You may have heard of the term LGBTQ+. Well have you ever wondered what the ‘T’ stands for? It stands for transgender, which can be describes as someone whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond with their birth sex.

Transgender Awareness Week

Transgender Awareness Week is typically observed on the second week of November which leads up to the Transgender Day of Remembrance which memorializes victims of transphobic violence. During the week leading up to this day, participants are encouraged to organize events that can serve as educational opportunities for the community. One event can include the screening of a trans-themed movie such as ‘Paris is Burning’ which includes gay and transgender ball culture in New York City. Another event can be personal testimonies of local transgender people and the issues they face due to their gender identity.

What does it mean to be Transgender?

A transgender person is someone who identifies differently form their assigned sex at birth. This might mean an assigned male at birth (AMAB) could transition into a female. This also works the other way around with an assigned female at birth (AFAB) transitioning into a male. Some people, however, might identify as non-binary which means they don’t identify as either gender. Non-binary people would usually use they/them pronouns or maybe even neo-pronouns such as xe/xem. When MtF (male to female) and FtM (female to male) trans people want to start their transition, they usually take HRT (hormone replacement therapy) at 16 years old which can help give them male or female features to aid in  their transition. Obviously, transgender people would change their pronouns to fit their gender identity, however pronouns don’t always have to equate to your gender. As well as changing pronouns, trans people will also give themselves a new name. Their original name would be called their deadname which should never be used to address them afterwards. However, it might be a bit difficult for the government to recognize their name and sex change, so they would need to contact them to notify the government.

Recognized Transgender People

Sarah McBride (AMAB) is a politician who is the Delaware State senator-elect. Her inauguration will mark the first transgender state senator in the country. In July of 2016, she was a speaker at the Democratic National Convention and was the first openly transgender person to speak at a major party convention in America’s history.

Elliot Page (AFAB) the star of Juno and Umbrella Academy is a Canadian actor and producer. He had only come out as transgender just recently on December 2, 2020. He has also starred in other movies such as The Tracey Fragments, Whip It, Super, and Inception.

Soleil Wheeler (AFAB) ,better known as FaZe Ewok, is a deaf streamer who is extremely popular in the gaming community. At only 14 years old, he joined the FaZe Clan, a professional e-sports team that has many members across the world that all compete in different online games. Along with joining the team, Soleil earned the title of the first girl to join FaZe, however much of the gaming community agrees that the title should be changed to the first transgender person to join the clan. Soleil had come out as transgender on October 11th, 2020 which was followed by massive support from the community.