The difference between trans and trans*

Transgender = transmale and transfemale
Trans* = transgender and non-binary; agender, androgynous, bigender, demigender, genderfluid, genderqueer and two-spirit. (sorry if I missed any, feel free to add)

 

You're gonna see a lot of debate over this. But to be perfectly honest, I really don't see a difference between either. The asterisk was intended to be "inclusive of the entire umbrella", meaning non-binary folks and so on. But the term transgender, in itself, can already refer to everyone in the transgender community, including binary trans men and women and non-binary people.

If we say 'transgender people', we refer to anyone who identifies as some form of gender variant. They might be a trans man/woman or be genderfluid or genderqueer.

But if we denote that someone is a transgender man, this is referring to an FTM man. Vice versa for a transgender woman.

You don't have to use the asterisk to be honest. Save a character while you're typing.

 

Language study is the answer - it boils down to what the "*" means. And it means anything, for instance you can search for a file in a computer by typing name.* if you don't know what the extension is.

Asterisk after trans means more or less that any suffix can follow: -gender or -sexual, or whatever else. And by extending the meaning of the asterisk, people made it into an umbrella term.


However, it is just redundant. Transgender is an umbrella term by definition, "trans*" is redundant and makes little sense to use.

 

Trans* started being used because it was a shorthand way of including non-binary identities. Some non-binary people believe that the word transgender only covers binary transgender people. So, they wanted something that was more all encompassing. Now though, there are people that claim that the asterisk is racist amount other things. So, there is a lot of debate about the subject. I made anot her post about it somewhere, I'll find it when I am not on my phone and link to it.