A sidebar on what it means to be transgender

 The Crossdreamer Sidebars blog  has been my blog for more in depth discussions related to writings on this, my main blog. I have ignored if for too long. I am resurrecting it with a post on what it means to be transgender.

Over and over again I have found that gender variant people get lost in discussions about what it means to be trans, because there are so many different ways of defining the terms. Indeed, there are even trans people who try to control the discourse by making the defininition of the term trans as narrow as possible.

I will continue to defend the original understanding of trans,  the one becoming dominant in the 1990's. According to this understanding transgender is an umbrella term for all kinds of gender variance.

Transgender is therefore not a term that refers only to those who desire to transition or who have transitioned from one gender to another gende.  It is not limited to those who used to be called transsexuals, and it does not require that you experience gender dysphoria.

More about my understanding of the word transgender over at Crossdreamer Sidebars.

PS: The sidebar blog has also gotten its own domain name. This has, apparently, a big effect on search engine rankings.

Photo: Piksel