transgender, a. and n.
A. adj. Of, relating to, or designating a person whose identity does not conform unambiguously to conventional notions of male or female gender, but combines or moves between these; transgendered.Although often used (esp. among participants in transgender lifestyles) as a generic and inclusive term which deliberately avoids categorizations such as transsexual or transvestite, in wider use transgender is sometimes used synonymously with these more specific terms.
1974 D. Cordell in Rep. 1st National TV.TS Conf. 16
There is a tendency among trans-gender people to encourage each other. This precludes the very careful self-analysis which must take place in everyone who is proposing to undergo this therapy.
1983 K. E. Stuart Uninvited Dilemma iii. 25 Gender conditions are quite different from sexual conditions or sexual preferences. The word transsexual is somewhat misleading, because the word sexual is incorporated into the term. Perhaps the word ‘transgender ’ would have been a more suitable term.
1984 News
(Portsmouth)
6 Aug. 1/4
Transgender model Bruce Laker's plans for a white wedding have been dashed.
1990 Rouge
Winter
Transgender model Bruce Laker's plans for a white wedding have been dashed.
1996 F. M. Shaver in B. Schissel & M. Mahood Social Control in Canada iii. 25 Male hustlers run less risk from on-the-job hazards than do either women or transgender prostitutes.
2000 Ralph 7 July 66/2
I assume people know I'm transgender.
B. n. Transgenderism; (now usually) a transgender person.
1987 Chrysalis 11 1 53 People often think that trans-gender is a rather minority and unimportant matter.
1998 Stage 4 Feb. 21/1 Theatrical transgenders now have their own magazine which, it is hoped‥will‥be a means through which drag artists can find jobs in the theatre.
1995 Times 15 Nov. (Interface section) 6/3 This assistant professor‥started off life as a gifted but socially inadequate young man, became a woman and is now a ‘transgender’, occupying the middle ground between the sexes.
1999 Time Out N.Y. 10 June 31/1 1 53 The airy Chelsea outpost of this West Coast chainlet offers advice on the gamut of social, religious, emotional and economic issues for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders.