What not to call trans people:
Avoid: transman, transwoman, trans-man, trans-woman, etc.
Instead, use: trans man, trans woman, etc.
Why?: The one-word “transwoman” and hyphenated “trans-woman” imply that trans is a gender different from woman. The space indicates that it’s an adjective describing a woman, such as “Asian man” or “fat woman”.Avoid: a transsexual, an MtF, an FtM
Instead, use: transsexual person, trans people, trans woman, trans man
Why?: These words (and all their variations) are adjectives, not nouns. Using them as a noun reduces to their identity and only their identity. The initialisms (MTF, FTM) are offensive when used as nouns because they ungender trans men and women by implying that they are a different kind of man or woman (similar to “transman” above). Many trans men and women don’t identify with these acronyms at all (even as adjectives), while others believe that they accurately describe their identities.Avoid: T-girl, boi, tranny, she-male, he-she, it, trap, dickgirl, cuntboy, best of both worlds
Instead use: dont’. Just, don’t.But wait! I self-identify with these terms! Many people self-identify with these terms. For example, some trans men and women may choose to identify as a “transwoman” or “an FtM”. Using these terms with these specific people is not offensive, but these terms should not be generalized to all people. Other terms, such as “T-girl”, “boi”, and “tranny” are very common for self-identification, but can be very insulting and triggering to others.
In summary, self identification is wonderful, but generalizing is not.Thanks for this. As they say, live and learn: i have been guilty of the trans* one-word amalgam. Whoops.
This is a fabulous post. Thank you. Twice.
Yesyesyes to that last paragraph. Oftentimes, people are confused when I call a certain label derogatory, because they may know someone who identifies with that particular label. On the flip side, people will also tell me I’m being inconsiderate when I describe a particular person by the potentially offensive term they choose for themselves, not realizing that some people identify positively with these labels.
Back in high school, I wrote an essay on the word “queer” and why I identify with it, and I remember being asked over and over why I would choose such a derogatory label to describe myself, because people weren’t familiar with its use in more positive contexts (which was actually pretty depressing to me). When a word that common (at least to me) is so readily misunderstood, I can’t imagine how often some of these labels are misused.
