Glosario

Transsexual

Glossary

Transsexual

Term invented in the 1950s by doctors in the United States to refer to the transgender population. In those years it was thought that the biological sex (male or female) was given by the genitals and believed that changing a person’s genitals could change their sex. But to date that is not possible because sex is given by chromosomes as it was later discovered. There are even people who can be born with vagina and their chromosomes are XY (male) or born with penis and their chromosomes are XX (female) Therefore the term sex change is meaningless and the use of the term transgender is discouraged. Unfortunately, the myth persists that transgender people who undergo genital surgery would be transgender while those who do not would be transgender, but this division is discriminatory and absurd, considering that the cisgender population are the most operated genitals and are not divided between cisgender men who lengthened the penis and those who did not, for example. Anyone who transits gender is transgender, so transgender people are also transgender, regardless of whether or not they operate on any part of the body. Everything that has to do with genital surgeries and sex hormone treatments corresponds to gender expression, not identity and are usually treatments used by both transgender and cisgender people. Etymologically the term transsexual is also inaccurate as it refers to sexual or sexual behaviors, being much more related to terms such as heterosexual and homosexual, or sexual orientation.

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