gender

For some people, as they grow up, the gender they were assigned at birth does not feel correct or comfortable to them.  It is not how they see themselves.

• When that happens, that person may identify as transgender
• Transgender person: someone who now identifies as a gender that is different from the gender they were assigned at birth

Examples:

MALE ➡️ BOY ➡️ WOMAN

FEMALE ➡️ GIRL ➡️ MAN

Here are two famous examples of transgender people:

Caitlyn Jenner (ABOVE): Olympic gold medalist and former member of the Kardashian family.  

MALE ➡️ BOY ➡️ WOMAN

Caitlyn is a transgender woman.

Elliot Page (ABOVE), actor famous for starring in the movies Juno and Inception.

FEMALE ➡️ GIRL ➡️ MAN

He is a transgender man.

A very important note about RESPECTFUL LANGUAGE

Many people feel confused about the most respectful words to use when talking about transgender people.  Here are my suggestions.

• ONE PERSON: a transgender person (or a trans person)
  • We need to say “transgender person,” “transgender student,” etc.  
  • Just like it wouldn’t make sense if we said “a disabled” (“One of my students is a disabled”).  Instead we say something like “a disabled person” (“One of my students is a disabled person”).  Alternatively, we can say "One of my students is disabled" or "One of my students is transgender" (notice the absence of the word "a."
  • NOT “transgendered person” (no need to add “-ed” to the end)
  • NOT “a transgender” 
• 2+ PEOPLE: transgender people (or trans people)
  • We could say: transgender people/students/employees/etc. 
  • NOT “transgenders” (need a noun after “transgender”)
  • NOT “transgendered people (no “-ed”)
• We always respect and honor how the person identifies now.  
  • We do not use their old name (sometimes called a "dead name") or their old pronouns
  • We only call them the name they go by now.  We only refer to them by the pronouns they want to be called now.
  • This is just like if your friend decided to change their name for any other reason.  You respect them, so you start calling them by their preferred name.

Let's try it out:

• Is Caitlyn Jenner “she” or “he”?  
  • Caitlyn now identifies as a woman and says that she now prefers to be called “she.”  We respect a person’s wishes right now—regardless of what happened in the past.
  • Whenever we talk about Caitlyn, we should call her Caitlyn, she, and a woman.
• Is Caitlyn Jenner a transgender man or a transgender woman?
  • Caitlyn now identifies as a woman, so she is a transgender woman.

What about people who are not transgender?

• When someone is not transgender, we say that they are cisgender.  
• Cisgender people identify now as a gender that aligns with the gender they were assigned at birth 
• Example: A person who was given the gender assignment of “girl” who now identifies as a woman. FEMALE ➡️ GIRL ➡️ WOMAN

What's the deal with pronouns?

There has been a lot of media coverage and national conversation lately about pronouns.  Pronoun is any word that replaces a noun.  "The child and the cat played with the new cat toy" can also be stated as "They played with it."  The pronouns in this example are "they" and "it."

In English and many other languages, some pronouns are gendered and other pronouns are gender-neutral.  "They" and "it" are pronouns that do not give information about the child, cat, or toy's gender.  "He," "him," "she," and "her" ascribe masculinity and femininity to the person, animal, or object being referred to.  

Why are all of these grammar words making the news?  It goes back to gender identity!

How do I know someone's pronouns?

People in many cultures around the world are designing gender-neutral pronouns for their own languages.

Language is always changing, and it is common for new words to be added to languages every year!  For example, "googling" (verb) and "catfishing" (verb) are relatively new words in English.  Adding pronouns to give people a gender-neutral option is another step in the evolution of languages.

Here is an example in Spanish: