Leslie Feinberg's pamphlet, 'Transgender Liberation: A Movement Whose Time has Come', circulated in 1992, identified transgender as a term to unify all forms of gender nonconformity in this way transgender has become synonymous with queer. By 1992, the International Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy defined transgender as an expansive umbrella term including 'transsexuals, transgenderists, cross dressers', and anyone transitioning. In 1985, Richard Elkins established the 'Trans-Gender Archive' at the University of Ulster. īy 1984, the concept of a 'transgender community' had developed, in which transgender was used as an umbrella term. By 1976, transgenderist was abbreviated as TG in educational materials. By the mid-1970s both trans-gender and trans people were in use as umbrella terms, while transgenderist and transgenderal were used to refer to people who wanted to live cross-gender without sex reassignment surgery (SRS). Oliven of Columbia University coined the term transgender in his 1965 reference work Sexual Hygiene and Pathology, writing that the term which had previously been used, transsexualism, 'is misleading actually, 'transgenderism' is meant, because sexuality is not a major factor in primary transvestism.' The term transgender was then popularized with varying definitions by various transgender, transsexual, and transvestite people, including Virginia Prince, who used it in the December 1969 issue of Transvestia, a national magazine for cross-dressers she founded. The word transgender acquired its modern umbrella term meaning in the 1990s. Oliven ) has been increasingly preferred over transsexual.

Imported from the German and ultimately modelled after German Transsexualismus (coined in 1923), the English term transsexual has enjoyed international acceptability, though transgender (1965, by J. Terminologyīefore the mid-20th century various terms were used within and beyond Western medical and psychological sciences to identify persons and identities labeled transsexual, and later transgender from mid-century onward. In many countries, they are not legally protected from discrimination. Many transgender people face discrimination in the workplace, in accessing public accommodations, and in healthcare. Transgender identity is generally found in less than 1% of the worldwide population, with figures ranging from <0.1% to 0.6%. Some countries, such as Canada, collect census data on transgender people.

Statistics on the number of transgender people vary widely, in part due to differing definitions of transgender. The opposite of transgender is cisgender, which describes people whose gender identity matches their assigned sex. Gender identity is distinct from sexual orientation, and transgender people may be of any sexual orientation. Some two-spirit people may also identify as transgender. Other definitions of transgender also include people who belong to a third gender, or else conceptualize transgender people as a third gender, and the term may be defined very broadly to include cross-dressers. In addition to trans men and trans women, it may also include people who are non-binary. Those who do desire to medically transition to another sex may identify as transsexual. Not all transgender people desire these treatments and others may be unable to access them for financial or medical reasons. They may pursue gender affirming care such as hormone replacement therapy and various gender-affirming surgeries. Many experience gender dysphoria, which they may seek to alleviate through transitioning, often adopting a different name and set of pronouns in the process. A transgender person (often abbreviated to trans person) is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with the sex they were assigned at birth.

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