[zephjc]

A niggle on the term "transgendered" (via http://www.glaad.org/reference/transgender), specifically the final point:

Problematic: "transgendered"

Preferred: transgender

The adjective transgender should never have an extraneous "-ed" tacked onto the end. An "-ed" suffix adds unnecessary length to the word and can cause tense confusion and grammatical errors. It also brings transgender into alignment with lesbian, gay, and bisexual. You would not say that Elton John is "gayed" or Ellen DeGeneres is "lesbianed," therefore you would not say Chaz Bono is "transgendered."

[evanb]

Can I ask a question? It seems surprising to me that we should compare transgender to lesbian, gay, and bisexual. Shouldn't we compare transgender to male, female, and other genders? It seems to me that being transgender is about an inward-facing personal identity, whereas lesbian, gay, and bisexual are about an outward-facing sexual preference. But these issues can be sensitive and sometimes not intuitive, so I'm never sure what to do except to try and learn the right thing.

[xnull2guest]

Thank you for the education. Fixed in comment.

[WasSlowbanned]

The difference is a person is born gay, they don't need an operation to become gay. The Ed reflects this process. Hence you cannot be gayed, but you can become educated, indoctrinated, experienced, and transgendered.

[21echoes]

Transgender does not mean having a sex change operation. Statistics say that somewhere between 66 and 90 percent of transgender people do not get sex change operations[1][2], and 40% have any no medical treatments at all (hormonal, surgical... anything) related to transitioning their gender[1].

[1] http://www.thetaskforce.org/static_html/downloads/reports/re...

[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/nyregion/23gender.html