
Choosing a new name that better suits one’s gender identity is common, too. That is, they may express their gender identity through the way they talk, act, dress, style their hair, and other behaviors. Transgender people may be gender non-conforming, meaning that they adopt customs and habits that are not typically associated with their assigned birth sex. These transgender people are often described as being “non-binary.” Another term that is sometimes used to describe people in this category is “genderqueer.” Making Changes Their gender identity may combine both female and male elements, for instance, or they may not feel like either gender.


Some transgender people don’t identify with one gender exclusively. A transgender man was assigned female sex at birth but identifies as male. A transgender woman was labeled as male at birth but has the gender identity of a female. By contrast, the term cisgender describes people whose gender identity aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth.Īccording to the National Center for Transgender Equality, there are about 1.4 million transgender people in the United States, who fall into several categories.

Transgender is a general term that describes people whose gender identity, or their internal sense of being male, female, or something else, does not match the sex they were assigned at birth.
