Transgender and gender nonconforming (GNC) people face the same romantic relationship stressors and joys as cisgender individuals. However, the developmental, social, psychoemotional, and physical experiences that come with living as a transgender and/or GNC person will influence relationships as much as any significant life experience affects the way in which one human being relates to another. From meeting prospective mates to coming out, finding an authentic identity, negotiating sex, and sustaining relationships over time and through change, doing romance as and/or with a transgender or GNC person may involve unique factors as well as the opportunities to make choices that cisgender people do not customarily face.

[Page 1715]This entry uses the term transgender as an umbrella term to include transsexual, transgender, genderqueer, and other GNC identities ...