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Transgender Glossary

Transgender Guidelines - Glossary

Below are some commonly used terms. They are provided to ensure that the Guideline is clear to everyone who reads it, but it is acknowledged that not all terms are used or agreed on by all people.

Below are some commonly used terms.   They are provided to ensure that the Guideline is clear to everyone who reads it, but it is acknowledged that not all terms are used or agreed on by all people.

Transgender: used in this Guideline to refer to individuals whose gender identity (i.e. how they identify) is different from the sex identified at birth (whether they are pre- or post­ puberty, and whether or not they have undergone any form of medical intervention).

Transgender man: used in this Guideline to refer to an individual who is identified as female at birth and did not experience a testosterone-driven puberty but identifies and lives as a man. This is sometimes shortened to trans man, or FTM, an abbreviation for female-ta­ male.

Transgender woman: used in this Guideline to refer to an individual who is identified as male at birth and experienced a testosterone-driven puberty but identifies and lives as a woman. This is sometimes shortened to trans woman, or MTF, an abbreviation for male-to­ female.

Non-binary person: used in this Guideline to refer to individuals whose gender is neither male nor female, or both male and female, or whose gender does not relate to male and/or female.

Sex: used in this Guideline to refer to an individual person's biological and physical characteristics, associated with being male or female.

Gender: used in this Guideline to refer to the social and cultural contexts related to masculinity and femininity. It is also often used to refer to a person's sense of self as, for example, a man, woman or non-binary person, and to associated behavioural expressions.

Expression of gender: The gender-related signals a person uses, such as name, pronoun, title, clothing, hair, walk, speech and mannerisms and so on.

Biological male: For the purposes of this document, refers to a person who produces testosterone at puberty and adolescence, and experiences the resultant androgenizing effects thereof.

Biological female: For the purposes of this document, refers to a person who does not produce male levels of testosterone at puberty and adolescence, and thus does not experience the resultant androgenizing effects thereof.

Summary of Transgender Biology and Performance Research