Transgender vs transsexual is an attempt to demedicalise the trans experience; very little, all in all, of what trans people go through is related to the medical process of transitioning. “Transsexualism” is what the doctors called it when focusing solely on the medical aspects, “transgender” is the word we picked for ourselves when we looked at our broader experience.
There’s some more history and a bunch of bigotry involved, but that’s the core of it.
There’s some more history and a bunch of bigotry involved, but that’s the core of it.