Trans woman

A trans woman at a gay pride parade in São Paulo, Brazil

Both transsexual and transgender women may experience gender dysphoria, distress brought upon by the discrepancy between their gender identity and the sex that was assigned to them at birth (and the associated gender role or primary and secondary sex characteristics).[1]

Both transsexual and transgender women may transition. A major component of medical transition for trans women is estrogen hormone replacement therapy, which causes the development of female secondary sex characteristics (breasts, redistribution of body fat, lower waist–hip ratio, etc.). This, along with sex reassignment surgery can relieve the person of gender dysphoria.[2][3]

The term trans woman originates from the use of the Latin prefix trans- meaning "across, beyond, through, on the other side of,[4] to go beyond" and woman.[5] The term was first used in Leslie Feinberg's 1996 book Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman.[5] The book describes a trans woman as "a male-to-female transgender or transsexual person."[6] This definition is widely accepted and used in the Oxford English Dictionary. However, she elaborates on it by saying that being a trans woman often has a negative connotation.[6] She explains that people refer to trans women as "freaks" and that her gender expression has made her a "target."[6]

Heidi M. Levitt provides a simpler description of trans woman. She defines trans woman as "the sex of those who transition from one sex to the other."[7] Levitt mentions how the abbreviation "MTF" is commonly used, meaning male-to-female.[7] A final perspective by Rachel McKinnon explains how the term is complicated.[8] While some trans women have undergone sex reassignment surgery, many struggle in society to pass as a woman and be accepted.[8] This ability to pass can cause one who was considered a trans woman to be seen just as any other woman.[8] She explains that this is controversial since trans women do not have the biological ability to reproduce and are missing a uterus and ovaries.[8] However, she concludes that "trans women are women" who challenge socially constructed norms of what it means to be a woman.[8]

The CDC refers to the word "transgender" as "an umbrella term for persons whose gender identity or expression (masculine, feminine, other) is different from their sex (male, female) at birth".[9] Trans woman is commonly interchanged with other terms such as transgender woman and transsexual woman.[7] According to OxfordDictionaries.com, transgender means "denoting or relating to a person whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond with their birth sex."[10] However, Heidi M Levitt describes transgender as "different ways in which people transgress the gender boundaries that are constituted within a society."[7] She then describes how one must understand the difference between sex and gender in order to fully understand transgender.[7] She argues that sex is biological whereas "gender is a social construct."[7] Thus people who are transgender express themselves differently than their biological sex. In contrast, Levitt explains that "transsexual people have a sexual identity that does not match their physical sex" and that some desire sex-reassignment surgery.[7]

In addition, the Oxford English Dictionary refers to transsexual as "having physical characteristics of one sex and psychological characteristics of the other" and "one whose sex has been changed by surgery."[5] These definitions show that someone who is transsexual expresses their gender differently than assigned at birth. In addition, they may want or undergo surgery to change their physical appearance. Thus trans women fall under the umbrella of being transgender because their gender was assigned male at birth but they identify as a woman.[7] However, not all trans women are transsexual since they may or may not choose to undergo sex-reassignment surgery.[7]

Some trans women who feel that their gender transition is complete prefer to be called simply women, considering trans woman or male-to-female transsexual to be terms that should only be used for people who are not fully transitioned. Likewise, many may not want to be seen as a "trans woman," often owing to the societal otherization of trans individuals. Among those who do refer to themselves as trans women, many see it as an important and appropriate distinction to include a space in the term, as in trans woman, thus using trans as merely an adjective describing a particular type of woman; this is in contrast to the usage of transwoman as one word, implying a "third gender".[11]

Laverne Cox, American transgender actress who plays a trans woman on the show Orange is the New Black

Trans women may identify as heterosexual (or straight), bisexual, homosexual (or lesbian), asexual, or none of the above.[9][12][13][14] A survey of roughly 3000 American trans women showed 31% of them identifying as bisexual, 29% as "gay/lesbian/same-gender", 23% as heterosexual, 7% as asexual, as well as 7% identifying as "queer" and 2% as "other".[15]

Trans women face a form of violence known as trans bashing. The Washington Blade reported that Global Rights, an international NGO, tracked the mistreatment of trans women in Brazil, including at the hands of the police.[24] To commemorate those who have been murdered in hate crimes, an annual Transgender Day of Remembrance is held in various locations across Europe, America, Australia, and New Zealand, with details and sources for each murder provided at their website.[25]

American activist trans women Andrea James and Calpernia Addams

Trans women, like all gender variant people, often face discrimination and transphobia.[15]^:8 A 2015 survey from The Williams Institute found that, of 27,715 transgender respondents, 52% whose families had rejected them attempted suicide, as did 64.9% of those who were physically attacked in the past year.[32]

A survey of roughly 3000 trans women living in the United States, as summarized in the report "Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey", found that trans women reported that:[15]

• 36% have lost their job due to their gender.
• 55% have been discriminated against in hiring.
• 29% have been denied a promotion.
• 25% have been refused medical care.
• 60% of the trans women that have visited a homeless shelter reported incidents of harassment there.
• When displaying identity documents incongruent with their gender identity/expression, 33% have been harassed and 3% have been physically assaulted.
• 20% reported harassment by police, with 6% reporting physical assault and 3% reporting sexual assault by an officer. 25% have been treated generally with disrespect by police officers.
• Among jailed trans women, 40% have been harassed by inmates, 38% have been harassed by staff, 21% have been physically assaulted, and 20% have been sexually assaulted.

The American National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs' report of 2010 anti-LGBTQ violence found that of the 27 people who were murdered because of their LGBTQ identity, 44% were trans women.[33]

Discrimination is particularly severe towards non-white trans women, who experience the intersection of racism and transphobia. For example, a potential result of such discrimination is that multiracial, Latina, black and indigenous American trans women are twice to more than three times as likely as white trans women to be sexually assaulted in prison.[34]

In her book Whipping Girl, trans woman Julia Serano refers to the unique discrimination trans women experience as "transmisogyny".[35]

Discrimination against trans women has occurred at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival after the Festival set out a rule that it would only be a space for cisgender females. This led to protests by trans women and their allies, and a boycott of the Festival by Equality Michigan in 2014. The boycott was joined by the Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and the National LGBTQ Task Force. The "womyn-born-womyn" intention first came to attention in 1991 after a transsexual festival-goer, Nancy Burkholder, was asked to leave the festival when several women recognized her as a trans woman and expressed discomfort with her presence in the space.[36][37]

Isis King, American transgender model and actress, was the first trans woman contestant on the reality television show America's Next Top Model.

• Trans man
• Transfeminism
• List of transgender-related topics
• List of transgender people
• Transgender sexuality