transgender (adj.)
Transgender is a self-description of persons who do not have the gender which was assigned to them at birth based on their genitalia. This may include identifying only partially with their assigned gender. Transgender individuals may be male or female but may also challenge the two-gender model. For example, many non-binary, genderfluid, or even genderqueer individuals and those located entirely outside the category of gender also count themselves as transgender, but not all. The word component "trans" comes from Latin and means "across" or "beyond"; gender refers to social roles based on the sex of a person.
The self-designation transgender was coined by Virginia Prince (1912-2009) and others in the 1970s. Prince did not see herself represented in the terms transvestite or transsexual available in the United States at the time. After all, on the one hand, her gender was not about disguise, and on the other hand, she did not seek any surgical changes to her body as envisioned by the medical model of transsexuality. Virginia Prince's self-designation as a "transgenderist" and the current term transgender are often accompanied by a desire to distance herself from pathologization by the medical-psychiatric model of transsexuality. 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 transgenderness is no longer listed as a "gender identity disorder" and is thus no longer categorized as a personality and behavioral disorder.
Since the 1990s, the term transgender has experienced increasing expansion. It is now used as a self-designation by a wide range of people and encompasses an infinite spectrum of genders. Many people who are transgender understand gender reassignment as a social rather than exclusively physical process of change, they emphasize social gender roles and gender expression, and criticize a fixation on the physical component of gender.
Transgender individuals may desire physical change, for example, to counteract an experience of dysphoria. This may include taking hormones that the body cannot produce. However, this is not a unique characteristic of people who identify as transgender.
Transgender is not synonymous with transsexual. Many transgender people may reject a foreign designation by the generic term transgender for a variety of reasons, and the other way around. Non-discriminatory language respects and uses the self-designation of different people.
Quellen
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Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (Hrsg). „Transgender“. LSBTIQ-Lexikon. 27.03.2017, letzter Abruf 14.05.2020.
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Deutsche Aidshilfe e. V. „ICD-11: WHO wertet Trans* nicht mehr als ‚mental oder verhaltensgestört‘“. Meldung 19.06.2018, letzter Abruf am 15.05.2020.
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LAG Lesben in NRW e. V. (Hrsg). Fibel der kleinen Unterschiede. 10. Aktualisierte und überarbeitete Auflage, Düsseldorf, 2019.
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Rönicke, Katrin. „Lila165 Trans*-Mythen und Forschung. Mit Felicia Ewert“. Der Lila Podcast. Feminismus aufs Ohr, Spotify, veröffentlicht am 28.11.2019.
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Spahn, Annika & Wedl, Juiette (Hrsg.) Schule lehrt/lernt Vielfalt – Praxisorientiertes Basiswissen und Tipps für Homo-, Bi-, Trans- und Inter*freundlichkeit in der Schule. Edition Waldschlösschen Materialien, Heft 18, 1. Auflage, Göttingen 2018, S. 241.
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Queer Lexikon (o.J.). „Transgender", letzter Abruf am 24.05.2020.
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Wecker, Mara & Altmeier, Lisa. „Trans-Begriff: Wie man über Transgender spricht“. Puls, 04.12.2015, letzter Abruf 07.05.2020.
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Yahya Chouchi (Username), Kommentar zur Lila Podcast Folge „Lila165 Trans*-Mythen und Forschung. Mit Felicia Ewert“, Der Lila Podcast Blog, 02.12.2019, letzter Abruf 14.05.2020.
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