fall outside of the normative and binary female or male |
Male-to-female spectrum (MTF) | a trans woman or a male-to-female transsexual or transgender person or a genderqueer person along the feminine spectrum |
Medical transition status | the extent to which one has undergone a process of medically transitioning through use of hormones and/or surgeries to allow biological sex to more closely align with one’s core gender |
Social transition status | the extent to which one has changed the gender in which they live their day-to-day life to better align with their core gender; may involve changing a name, using a new pronoun, and/or changing gender-specific aspects of one’s social presentation |
Transgender | describes people who vary from conventionally prescribed gender norms |
Transsexual | refers to a person who identifies with a gender that is “opposite to” that assigned to them at birth |
Transitioned people | refers to those who identify simply as men or women with a medical history of transitioning sex, and no longer personally identify as transgender or transsexual |
Trans people | an umbrella term for a diverse group of people including transsexual, transgender, transitioned, genderqueer, and some Two-Spirit people, whose gender identity or expression differs from societal norms |
Two-Spirit | refers to North American Indigenous peoples who identify with elements of both male and female gender roles found in many traditional cultures; some but not all will identify along a trans spectrum |