What does transgender mean?

Question

I read this article and it talked about Isis being a transgender http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx/?news=326953&GT1=28103 Does that mean that she is really a male who turned a female? Is transgender similar to transvestite? Thanks in advance. :-)

Answer 1

Diane has the definitions correct.  The general public often gets the terms confused.  The quote that the article uses, "a woman born physically male",  is defining herself as transsexual.  

Is she "really a male who turned a female?"  She was never really a male.  She was always a female but she had the birth defect of a male body.

Just enjoy the fact that she is a beautiful woman.

Answer 2

Transexual means you have had an operation and you now have the genitalia of the other s*x.  

Transvestite means you dress as the opposite s*x.

Transgender means you may or may not have genitalia of the opposite s*x, but generally transgenders dress and behave as the opposite s*x all the time.

Answer 3

Transgender is people displaying behaviour, attitudes etc. that do not match their s*x. For example, men who display very feminine behaviour and women who display very masculine behaviour.

Answer 4

I believe it can be used interchangeably to refer to transvestites (cross-dressers) or transsexuals (people who have had surgical s*x changes).

Answer 5

Isis is not 'transgender', she's transsexual.

She's not a 'male who turned into a female', she's a female who was born with male anatomy.

'Transgender' refers to a person, male or female, who dresses, acts, or presents in a manner that differs from their gender norm. 'Transgender' includes transvestites/crossdressers, DragQueens/Kings, social androgynes, and 'genderqueers'.

Despite the insistence of transgender activists, it DOES NOT include transsexual people.

'Transsexual' describes a person, male or female, born with a congenital neurological intersex condition. Although transsexualism almost invariably requires  medical intervention, it is neither defined by, nor restricted to, that intervention; a transsexual person is transsexual whether or not he or she has had any treatment.

Here's a little more information for you;

http://www.kaffeine.freeuk.com/korner/bl...

http://ts-si.org/content/view/2302/995/

Answer 6

A transgender is a person who has undergone a s*x change operation.  It can be a male turned female, or vice-versa.  A transvestite, is simply a person who likes to dress in the clothing of the opposite s*x.  Neither transgenders nor transvestites are necessarily g*y, although some people think they are.