Transgender Inclusion

Chapter 6Questions About Social Transition

While people often think of medical transition when they hear that a transgender person is “transitioning,” for most transgender individuals, social transition takes place long before the medical transition (if medical transition ever takes place at all). This chapter is dedicated to answering some common questions about social transition.

What Percentage of Transgender People Transition Socially?

To answer this we must first define transition. To this end, I will focus on the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, the largest survey of transgender individuals in the United States to date. This study defined transition as living full‐time in a gender that is different from the gender associated with the sex you were assigned at birth. What's interesting is that the survey found that most transgender people either already lived full‐time as the gender consistent with their gender identity (62%) or they desired to someday (22%); 13% reported that they were unsure if they wanted to transition and 3% reported that they did not desire to do so. So data indicates that 84% of transgender folks have either already transitioned socially or desire to do so at some juncture.

What's the Difference Between a “Tomboy” and a Transgender Person Transitioning Socially?

An individual who is transgender has a gender identity that is inconsistent with the sex that they were assigned at birth. This differs from someone who may colloquially be referred to as ...