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transsexual (adj.)

Transsexual is a self-designation and, in medico-legal discourses, a pathologizing external description for persons whose sex differs from the sex assigned at birth based on their genitalia. Transsexual persons are usually binary male or female, but nonbinary genders are also possible. The word component "sexual" or "sexuality" has nothing to do with sexual orientation but refers to sex, i.e., physical gender.

 

Some individuals explicitly reject the term transsexual because it overemphasizes the physical component of their ⇒ sex over the social component, and refer to themselves as ⇒transgender, for example.


The term transsexual originated in medical-psychological discourses that classified transsexuality as a mental disorder. It is not until the 11th version of the "International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems" (ICD-11, in effect from 2022) that transsexuality is no longer listed as a "gender identity disorder" and is thus no longer categorized as a personality and behavioral disorder. Many transsexual and transgender individuals criticize the imposition of a pathologizing interpretation on certain human emotions, thoughts, or behaviors, thereby stigmatizing them. In addition, the German health care system, which is oriented towards the medical model of transsexuality, reserves access to physical treatments such as hormone therapies for those transsexual and transgender persons whose experience, behavior, appearance and biography correspond to the classification criteria of transsexuality. This creates a great deal of pressure to conform to the normative expectations of health care professionals.
Nonetheless, the term transsexual is also appropriated by some as a self-empowering, political term precisely because of its history of pathologizing and social-medical devaluation of the lives of transsexual people.


Some transsexuals consciously refer to themselves as transsexual because for them transsexuality is a strong bodily matter and they see the importance of bodily gender experience as neglected or devalued in transgender discourses, for example. They emphasize the importance of dysphoria for their transsexuality, a physical or social discomfort that arises because their body, their appearance, their being, or external social perception does not match their sex or ⇒ gender. Some binary male or female transsexuals also reject designation by the umbrella term transgender because they wish to be distinguished from gender ambiguity that may be associated with the term transgender.
Transsexual and transgender persons do not form a single community. Discrimination-critical language respects and uses the self-designation of different people. No matter if transsexual or not - in most everyday situations, people simply want to be addressed correctly by their name and according to their gender.

Sources (in German)

The glossary is meant to evolve through mutual exchange with readers.

We regularly put the definition of a term up for discussion under #klargestellt. Do you have questions or suggestions? Join the discussion and contribute to a better understanding of the terms! We welcome your feedback to: shk.gleichstellung@verwaltung.tu-dortmund.de

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