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...

[auntysarah]

There's no such thing as "the XX chromosome" and "the XY chromosome". There are X chromosomes, and there are Y chromosomes. It's also a lot more complicated than "46XX = female, 46XY = male", even if you ignore trans people. There are 46XX male people walking around who assume they are 46XY, there are 46XY female people walking around who assume they are 46XX. There are both 47XXY male and female people, again many of whom have no idea of their unusual chromosomal configuration, and various others.

XX=female, XY=male is very simplistic, and nature is much more complicated than that.

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

[ten]

Someone else already commented that, but as their comment was screened I couldn't reply.

Yes, I had a word brainfart there. Chromosome combination would be what I really meant. Maybe adding a 'predominantly' would be more medically correct.

That person also mentioned AIS, which I, as far I'm very basically informed, is medically considered an intersex condition though.

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

[floit63]

Sorry about the screened comment, I set it to screen from non-members automatically to cut down on trolls/spam and managed to miss that one.