Since a lot of the words in the trans community are fairly wobbly, here’s the definitions I’m using for them. If I talk about someone who identifies in a way that doesn’t quite fit these definitions- I’ll mention so.
These are definitions for how I communicate- if you don’t feel these definitions don’t apply to you, don’t apply them to yourself. If I am talking about a specific person who does not identify in the way I use these terms, I will do my best to respect their identity. If I use the wrong terminology to refer to someone, please let me know and I will fix it. These definitions are subject to change. More may be added as needed. Feel free to ask if you have a question about these terms.
Intersex- “a variety of conditions in which a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male”
Transgender- An adjective describing a person who’s gender (part or all of it) does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. Transgender makes no assumptions about the person’s genitalia, sex, gender role, presentation in daily life, or anything else- only the disconnect between what the doctors assumed the person would be and what the person actually is.
Transsexual- An adjective describing a transgender person who desires/seeks/has gone through medical gender/sex related transition involving hormones and/or surgery. This does NOT include the non-consensual normalization treatment many intersexed infants and children are subjected to; only consensual surgery. I’d hope it goes without saying- but obviously these people are not more or less trans or more or less their gender than any other trans people.
Trans - I use this a as a shortening of “transgender”, thus it is an adjective in this form. (ex. Transgender Woman is shortened to Trans Woman)
Cisgender- an adjective describing a person whose gender does match the sex they were assigned at birth.
Cis- a shortening of cisgender.
_AAB- Assigned-At-Birth. Most often faab and maab (female-assigned-at-birth and male-assigned-at-birth). It refers to the marker placed on a person’s birth certificate at birth and the gender role that person was raised and expected to be in for the first 2+ years of that person’s life. This makes no assumptions of the person’s genitalia, chromosomes, reproductive organs, or anything physical and makes no assumptions about anything mental or emotional. Faab and Maab people can be cis and trans, intersexed and not intersexed. (To my knowledge, intersexed children are most often assigned a binary sex at birth)
Non-binary -an adjective that I sometimes use as a noun that refers to a person whose gender, part or all of it, does not fit within the gender binary of “either a woman or a man”. Bigendered, genderfluid, and multi-gendered people may or may not fit into this description- depending on how they feel about it and what their genders are. It does not refer to binary-gendered people who reject the gender binary or do not fit into the expected gender role/presentation of their gender.
