Hi! I have a question regarding your latest post about non-binary people not considering themselves trans (especially the last sentence).
I'm a trans man (don't really care if binary or non-binary and either way I want to transition to present as a man), but I'm French. So I'm sometimes wondering about the use of certain words in English-speaking trans communities, since I'm not a native speaker.
So... What does the word "transexual" (or transsexual?) mean to you? Does this mean "wanting to transition medically"? Should I use it if I want to say I need to transition medically? (weirdly enough, in spaces I'm in, people tend to assume I don't want to)
In my country, the equivalent of "transexual" is a slur, and people who use it are often rightfully assumed to be transmedicalists (I'm not saying you are one, at all, quite the contrary, I'm just describing how it seems to work in France).
Does the word tend to carry the same meaning in English usually? Is there a change going on? (that's also why I'm asking what "transsexual" means *to you* and not just in general) Is it different online versus in real life?
Anyways, I'm hoping you haven't already had a similar ask, tried to check but couldn't. Take care!
Transsexual was originally a word created by the medical community to describe the grouping we now call transgender, with obvious transmedicalist criteria because these were cis doctors treating us like we were sick. Lots of trans people adopted this word for themselves and anyone who transitioned more than 15 years ago likely will have used it for themselves at some point. That's extremely recent, and it's only in the last couple of decades that we've had most of the language we do now.
Now there are a bunch of people using transexual (dropping an s to make a distinction from the original medical term) to mean a bunch of things. I think an actually beneficial use for it could be as a way to distinguish someone who has changed their sex via hormonal transition and/or surgery. There's no need for this to create separation or angst among us IMO, it can be simply descriptive. When I say transexual I mean it that way, as speaking of someone who changes their sex characteristics intentionally for the purpose of transition. This also helps with including trans intersex people who medically transition without inaccurately labelling all intersex people as transexual.
You'll find some English speakers who will treat it as a slur too, but that seems unhelpful to me. I feel the same way about it as I do about prostitute as a word tbh, that sometimes it's a useful descriptor even though the umbrella term of sex worker often suits me fine.
