Glossary
You may have encountered a term or two on this site that you're unfamiliar with or unsure about. Hopefully the following glossary will clear up any confusion!
**Note: The English language is vast and ever-changing. A term that may be in acceptable use today, could very-well be considered offensive tomorrow. I will try to keep this page as up to date as possible, but if you're ever in doubt as to what a person prefers to be called, politely and privately ask them. Your thoughtfulness will most certainly be appreciated.**
- Binding
- The process of compressing the breasts to form the look of a flat, male chest.
- Cisgendered
- Someone who associates and is comfortable with the gender they were assigned at birth.
- Cross-dresser
- A person who enjoys dressing in clothes of the opposite sex; this may or may not also include a degree of exploration into gender identity.
- Drag Queen/Drag King
- A person who performs exaggerated femininity or masculinity [respectively], often for theatrical purposes.
- FTM
- Abbreviation for "female to male" transgender or transsexual persons. May also be written as F2M.
- Gender
- A collection of traits, behaviours, and characteristics that are culturally associated with with maleness or femaleness. Traits Considered masculine or feminine can vary from culture to culture or in different historical periods.
- Gender dysphoria
- A persistent discomfort with the gender assigned at birth and the resulting expectations of that assignment.
- Gender Expression
- Also known as Gender Presentation. The external behaviours and characteristics (i.e. dress, mannerisms, social interactions, speech patterns, etc.) that a person displays in order to indicate their gender identity. Gender expression is how someone presents their gender to the world.
- Gender Identity
- A person's internal self-awareness of being male or female, masculine or feminine, something in-between, or something else altogether.
- Genderqueer
- A gender-variant person whose gender identity is neither male nor female, is between or beyond genders, or is some combination of genders.
- HRA
- Hormone Readiness Assessment; before a person begins hormone therapy, most doctors will recommend [and some will require] approval from a psychologist who specializes in gender exploration/gender dysphoria.
- HRT
- Hormone Replacement Therapy/Treatment; for trans-people, replaces the hormones naturally occurring in their bodies with those of the opposite sex. The purpose is to cause the development of the secondary sex characteristics of the desired gender.
- Intersex
- A person whose genitals are not clearly distinguishable as male or female; or a person born with genitals that resemble either male or female genitals, but have internal reproductive organs usually associated with the other sex.
- MTF
- Abbreviation for "male to female" transgender or transsexual persons. May also be written as M2F.
- Sex
- The common, but imperfect, sorting of people as male or female. Sorting people by sex typically begins as birth when (usually) a baby is declared to be either a boy or a girl. The determination of sex as "male" or "female" is almost always based on physical anatomy--the genitals--of the the child. For those people whose physical sex is not easily categorized as male or female, see Intersex.
- Trans*
- The asterisk (*) simply indicates that trans is being used in the inclusive sense of the word, encompassing transgendered, transsexual and any other trans-identities out there.
- Transgender
- An umbrella term which is often used to describe a wide range of identities and experiences, including: transsexuals, FTMs, MTFs, cross-dressers, drag queens & kings, two-spirits, genderqueers, and many more.
- Transsexual
- Refers to someone who feels "trapped in the wrong body," regardless of whether they move towards medically transitioning or not. Numerous barriers exist, including health, cost, availability and stigma.
- Transvestite
- Outdated and pejorative term for a male cross-dresser.
- Two-Spirit
- A term that refers to transgender traditions of some First Nations cultures; such traditions vary among groups.