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Trans Sexualities

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The Palgrave Handbook of the Psychology of Sexuality and Gender

Abstract

Transis a term often used to describe gender minorities (Lev, 2004), and refers to people who are in some way transgendered. It is also used to describe people who ‘transgress’ gender boundaries and who may be considered gender variant in relation to conventional and binary gender norms, that is, socially scripted male and female gender roles. Trans menis frequently used to describe men who are living in a male gender role, but were ‘natally assigned’ (by the culture they were born into) as female, and trans womento describe women living in a female gender role who were natally assigned as male. People may describe themselves as trans men and trans women — although they still live, by varying degrees, within the gender role associated with their natally assigned gender — in order to experience themselves as being more congruent with their gender identity. Transgender(now increasingly referred to as ‘trans’) is a broad term encompassing a variety of gender identities including transsexual, genderqueer, gender variant, third sex, androgynous, drag king/queen, transvestite, cross-dresser, and/or people who are undergoing, or have undergone, hormone treatment and/or surgery to modify their body to fit with their gender identity (Shaw et al., 2012).

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Authors
  1. Penny Lenihan
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  2. Tony Kainth
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  3. Robin Dundas
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust and West London Mental Health NHS Trust, UK

    Christina Richards (Senior Specialist Psychology Associate and Clinical Research Fellow) (Senior Specialist Psychology Associate and Clinical Research Fellow)

  2. The Open University, UK

    Meg John Barker (Senior Lecturer in Psychology) (Senior Lecturer in Psychology)

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© 2015 Penny Lenihan, Tony Kainth, and Robin Dundas

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Lenihan, P., Kainth, T., Dundas, R. (2015). Trans Sexualities. In: Richards, C., Barker, M.J. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of the Psychology of Sexuality and Gender. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137345899_9

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