The Asterisk In Trans*

Hullo, everyone.

I'm sure many of you have been told that the asterisk was a good addition to the trans label. But is it really?

The asterisk, in my opinion, is over-inclusive. Trans is simply a short form of transgender, which should already be inclusive enough. Both binary and non-binary genders fall under trans, so why add the asterisk?

Some people say it includes crossdressers, drag queens, etc. However, crossdressers and drag queens are not necessarily trans. They can be cis as well. Including these people under the trans label by way of the asterisk is mislabeling and, as I said before, over-inclusive.

Excluding these people is not offensive. While some crossdressers, drag queens, etc. are trans, others are not. They identify with their birth gender, and therefore, they are cis. Not trans. Not transgender, which is all trans stands for.

A few articles, like this one, claims that the label trans only applies to binary genders. This is not true. Transsexual is the term I use for binary trans people. Transgender includes transsexuals and genders like bigender, gender fluid, agender, pangender, two-spirited, and so on.

A note on the word transsexual:

In my opinion, this word holds the same weight as the word homosexual. Many people have used homosexual in a derogatory, offensive way, such as, "Ugh, he's a homosexual." That's why it's more common to see homosexual used as an adjective, not a noun. Similarly, transsexual is also more commonly used as an adjective, not a noun, although people still use it as a noun non-offensively because they feel like they need to reclaim the term.

I don't want to start an argument. I want to start a civilized discussion, and I'm not saying anyone is wrong by placing an asterisk in trans. I just want to see how people view this, my explanation, and their reasons behind using trans* or just trans. Hopefully that's alright.

 

I get your point, haha. But what do you mean, more than transgender people? What others are you referring to?

Ah, that's a new way to look at it. Haven't really thought of it that way before, but I still don't see how it's exclusive to remove the asterisk. Is it uncommon to think transgender is both inclusive to binary and non-binary genders?

EDIT: Also, people don't really say "I am sexual*" when they're discussing things with asexual people, but there are many, many sexual orientations. Is this different?

 

Ah, I see. So it's pretty much a problem with society not being as aware of non-binary genders, or am I misunderstanding something?

To Ridiculous:

Ah, but in my opinion, they're already included in the transgender label. Why should they not?

 

Oh, alright. Thanks for clearing that up! And yeah, you're right, it would be. It's too bad I didn't think of that earlier. Sorry. I guess it'd be the same if people just commented, though.

 

To Ridiculous:

Haha, I see.

I know what you mean about using terms other than transgender, however, but I'm not quite sure how trans* doesn't consider them as... well, transgender.

I view it like how I view the labels lesbian and gay woman - some people prefer one over the other, some people don't care. If people don't like the word transgender to describe them, they are free to use labels like MtF, FtM, genderqueer, non-binary, agender, gender fluid, etc. - pretty much everything that's more specific than just transgender.

Regardless of what they are, if they fit in the description of transgender, they're transgender. It's just not required for them to actually say, "Hey, I'm transgender." They don't even have to adopt a more specific label if they don't want to. They can say, "I was born female, but I'm male now" or anything of the sort.

To stormborn:

Yeah, I know what you mean, haha. I might as well start doing that too. Seems like it's the safest way, in case people get offended.

To darkcomesoon:

Unfortunately, that's true. I think it has more to do with how people are unaware of non-binary people in general instead of the actual term, though. Someone once posted that they used the asterisk because it made people inquire what it means, therefore spreading awareness. That's one way to go about it, but I would really like to see more awareness without the asterisk someday.

 

To An Gentleman:

Hah, yeah, I know. I would prefer to use it, actually, but like the word queer, some are offended by it and I don't feel comfortable with it.

To Tai:

Yup. Honestly, I think I thought the same thing when I first saw the asterisk. People were telling me that it was better, so I just went along with it, but after some research I decided I didn't really agree with its use.