transgender

An adjective meaning someone whose gender does not completely align with the one assigned to them at birth. It is often shortened to "trans". Trans people can be binary (trans men and trans women) or nonbinary (genderqueer, genderfluid, agender, bigender). An important note is that, when referring to binary trans people you *should* include a space between trans and their gender (ex. trans woman vs transwoman) because trans men are men and trans women are women, just like you'd say blonde woman and not blondewoman. It's an adjective in this context, not a prefix. Likewise, it's transgender people, not transgenders or transgendered people. Trans people do not have one "look" or "experience", no matter what patterns you might see in the ones you meet and talk to. Talk to the trans people in your life if you want to understand, but *be respectful*. What the person says is how you should refer to them and it is not up to you to "prove" or "disprove" their identity. Trans people are everywhere and deserve to exist in peace. They should not have to deal with discriminatory laws and invasive questions. There are many resources online about what respectful questions to ask trans people are. An antonym for transgender is cisgender, meaning someone who identifies as the same gender as they were assigned at birth. This can also be shortened to cis.