Posted on 10. June 2026.
Originally posted on 10. June 2026 on Discord.
hello and welcome wonderful ladies, gentlemen, neithers, boths, and inbetweens, to day 5 of milkas' expression corner !! today's topic is going to be a pretty broad one, we're going to discuss what it means to be TRANSGENDER !!
the primary meaning of the term "Transgender" is somebody whose gender does not align with the gender they were assigned at birth. it can also sometimes mean specifically someone whose gender is the opposite of that assigned at birth, though the umbrella term is more common.
there are lots of identites under the transgender umbrella - a transgender person could be male or female, but they could also be a part of the non-binary umbrella, such as agender, demigirl, genderfluid, genderflux, etc
non-binary identity can range from being both male and female simultaneously, to being none, to being any given combination of the two, or something else entirely.
gender dysphoria is the process of actively disliking one's own body, due to lacking features of their preferred gender, and wishing to have a body that aligns more with their gender.
a large amount of transgender people experience it, though not all do - it's not an innate part of the experience, and everyone's experience varies greatly.
some transgender people also want psychotherapy, gender-affirming surgery or hormone replacement therapy to be able to match their gender better, though this is also not for everyone.
the terms "transsexual" and "transvestite" were once used to describe transgender persons, though they are now outdated as they have different definitions. the terms transgenderism, transgenderal, and transgendered are also debatably outdated, and terms such as transness, transgenderness, and trans identity are more commonly used and accepted.
transsexual refers to somebody who physically changes gender through their body, usually through some sort of gender-affirming surgery/s. it's a term that does not have to be used in conjunction with transgender, as transgender individuals do not have to be transsexual or vice versa.
AMAB is short for "Assigned Male At Birth" and AFAB is short for "Assigned Female At Birth". these are older terms previously used to denote transgender identity, though the terms "transmasculine" and "transfeminine" are currently more common and accepted.
"Trans*" (with an asterisk) is a term primarily used to differentiate from the term transgender in the sense of being the opposite gender of what a person was born as, though this term is not used very often in the modern day, due to fading into obscurity as the umbrella term became more common, as well as the fact that search engines would not show results for the term properly, due to the asterisk being interpreted as a wildcard character.
terms such as "Non-binary identity" have also been used to differentiate those who fit the broad definition as opposed to those who fit the strict definition of transgender. "Cisgender" refers to an individual that is not transgender in any way.
trans rights are human rights!
