Just confused.

I read a lot of news. Sometimes I'm fairly certain on which side the Tories are on but sometimes it's not as simple: there are clickbait sites that throw you at **** Cheney: A Man for All Seasons sites to **** Cheney: A Man? sites to **** Cheney: Human? sites. You just can't tell what side of the political spectrum the sites fall on.

With the bathroom brouhaha, things got more complicated. Particularly with we handicapped people who only want bigger stalls with wider doors.

When OUT, for instance, writes of a "transgender man," does that mean someone who was male at birth but elects to be identified as female now? I would expect that if National Review wrote of a "transgender man," that they would mean a male at birth.

EDIT: It seems as if the auto-editor feels the same as I do about or former VP and I'm wonder if trans-female is a girl and a trans-male is a guy and, if so, if we can just say girl and guy?

But I simply and honestly and truthfully don't know. I don't want to be stupid or appear any stupider than I am, I don't want to offend anyone who isn't a hater to start with and, uh, have I said that I don't want to appear stupid?

This question isn't meant to offend anyone but myself.

For the most part (except for those enormous truck stops in the south) we handicapped people have had our bathroom problems solved. We have enormous stalls with extra-wide doors where we can meet Joe at 4:15. What more can we ask for? (And, for goodness sake, if you can't see the humour in that last sentence you're far too sensitive! Or you've not enjoyed the sparkling hospitable facilities of the enormous truck stops in the south.)

[Pflaumenkeks]

Hello ciderguy

A transgender woman is a woman who is trans. like a big woman is a woman that is big. So if a woman is trans that means she was assigned male at birth but isn't male, therefore trans.

To the question if we just could say man and woman: Yes and no.
The thing is in a conversation that has nothing to do with them beeing trans it would be great to not mention it and to aknowlege that they are no less male or female because of that.
But there are topics where it's important (example: bathroom bills) because it emphazises that we have very different experiences in how people treat us. So in this context it matters.

I hope I could help you

[bronzeowl]

Most of us don't tend to like the language "male at birth" or "born male" because it implies that we don't know who we are, and that we chose to be trans (we didn't). It's generally better to say assigned male at birth, or assigned female at birth (acronyms of amab or afab, there are a few others, but those are the ones you'll see the most). Some older transgender (or transsexual, as some older trans people still identify with that word - although most of us reject it now since it puts emphasis on whether we've had "the surgery" or not) people may still use "born male" or "born female", but that's rarer. The new language is more inclusive, doesn't invalidate, and includes intersex people as well.

A transgender man is a man. Period. That means he was assigned female at birth - not male - and transitioned, is transitioning, or identifies as male. It's important to note that not all of us do transition. Some of us only transition through hormones (estrogen or testosterone), some of us only through surgery, some of us through both, some of us only socially (as in we do neither, but do use our new names, present as our gender, etc), and some choose not to transition at all for whatever reason (safety being most common). We are all transgender, though. A lot of the memes floating around about the bathroom issue neglects that fact, as they only validate the experience of transitioned transgender people. This gives the illusion that only those who have transitioned are transgender... which erases the rest of us.

Assigned male at birth would be a transgender woman, but could also include genderqueer, non-binary, gender fluid, etc. I'll let someone with more experience on those identities cover that, though... but a transwoman was usually assigned male at birth.

We could say just man and woman to some trans people. But you have to understand that for many of us, this is a huge part of our identity. As someone who will likely never transition medically, it is important for me to identify as trans. This is because I will never "pass" (I do hate that word, but it's hard to find any other fitting one) well enough to fit in with cis men. And I have never, will never fit in with women. Thus, I tend to gravitate toward LGBT people, and fit in the most among transgender people who have - also - not transitioned. Some trans people choose to go stealth after transitioning, and these trans people may reject the trans part of man or woman, and simply prefer just man or woman. For a lot of us, though, it's literally who we are. You can ignore the label, but it won't erase the stigma, harassment, dysphoria, etc that we face day to day. The label matters.

ETA: I realize, too, that many of us hate the word "identify as", but in that context I wasn't sure how else to word it. My apologies.

Boy thats confusing, I would say a trans man is one born female but identifies as male, such as a trans woman is born male but identifies as a female.

Now does one have to be in transition or part of? I no idea.

But me being mtf because this body is like so wrong....I still look male (ugh) but is like gender neutral heavy on the femme side....am I transwoman? I think not because I'm not living the life style AS a woman.

The AS part is the clincher. I'm trans in mind, but not living AS one due to my limitations.

[Darth_Rattus]

Transgender male: Doctor said "It's a girl!" The person said "Nope, I'm a boy!"
Transgender female: Doctor said "It's a boy!" The person said "Nope, I'm a girl!"

Trans guys can be called guys. Trans girls can be called girls. So yes, unless they ask you to, you don't have to tack "trans" on the front of someone's gender.

Also, like others before me have said, don't say "was male at birth" or "used to be a boy" or "turned into a girl" or anything like that. Instead, try to adopt phrases like "assigned male at birth", "designated gender/sex", and "transitioned from sex1 to sex2" though even that last one can be improved upon.