CD : Cross Dresser -- See TV.

CTA : Crico-Thyroidal Approximation surgery (tightens vocal cords to raise voice pitch. Usually done at same time as TCR).

DQ : Drag Queen (see Definitions section).

DSM-IV : Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 4th Edition.

FFS : Facial Feminization Surgery (a specialized form of plastic surgery of soft facial tissues only, although the term is sometimes used to include FGRS.)

FGRS : Facial Gender Reassignment Surgery (more elaborate surgery, in which facial bone structure itself is altered).

GID : Gender Identity Disorder. (Also known as GIS [Gender Identity Syndrome]). An official term in the DSM-IV used to define and diagnose transexualism.

GD : Gender Dysphoria, a situation in which an individual, male or female, is unhappy with his or her gender; a state that is enduring, severe, and causes considerable distress.

GG : Genetic Girl. Also "Natal Female". A term for someone who was raised from birth as a female. Slightly misleading, as the term may include Intersexed children who were raised and appear as "normal" girls, though some of these may in fact be genetic males.

GRS - Gender Reassignment Surgery. Also called SRS -- Sexual Reassignment Surgery. The physical reconstruction of the genitalia from the birth sex to the preferred sex.

HBIGDA : Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association. An older term, this organization is now known as WPATH. (See WPATH).

HRT : Hormone Replacement Therapy (For MtF, an estrogen, an anti-androgen, and sometimes a progesterone).

ICD-10 : International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision.

MTF : Male to Female gender vectored transsexual. Also MtF, M2F. (FTM = Female to Male).

Non-Op : Someone who manifests strong GID, but to a degree slightly insufficient to drive them to seek genital surgery. Technically not quite a transsexual, but so close to being one that they often consider themselves to be transsexuals.

Pre-Op : Someone who has begun active treatment towards gender reassignment, but not yet had SRS.

Post Op : Someone who has had SRS.

SOC : Standard's of Care: The rule book that most all physicians & psychiatrists work from when treating a gender dysphoric patient... along with either the DSM-IV or ICD-10.

SRS : Sexual Reassignment Surgery (also called GRS -- Gender Reassignment Surgery). See GRS.

TCR : Throid Cartilege Reduction, which reduces the visible size of the Adam's Apple. Usually not done with CTA or other voice surgeries, but it they are desired the two procedures are usually combined to minimize scarring.

TG : Transgender (see Definitions section).

TS : Transsexual (see Definitions section).

TV : Transvestite (see Definitions section).

VFFS : Virtual FFS. (Realistical altering a photograph to show how a patient is likely to look after FFS or FGRS.)

WPATH : World Professional Association for Transgender Health. The professional association that writes the most frequently used "rule book" for gender transition. See SOC.

"chaser" : Also known as "trannie chaser". Someone, often a sexually repressed gay male, who is specifically sexually attracted to transsexuals. They are usually looking for sex with a man, but are too inhibited to do it unless that man looks like a woman. Note that their attraction is to a man. Relationships with such a person are usually "safe" for the transsexual, but not usually wise in the long run, as they see the transsexual as an effeminate man, not as a woman, and this is detrimental to the mental health of the transsexual.

Cisgendered : a person for whom their inner gender and external physical sex align. The opposite of transgendered. See Transgenderism.

"clocking" : Being identified by another person as your birth sex, while publicly presenting as your preferred gender. May apply to either a pre-op cross dressed, or a post op who is attempting to be stealth. See also "soft clock".

Drag Queen : (DQ) a male, almost always gay, who likes to perform in public in an exaggerated female appearance. Often no attempt to appear realistic is made, and often they are actually lampooning women rather than empathizing with them. They generally only do this in public, and have no desire to either do this in private or to actually be female. If you see someone who presents as the Hollywood stereotypical "crossdresser", in mini-skirts, sequined dresses, exaggerated makeup, et cetera ad nauseum, they are usually in this category... and that is NOT how the other categories usually choose to "dress".

