A reader writes: “As a transgender man who transitioned about five years ago, I have been hearing the conversation about the word ‘transgendered’ (with the ‘ed’ on the end), and would like to know:
1. Why the ‘ed’ on the end?
2. Why do people take issue?”
Don’t even get me started. Oops – too late.
I have had an issue with this for many years, and I have written about it before, but that was a while ago, so I will reiterate for those who are not aware of my feelings about this.
When I started transition (in 1997), “transgendered” was the appropriate term. You will see it throughout my book Just Add Hormones: An Insider’s Guide to the Transsexual Experience. It is grammatically correct, it sounds right, and it makes the most sense as an adjective, which is what it is.
While not all adjectives take an “ed,” “gender” does. I am a gendered person. If I am a gendered person, then it would follow that I would be a transgendered person (although I don’t identify in this way – I identify as a transsexual person).
I am left-handed, not left-hand. I am brown-eyed, not brown-eye. I was married, not marry, and now I am divorced, not divorce. Sometimes I get tired (not tire) of the whole argument, and I have gotten to the point where I am determined (not determine) to leave it alone – except when it comes up, as it has here.
Somewhere between 1997 and today, “transgendered” became a negative term. It wasn’t just that people began to prefer the term “transgender” because the tongue didn’t have to do as much work. It became offensive. Some of the reasons that were given to me for this offense were that the “ed” signified that being transgender:
> was something that the person had done and was finished (not finish) with.
> was something that had happened (not happen) to the person, rather than something ongoing that the person is.
> was something negative, like being divorced (which is not necessarily negative, depending on the situation).
None of these arguments makes sense to me, but it doesn’t matter. GLAAD officially made “transgender” the correct term in its media guide, and in July 2009, I gave up my long battle to continue using the “ed” word in this blog. The only person I know who has vocally and publicly fought the same battle to be grammatically correct is Pauline Park. She might have given in as well, like I did, but I think she still brings it up from time to time. She has more energy than I do.
The thing that I really don’t like about “transgender” as an adjective, other than the fact that it’s not correct, is that I believe that it lends itself to “noun-ization.” I believe that this is the reason why media outlets and others think that “transgender” is a noun – it must be a noun, because otherwise it would follow standard grammatical rules and be “transgendered.”
And so we get “A transgender was attacked today in Central Park,” “Mayor John Smith came out as a transgender,” and “A group of transgenders was seen outside the bar before the melee.” When I see stuff like this, I blame the media for not paying attention, but I also blame those who fought so valiantly to have the “ed” dropped. If we want to change the language so that it doesn’t make sense to the average person, then we have to live with the consequences.
I will no doubt get some angry comments regarding this post. But I’m not telling my long-time readers anything that they don’t already know about me. I made a conscious decision to drop the “ed,” and I have put my own feelings about this on the burner farthest to the back in my mind. But I will never change my mind. I will only change my language to avoid offending others, because the feelings of my readers are more important to me than being chief of the grammar police.
But as long as we’re on the subject …
Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado (yes, we like our state name here), has changed the gender choices on its job applications to be more inclusive. Now the college is offering these choices to check under Gender: Male, Female, Transgender, Queer, and Not Disclosed.
I think that’s very forward thinking of them. The problem is that, in my opinion, none of these choices are actually genders.
Male and Female are sex designations. Transgender is a term that some people use to define their identity, and that others use to refer to a clinical diagnosis. Queer refers to sexual orientation. And Not Disclosed is, of course, an “Other” option.
I suppose there are some people who define their gender as “transgender,” but I don’t see that as a gender. It might be a gender identity for some, but it’s not a gender.
And according to the Denver Post, Colorado College defines “queer” as “[a]n umbrella term describing people who have a non-normative gender identity, sexual orientation, or sexual anatomy – includes lesbians, gay men, bisexual people, asexual people, transgender people, intersex people, etc.”
Excuse me? Since when did all these groups opt in for inclusion under this “umbrella term”? They all didn’t, apparently, because gay male job applicant John Kichi is filing a complaint after just seeing the word on the application. And since when does “queer” refer to sexual anatomy? I know a few intersex people who would probably be just as pissed as Mr. Kichi.
My understanding of “queer” is that it is a reclaimed word used primarily to define sexual orientation or attraction. Genderqueer is used in terms of gender. But apparently, like transgender losing its “ed,” the language has once again shifted. And, like Mr. Kichi, I am not of the younger generation, so it’s difficult for me to keep track, from one minute to the next, of where the language is going.
Regardless, I still argue that none of these things is a gender. If people are using “queer” as a gender identity, or just an identity in general, I can hang with that. Although I see it as a sexual orientation, I do know some straight people who call themselves queer as an identity because they do not fit into the “straight, mainstream” mold that seems to be the only thing available to those with “opposite-sex” attractions and cisgender gender identities.
If people are using “transgender” as a gender identity, I can hang with that, too. And although “male” and “female” are sex designations, I could see someone saying, “I have a male gender identity, in that I identify as a man.” But while I commend Colorado College for taking the first step toward the future, I’m not sold on this random hodgepodge of choices.
I have always advocated for fill-in-the-blank gender and sex designations on paperwork. I understand the difficulties of this, particularly when you are reporting to government agencies, who don’t want to have to deal with more than two of anything, but if you can expand to include transgender and queer, then it seems to me that you can just offer a blank space for an applicant to fill in, and then lump the answers together into whatever categories the government or your oversight board deems acceptable.
Well, now that I got all that out, I can retire my language gripes for my death-bed. Hopefully, by then, I will have narrowed down the things that I really need to worry about.
This post originally appeared on Matt Kailey's award-winning website Tranifesto.com. Republished with permission.
