Why is "Transgender" a sexual orientation?

[Zontar]

I just noticed that "Transgender" is listed in My Settings as an orientation. Why is that? I've never heard of an orientation exclusively toward transgendered people.

You'd think that'd be under Gender..

[Wolfy]

Well, I wouldn't consider Transgender as a gender, I guess it fits better under Orientation since it's like, uhh...how do I put it...people want to be know as This gender, or That gender. Orientation is different too, it's who you like, but...I just put for my Orientation Gay FtM because I guess it fits for me.

Transgender is an umbrella term used to describe people whose gender identity (sense of themselves as male or female) or gender expression differs from that usually associated with their birth sex.

[Eccentric]

Well, it doesn't specifically say SEXUAL orientation. I guess that counts as gender orientation? idk...
Anyway, the orientation thing is pretty much just to tell us why you're here on EC, and some people are here not because they're gay (oriented toward liking a different sex than the average straight guy), but because they're transgendered (oriented toward being a different gender than the average straight guy), and EC is targeted to all people falling under the LGBT umbrella term.
Or something like that.

[Bryan90]

Semantics semantics.

Well, the following is from the pespective of the Toronto LGBT community, so it might not be internationally recognised:

The community is most commonly referred to as LGBTQ, or GLBT and as you observe, it includes a 'T' which is for transgender. And then we also have the longer version LGBTTTQQI2S (Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transexual, queer, questioning, intersex, 2-spirited). Which has a whole lot more of labels in it.

I guess in essence we wanted to include all non cis-gendered labels into a community even though one might argue that some of these labels do not constitute as sexual orientation.

Which is also the reason I suppose why some people in the community are moving from 'sexual orientation' to 'gender and sexual diversity'.

[Ben]

Hey,
I think someone with the power would add a transgender option to the list of genders if everyone wants that, I don't think there'd be a problem. But everyone can input their own orientation and gender as they deem appropriate anyway : )

[Owen]

Originally Posted by Zontar

I just noticed that "Transgender" is listed in My Settings as an orientation. Why is that? I've never heard of an orientation exclusively toward transgendered people.

As others have said, some people see the "orientation" field as a place where you describe whatever it is that makes you LGBTTTQQAAI2SGQPPPBBQ, i.e. whatever it is that makes you a member of the non-heterosexual and/or non-cis-gendered community, whether that be your sexual orientation or your sexual identity. Others, like you, from what I can tell, see it as a field that is just for describing your sexual orientation, and if it's your gender identity and your gender identity only that brought you to this forum, then you can specify that in the "gender" field and don't need to note it in the "orientation" field at all. After all, "orientation" is, in my mind, short for "sexual orientation" (there is no such thing as a "gender orientation"; that's known as "gender identity"), and gender identity has nothing to do with sexual orientation. That's what I think, though I guess not everyone agrees with that assessment

Difference of opinion, I guess, though I've also noticed that it seems to also be a difference of approach to the question. Some people see the issue as "Why have 'transsexual' in the orientation field?", while others see the issue as "Why not have 'transsexual' in the orientation field?". The former group (and the one I could myself as a member of) would think that transsexual should be removed as an option in the orientation field unless there's a good reason to keep it there, while the latter group thinks that it should stay unless there's a good reason to remove it. And for those who see the orientation field as being inclusive of gender identity and who fall in the latter of the two aforementioned categories, the answer that I would propose to the question "why not" (that we have the gender field for that) just doesn't hold water. Since they need a reason to remove it to be convinced that it should be removed, and that reason doesn't work for them, they see no reason to take it out. Of course, I may be wrong about that, as I can be when making guesses about other people's motivation, but that's my understanding of it.

[Aya McCabre]

In some cultures they're considered as the same thing. A lot of it is the way people are brought up but people who are trans are expected to be attracted to their birth gender and people who are gay are expected to assume the opposite gender role. Not saying that's normal in the world as a whole but in some places it makes perfect sense to put trans as a sexual orientation. It's not how I would do it but I can see the logic of it.

[Josh21]

hahahaha LGBTTTQQAAI2SGQPPPBBQ?!?! please tell me this is not a real term? would take a long time to introduce the start of meetings :P

[Owen]

Originally Posted by Josh21

hahahaha LGBTTTQQAAI2SGQPPPBBQ?!?! please tell me this is not a real term? would take a long time to introduce the start of meetings :P

For the most part, it's real.
Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transexual Transgender Third-gender Queer Questioning Asexual Allied Intersex 2-Spirited Gender-Queer Pansexual Polysexuality Pomosexual Bar-Be-Q (I added that last part to satirize how ridiculously long the acronym becomes if one tries to be all inclusive). And I couldn't even remember every part of it.

[Emberstone]

Originally Posted by Gamer am I

For the most part, it's real.
Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transexual Transgender Third-gender Queer Questioning Asexual Allied Intersex 2-Spirited Gender-Queer Pansexual Polysexuality Pomosexual Bar-Be-Q (I added that last part to satirize how ridiculously long the acronym becomes if one tries to be all inclusive). And I couldn't even remember every part of it.

in my group on campus, we shorted it by saying Q(2) like in math, when something is squared, you put a little 2 next to it. doesnt shorten it much, but we find when we say it that way, people are more inclined to ask what the 'squared' is for, and it gives us a oppertunity to explain queer and questioning, both of which most people dont consider thinking about much.

[Martin]

I'll have a look into this. I'm not sure who originally set it that way, but I can't imagine they're still around to view this thread and answer.

I don't want to change it just yet because I need to check a few things. I've never edited the profile fields before so I need to make sure nothing will explode if I touch them.

I'll keep ye posted.

Martin.

[Martin]

Wassupski,

I've removed Transgender from the Orientation section, and the Gender section now has 'Transgender: MtF', 'Transgender: FtM' and 'Genderqueer' labels in its category.

The orientation category is largely aimed at identifying the sexual orientation of members, but members can still put Transgender as their orientation if they would rather use that profile field as a representation of their gender orientation instead.

Martin.