document updated 11 years ago, on Jun 20, 2012
transfeminine versus transmasculine
Outside of the transgender community, transmasculine identities are preferred over transfeminine identities. (for instance, see the statistics regarding LGBT murders)
This dynamic expresses itself in transgender spaces sometimes as well.
binary versus non-binary
Some transgender people are ideologically opposed to the gender binary, and are pretty adamant about their opposition (genderqueer, gender fluid, etc). But some transgender people do things that appear to actively support it (transsexuals). This can create tension.
transsexual separatism
Some transsexuals seem themselves as completely separate from anyone else on the transgender spectrum.
drag queens/kings
Unlike other trans folks, they do not have the strenuous insistence that they strongly identify with their trans gender-expression.
stratification
"Transgender" is an umbrella term can cover many different forms of gender-variant behavior. Some that are included:
- gender play — experimenting with transgressing gender norms in small ways for a short amount of time, possibly as part of sexual roleplay
- private crossdressing — people who experiment with dressing differently from their assigned(birth) gender, but only in private
- public crossdresser — people who frequently/habitually cross-dress in public, but not full-time
- ? — people who dress dfferently from their assigned(birth) gender full time (or nearly full time)
- transsexual — people who have had or desire to have some form of medical treatment, either likely SRS, but perhaps only HRT
- post-op transsexual — people who have had bottom surgery
(That's the "how much time/effort have you spent being gender-variant" scale. This is somewhat distinct from two other scales: 1) "how gender-variant are you? Tomboy/effeminate? Genderqueer? Or all the way across?", 2) "what motivates your gender-variant behavior? entertainment? fetish? gender dysphoria? subversivism? Some/all of the above?")
Because there is such a wide range of behavior, there are many different labels that people self-apply, and sometimes label use can be contentious for an individual ("no! I'm not a X! I prefer Y instead! Don't call me X!"), even when a particular label is seen as generally acceptable for others to use.
But don't get distracted by labels. Even if we removed all terminology, there are still clear differences in behavior, discrimination that a particular subgroup faces, and lived daily experiences of people in that subgroup.
As such, some wish to clearly distinguish themselves from others under the transgender umbrella, and may have animosity towards other subgroups.