Transgender Research

The general term transgender is applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies that diverge from the normative gender role (man or woman) commonly, but not always, assigned at birth, as well as the role traditionally held by society. Transgender is the state of one's gender identity (i.e., self-identification as man, woman, or neither) not matching one's assigned sex (i.e., identification by others as male or female based on physical or genetic sex). The term transgender emerged in the 1960s, popularized in the 1970s to describe people who wanted to live cross-gender without sex reassignment surgery, and expanded in the 1980s as an umbrella term to unite all those whose gender identity did not mesh with their gender assigned at birth. Today, the term has taken on a political dimension as an alliance covering all those who have at some point not conformed to gender norms, and the term is also used to question the validity of those norms. Within the field of curriculum, the [Page 893]term continues to evolve because of the term's widespread media usage and impact on equal rights and antidiscrimination legislation.

Gender identity and transgender identity are fundamentally different concepts to that of sexual orientation. The overall goal of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (GLBTIQ) research in curriculum studies is to enable school personnel (i.e., teachers, administrators, staff, coaches, curriculum specialists, media specialists, counselors) and community partners (i.e., parents/guardians, other members of the community) to protect children who are struggling with their gender identity by teaching all children tolerance, understanding, and empathy. This entry defines many terms and classifications associated with gender identity and development and then discusses associated curriculum issues.