Early Onset Cross Gender Identity : The person is pretty much asexual, always. There is almost no sexual arousal associated with crossdressing. The person is usually a loner as a child, somewhat inhibited, may have tried marriage and family. Their presentation in the male gender role is not particularly effeminate. They are quiet people, and their sexual orientation seems to be changing, but really they are pretty much asexual. A lot of their psyche is taken up by crossgender identity. So these people have one gender identity, and that is female. Two gender roles, though, with the male presentation seeming like a guy, and the female presentation seeming the same, like the same person, but also seeming like a woman too, someone who is sort of androgynous, but not in the Michael Jackson sense -- someone who is undifferentiated. Their sexual orientation can change as they shift roles, as they start living in the female gender role.

Gender : an individual's personal, social and legal status as a male or female on the basis of somatic and behavioural criteria. Often confused with "sex", since for most individuals the terms align, but not the same thing.

Gender Identity : The recognition or awareness that one is a member of one sex and not the other. It is the preivate experience of gender role.

Gender Role : The sum of the behaviors, attitudes, personality traits that in a given culture designate someone as masculine or feminine, male or female. It is the public manifestation of gender identity.

Homosexual ("gay"/"lesbian") : an individual, male or female, who is primarily or exclusively attracted to members of their own sex. They have no desire to be the opposite sex.

Intersexed : A person who is born with genitalia and or secondary sex characteristics neither exclusively male nor female, or which combine features of both sexes. Sometimes also called hermaphrodite, though that term is obsolete. Often intersexed people will have "ambiguous genitalia", but not all intersexed conditions manifest this way. There are many medical conditions that are linked under the umbrella term of "Intersexed", all characterized as Disorders of Sexual Development. Some people consider transsexualism to be in this category, as a Neurological Intersexed condition.

Late Onset Cross Gender Identity : The person for many, many years has assumed he was a garden variety crossdresser, whose crossdressing was associated with sexuality, sometimes tranquility, but there were triggers to it. Maybe he didn't know what the pattern was, but when he undergoes therapy he realizes there were triggers to the crossdressing. What happens as he gets older is that the female gender identity, which used to be a subordinate part, starts taking over, and he becomes she. There were two gender identities that were quite split, with sexual orientation usually toward women. As the female identity takes over, whereas he originally thought he would be a lesbian, she goes into the female gender role, and often, with time, she becomes interested in men, but never has been before.

"passing" : Publicly assuming ones preferred gender presentation, without getting "clocked".

Sex : multiple definitions, but the relevant one to here is the biological manifestation as male or female of the physical body.

Sexual Orientation : the gender (male or female) that an individual is most often if not always sexually attracted to. Orientation is further defined by the content of sexual dreams, sexual fantasies. Sexual orientation is _distinct_ from gender. Therefore an individual with GID (male or female) can be oriented towards males or females or both (or more rarely, neither).

"soft clock" : an awareness, possibly sub-conscious, by another person that someone is not their public gender. A "clocking" where there is still some uncertainty in the viewer's mind as to the gender of the person. May also be used to indicate a clock where the viewer is certain one of one's birth sex, but chooses not to say anything to others. Usually noticeable by how it subtly influences the body language of the viewer, though those new to passing may have trouble distinguishing this from other reasons that may cause someone to give a person an "odd look". A soft clock may sometimes be salvaged (undone) by talking to the person, or otherwise interacting with them, if one's gender presentation and voice is good.

"stealth" : Living full time as ones preferred gender presentation, passing well enough that no one knows or suspects your birth sex. Usually requires the person to sever all ties to their past and relocate to a new community and job. Sometimes used less strictly, as "selective stealth", where it only means most people in ones daily life do not know. May or may not include being "stealth" with a spouse/lover. Sometimes the use of the strictest criteria is indicated by calling it "deep stealth".

Transgender : A person who has transgenderism, gender dysphoria. Clinically, "TG" is a designation for someone who manifests gender dysphoria to a strong degree, who falls between Androgyns, and Non-Op's. [The gender dysphoria scale goes from "cisgendered", to "Transvestite", to "Androgyn", to "Transgender", to "Non-Op", to "Late Onset Transsexual", to "Early Onset Transsexual". "Drag Queen's" are approximately equivalent to "Transvestite", though their motivations are entirely different]. The clinical term has drfited in common usage over the years, and now is mostly used as a generic label for anyone with any degree of gender dysphoria.

