Sex
The classification of a person as male or female. At birth, infants are assigned a sex, usually based on the appearance of their external anatomy. A person's sex, however, is actually a combination of bodily characteristics including: chromosomes, hormones, internal and external reproductive organs, and secondary sex characteristics.
Gender Identity
A person's internal, deeply held sense of their gender. For transgender people, their own internal gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. Most people have a gender identity of man or woman (or boy or girl). For some people, their gender identity does not fit neatly into one of those two choices (see non-binary and/or genderqueer below.)
Gender Expression
External manifestations of gender, expressed through a person's name, pronouns, clothing, haircut, behavior, voice, and/or body characteristics. Society identifies these cues as masculine and feminine, although what is considered masculine or feminine changes over time and varies by culture. Typically, but not always, transgender people seek to align their gender expression with their gender identity, rather than the sex they were assigned at birth.
Sexual Orientation
Describes a person's enduring physical, romantic, and/or emotional attraction to another person. Gender identity and sexual orientation are not the same. Transgender people may be straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer. For example, a person who transitions from male to female and is attracted solely to men would typically identify as a straight woman.
Transgender (adj.)
An umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from what is typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth, including non-binary identities (see below). People under the transgender umbrella may describe themselves using one or more of a wide variety of terms - including transgender. Use the descriptive term preferred by the person in question. Many transgender people are prescribed hormones by their doctors to bring their bodies into alignment with their gender identity. Some undergo surgery as well. But not all transgender people can or will take those steps, and a transgender identity is not dependent upon physical appearance or medical procedures.
Cisgender
A person whose gender identity sits comfortably with the sex they were assigned at birth.
Trans man
A man who was assigned female at birth. Many (not all) trans men choose to undergo surgical or hormonal transition, or both, to alter their appearance in a way that aligns with their gender identity or alleviates gender dysphoria. All do identify with a binary male identity, though. For people who don't, but feel more masculine than feminine, there are terms like ""transmasculine"", ""demiboy"", etc.
Trans woman
A woman who was assigned male at birth. Many (not all) trans women choose to undergo surgical or hormonal transition, or both, to alter their appearance in a way that aligns with their gender identity or alleviates gender dysphoria. All do identify with a binary female identity, though. For people who don't, but feel more feminine than masculine, there are terms like ""transfeminine"", ""demigirl"", etc.
Non-binary
An umbrella term for people whose gender identity doesn't sit comfortably with 'man' or 'woman'. Non-binary identities are varied and can include people who identify with some aspects of binary identities, while others reject them entirely. As an umbrella term, there are a host of other terms which are generally considered to sit under it, such as bigender, multigender, gender neutral, agender, androgynous, genderfluid, genderqueer, and so on. Most trans people will not expect you to be an expert on every single one of the myriad words that people have coined to describe their experience of gender, so don't panic! Google is your friend (other search engines are available!).
Some Other Terms You Might Come Across
How Many?
We don't have good data on this as there hasn't historically been a census question on this. Best estimates currently put it in the ballpark of 1% of the population. In Britain that would imply ~600,000
Prior to modern understandings of trans identities, many cultures have had concepts which cover some of the same ground. For instance: ""two-spirit"" people (Native American), Hijras (Indian). Many other examples exist.
Identity
Healthcare
Workplace, employment, poverty
Harassment and discrimination
This year: COVID and botched GRA reform
Gender Recognition Act (2004)
Passed in 2004, following a European Court of Human Rights ruling in favour of trans woman Christine Goodwin (who was denied the right to marry in the UK), at the time this was a step forward for trans people in the UK. It allows individuals to apply for a Gender Recognition Certificate, which is essentially a replacement Birth Certificate, and as such serves as an official legal recognition of a trans person's gender. This is important in situations where a Birth Certificate might be important in how someone is treated, which legally might include things like pensions, prisons and marriage. It is largely irrelevant to everyday situations where a Birth Certificate would not be important, such as use of single-sex facilities, what name and titles one can use on most records (including driving licenses and passports), etc.
Equality Act (2010)
Passed in 2010, the Equality Act served to consolidate and update a number of previous Acts and Regulations, and is now the central plank of anti-discrimination law in Great Britain. The Act protects people against discrimination, harassment or victimisation in employment, and as users of private and public services based on nine protected characteristics, including (of particular interest to trans people) gender reassignment. As such, it prohibits discrimination against people on the basis of their trans status. It defines gender reassignment as covering an individual who is 'proposing to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone a process or part of a process to reassign their sex'. As such, there is no requirement for a trans person to have any kind of medical supervision or intervention in order to be protected from gender reassignment discrimination.
Schedule 3, Part 7, Para 28 of the act does make an exception in the case of provision of single-sex services, ""if the conduct in question is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim"". In practice, however, this provision has been rarely used, with many providers of single-sex services (or separate-sex services) seeing no reason to exclude trans people from their services.
The Need For Reform
There is a noticeable mismatch in the two Acts detailed above, in what standards of ""proof"" they require from trans people. The older act, the GRA, revolves around medical gatekeeping and bureaucracy, where the newer Equality Act is much more centred around self-identification. Some other countries which have introduced laws similar to the GRA more recently have opted for the self-ID approach, such as Ireland in 2015, with no major problems. The UK government announced previously that it intended to reform the GRA to follow suit, but after several rounds of consultation which unleashed a storm of transphobic misinformation in the press, they have backed away from meaningful reforms, choosing instead to simply move the process of applying for a GRC online and reduce the processing fee.
In addition to the flaws in the existing GRC process, the GRA (alongside many other aspects of government provision) currently includes no recognition for non-binary identities at all. Since the 2013 introduction of Same Sex Marriage, in many respects a victory for LGBT+ people, another issue has been created for trans people in England and Wales: a person who is already married when they transition and wish to obtain a GRC requires the legal consent of their spouse (this has been labelled the ""spousal veto""). Whilst this does not present a high barrier to happy couples, it does give ex-partners in acrimonious separations an unpleasant weapon to wield against a trans person: their ability to apply for a GRC can essentially be blocked until their divorce can be finalised.
Meaningful reform of gender recognition in the UK should include:
There are also wider areas of legal reform still to be addressed, such as disentangling the act of giving birth from ""motherhood"" in the cases of trans men like Freddy McConnell, who would (understandably!) prefer not to be listed as ""Mother"" on their child's birth certificate.
Leading charities and organisations:
Lib Dem Policy:
2019 Manifesto:
Other
Basic ways to show solidarity: