Transgender as a Term

Considering transgender as a term is complicated given that its history weaves through medical, activist, and academic realms while also being adjusted or rejected altogether depending on one’s race, class, ethnicity, culture, or geographic context. As of 2020, transgender typically operates as an umbrella term that describes someone whose gender identity does not align with the sex they were assigned at birth, based on societal norms. Use of transgender tends to center on identity and community, although this was not always how the term was conceived of or used, especially by the medical establishment. While simply descriptive and/or empowering to many white, middle-class, trans people, Western academics, and activists, there are concerns about transgender as an umbrella term erasing the intersectional aspects of identity and ...