Terminology

[floit63]

This post got me thinking. How many of our arguments (either amongst ourselves or with others) stem from the fact that everyone has a slightly different interpretation of key words we use? I'm going to post a few different words that are rather important when discussing trans issues and I'd love it if everyone could go through and give their definitions of these words so that I can make a list for n00bs (all of them can be anon if you wish). My own definitions will be in the comments.

The Words:
Sex
Gender
Transgender
Transexual
Trans*
Male
Female
Man/boy
Woman/girl
Cisgender
Gay
Lesbian
Straight
Bisexual
Pansexual
Polysexual
Asexual
Ally
Stealth
Out (as in out of the closet, not as in out to the store)
Pride

Comments

Re: That took me a while, and I'm still not perfectly happy...

[sin_nombre]

You do realize that there's no such thing as AN XY chromosome or AN XX chromosome, right? There's an X chromosome, and a Y chromosome, and they can be thrown into almost any configuration. Also, XY women (e.g., people with AIS) wouldn't fit into this definition, nor would XXY, XYY, XXYY men, or XO, XXX, or XXXX women, to name a few. And then there are the wonderful conditions that result in mosaicism.

Moreover, I'd venture to say that most trans* people have never had genetic testing and wouldn't know their own karyotypes anyway.

Re: That took me a while, and I'm still not perfectly happy...

[floit63]

Just as a note, comments are screened unless you're a member of the community.