Defining the word transsexual



Our members have noticed the start of a new internet group - Transsexual True Meaning - seeking to redfine the word transsexual. 
 
We were surprised by this for two reasons.
 
Firstly, as the originator of the group admits, transsexual has a well established definition that has existed for over 60 years
 
Here is the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) entry:
 
:- A person who has undergone treatment in order to acquire the physical characteristics of the opposite sex.
 
The Cambridge English dictionary is similar
 
:- Used to describe a person who has had medical treatment to change their sex.
 
It adds an example of appropriate use in a sentence


:- Bagger, who started life as a man and had a sex change operation, made history by becoming the first transsexual woman to play on the Ladies' European Tour.
 
Regardless of the rights or wrongs of a transsexual woman taking part on a ladies sporting tour - which we do take seriously - the meaning of the word is made clear by these world renowned authorities.
 
As you can see it differs from transgender in that it involves those who specifically alter their body physically to live as the opposite sex.

We wish to make clear that we do not make the claim that biologically we can change sex as the dictionary definition might imply. However, we do what is medically possible toward that aim.


Transsexual is not simply a feeling or dressing up to resemble a man or woman by expressing gender stereotypes. It involves medically assisted major bodily change.
 
Trans activism is pressing for self ID and has a much looser and wider concept of what the word transgender means. They have attempted to absorb transsexual into it and that idea has gained traction.

As a consequence we transsexuals have become very protective of the word, much as women rightly have of their definitions.

Trans activism accuses us of being old fashioned but the term says what it is and differentiates from the often non medically routed transgender identity which we consider important.
 
Not because we are better. We believe every person must earn respect through concern over the rights of others. Surgery does not change that.

However,transsexual and transgender are different and it sometimes matters - to put it bluntly - if a trans person has chosen to retain their natal sex organs (as many transgender do) or altered their body and removed them (as most transsexuals do).
 
It gives to others added information when judging a person in their presence.

So using this word accurately matters, not just to us but often in particular to women.

Of course, it matters to men, too, and there are transsexual men. About 30% of transsexuals transition female to male and make whatever bodily changes they can make too.
 
Which brings us to the second concern. This new site wants to redefine transsexual as a person who is sexually attracted to a transgender person - because such people presently have no word to apply as others have heterosexual and homosexual.
 
We think this suggestion was well intended and we cannot speak for how those who are in relationships with transgender men or women feel about themselves.

They are free to decide if they are gay or straight in their perception and we would not seek to instruct that choice.
 
As for someone in a relationship with a transsexual person most of us have one and these are again open to the individual to define as they prefer.
 
There are transsexual women married to women and others married to men. The same is true for transsexual men. The proportions do not seem very different from non transsexual relationships. Though, of course, there are different social consequences that we would not seek to minimise.


Transsexuals under the present GRA rules since 2004 have been able to marry heterosexually and - since same sex marriage has more recently been legalised - can do so homosexually as well.
 
Our spouses are what they are. Men, women, straight or gay, and need no special word to define their relationships with us.
 
Indeed we suspect a heterosexual man married to one of us (and they do exist) would probably find it offensive to be told that they are now a transsexual for having such a loving relationship with someone they regard to be a woman.
 
So, with respect, we would ask transgender people NOT to appropriate the dictionary definition of what we are - transsexual - in much the same way as they seem to be trying to dispute the dictionary definition of the word woman. That is equally unreasonable.  
 
We make clear we do not consider posters defining the word woman to be transphobic. They report the true dictionary description of the word much as we have done above with the word 'transsexual'.

We support the official definition of  the word woman.
 
So we request kindly that transgender activists please leave the word woman alone and allow the word transsexual to mean what it has meant since medically defined in the 1950s.