Transgender Identities

The term transgender describes a diverse group of people whose gender identity or gender expression differs from their sex assigned at birth—for instance, someone assigned male at birth who identifies as female or has a feminine gender expression. Within the transgender community, individuals identify their gender in many different ways. To provide a better understanding of the diversity of transgender identities, this entry describes some of the ways in which transgender people identify their gender and describes some of the demographic differences among these different identity groups.

In late 2005 and early 2006, Genny Beemyn and Sue Rankin (2011) conducted a survey of transgender people that yielded nearly 3,500 responses. In The Lives of Transgender People, they describe their survey findings, including the ways in which ...