Transgenderism : Refers to the phenomenon in which individuals who are born anatomically of one sex feel that they belong to the gender of the opposite sex. The term basically means the same as GID but does not encompass the term "disorder" and is not pathologizing and, therefore, is less clinical. There is a wide spectrum of transgenderism ranging from individuals who feel they are trapped in the wrong body but do nothing about this or do very little cross dressing, to those who enjoy cross dressing a great deal, if not all the time but have no wish for hormones or surgery, to those at the extreme end of the spectrum who wish hormones and sex reassignment surgery.

Trannies : A loose, slang term for any individual (usually refers to males) who desire to appear as a member of the opposite sex and do so publicly. Can refer to transgendered, transvestites and homosexuals who often dress as the opposite sex.

Transsexual : An individual (male or female) who is transgendered (has GID) and has very strong feelings about and wishes to alter his or her body with hormones and surgery to become the opposite gender. The term is properly applied to most individuals who enter a treatment program and represent the extreme end of the spectrum.

Transvestite : (TV) a male who likes dressing in female clothing because this is sexually arousing. Undergarments are often focussed upon. These individuals have no wish to become a woman, and are basically normal heterosexuals with a clothing fetish. Many TV's prefer the term "Crossdresser" -- "CD".

SP Levels: Created by Kate Grimaldi to describe perceived degrees of integration of the transsexual experience with society. See "Stealth". Slightly edited by LadyHawke to correct minor typo's.

SP 0 : No passing.

SP 1 : Pass in a crowd where no one is paying much mind. The mall or a busy street. Little person-to-person interaction.

SP 2 : Pass with sustained person-to-person interaction; at a bank, with a waiter, with a sales clerk, or a person at a bar (who is not a "chaser") who flirts with you.

SP 3 : You get that person home and you go to "heavy breathing", and still they accept your womanhood.

SP 4 : [A tricky one to define]. Sustained acceptance of womanhood. The other party, after three weeks, three months, or three years, suddenly has it dawn on them that you were once a boy. No "benign clocking", as Debbie dubbed it. No people who say, "Ohhhh. Nowwwwwwwwww I get it. I won't say anything though. She's so nice and she tries verrrrrrrrrry hard and almost succeeds. Her secret is safe with me as I will never tell, even her, that I know. After all, poor thing, I'd break her heart and I do like her so." Or from the Twelfth Night by Shakespeare when the jester, Feste, says something like, "I profile from my enemies and am abused by my friends."

SP 5 : Your past, as you remember it, is that you see a female in your mind's eye, even though you know for sure that you were not trying to be one. For example, I remember myself as female in high school even though I can see from the photographs that I was hardly that.

SP 6 : I am GG. You realize you were a woman trying to be a man -- like Viola in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night -- only it was an act. The real you has been female all along, and you, of course, knew that all along... but you see how it was a GG doing all those things along the way. Not just a recollection (as in SP 5) of being a female doing it, but a layer deeper at SP 6, seeing the femininity colored those actions and not a "male upbringing" and how little you really know of men.

Appendum, written by Cynthia:
The SP levels are really looking at yourself and seeing just how well you can pass. If you walk down the street in the city, do people see a woman? (SP1) If you go shopping and talk to clerks and salespeople, do they see a woman? (SP2) If you flirt with a guy (or girl) and rush to a hotel room for a passionate hour, does he (or she) still experience you as a woman? (SP3) If you make friends and hand out a lot and they don't know your history, will they still witness you as a woman 3 months later? (SP4) When you look back on your childhood and youth, do you see yourself as female in those memories, a girl doing all those things? (SP5) Without thinking, without taking a political stance, do you see yourself as GG? (SP6)

Libbie wrote on Thu, 24 May 2007 12:57

Re: If your application to the forums has been Declined... ...Then please do answer the "rejection notice," (such as it is)by writing to the supplied email address. The reason you ask? Well, at times folks might have some confusion (don't worry, you're not alone) about how to answer the questionnaire/application form. Your membership may be still accepted if only a little more clarification is supplied. I don't know how many times I've "rejected" an application because the gender (the way you think of yourself) field was filled out as male when female was the answer the Jeopardy panel was looking for. Or the member name was male and the gender identification was also male. So, in short, try try again! I do hope this clarifies why an application might have been rejected and how one might go about correcting the situation. Libbie