Essay On Transgender Community Communication

Proper Communication with and Understanding of the Transgender Community:

An Emerging New Market

Until recently, the issues and even existence of a transgender community have been largely out of the public eye. How do we better understand this market? In order to do business and have proper daily interaction with the Trans community, one must invest must invest time into communicating in a way that is as accepting as possible. According to transgender woman Cailyn Jenner on her show I am Cait, “the transgender issue is where the gay issue was twenty years ago”. People who fall under the umbrella of Trans have different communications that they prefer. In order to understand this community we must first realize the proper pronouns.

Gender nonconforming. Trans*. Transsexual. Bigender. Third sex. Female-to-male, (FTM). Male-to-female (MTF). Gender-creative. Gender-colorful. Gender-expansive”. (PFLAG National) Confused yet? There is nothing wrong with being a little confused. The safest term tends to be Trans or transsexual since it covers all genders. If someone is not sure the easiest thing to do would be to ask the person what they prefer. Even some transgender people make mistakes in terminology. There are so many more branches being discovered that someone who is used to just transsexual might be confused by someone who is

I’m a genderqueer person who was assigned male at birth and likes to rock high heels and lipstick, but in the current moment of visibility for transgender women and men, very few people can seem to get my identity right. Over the past three years, people have gone from assuming I am “really gay” to assuming I identify as a woman. Which, I guess, is part of why everyone has become so obsessed with my leg hair….Over the Years, I’ve learned to embrace both my love of lipstick and my facial hair, my affinity for sequins and my broad shoulders.” (Tobia)

After years of defying gender roles, they (Jacob) continues to dress however they are feeling that day. This does not mean that they want to become a woman. They say “As a genderqueer person, I have already transitioned — and as it turns out, I am perfect just the way I am” (Tobia). Genderqueer is in the sort of grey area between a Male-to-Female and a Female-to-Male. They are people who are neither a man nor woman. A specific term is sometimes easier to define, whereas genderqueer shown that there is much more to gender than what we were originally