The National Center for Transgender Equality defines transgender people as those who have a different gender identity to their assigned gender at birth. Some people may also use “trans” as a shortened version for transgender. Gender identity is the innate knowledge of who a person is. Every person has a gender identity, which may match their assigned at birth, or it may be different. A healthcare professional usually assigns newborns either a male or female at birth. If people identify with a different gender to the one they were assigned, they may describe themselves as transgender.
A transgender woman is someone who is currently living as a woman but was assigned a male at birth. A transgender man is someone who is currently living as a man but was assigned a female at birth. Some transgender people may not identify with being either male or female, or may identify as a combination of male and female. Other terms people may use to describe their gender identity include nonbinary or genderqueer.
