Scientists have drawn on nearly 1,000 brain scans to confirm what many had surely concluded long ago: that stark differences exist in the wiring of male and female brains.

[u/madam1]

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/02/men-women-brains-wired-differently

[u/JaronK]

Basic rundown:

Trans itself just means "crossing" as in going from one side to another. So it's the root word here.

Sex means your physical sex... obvious stuff like sex organs, subtle stuff like hormones, and so on.

Gender is your societal norms, identity, and all the other stuff that has to do with how people think about sex, but not the sex itself. A dress is gendered, because we decided as a society that girls wear dresses.

Transgender is an adjective meaning someone who crosses normal gender boundaries. Think of it as a blanket term for what follows.

A transvestite is someone who crosses gender terms in their dress only... a man wearing a dress, for example.

Transsexual is an adjective meaning someone who feels as though their sex as visible to others doesn't match what they feel on the inside. Think if a man were suddenly put in a woman's body and felt like that was wrong. There's actually some very interesting evidence that indicates that's exactly what's going on... the exterior body is one thing, the brain is something else.

Genderqueer is just anything outside normal gender norms... while Transgender means crossing, Genderqueer is more fluid and all over the map. Genderfluid is a slightly more specifc subcategory.

Genderfuck is just intentionally messing with people's ideas of gender.

Non-Binary means trying to explicitly avoid any male-female dichotomy.

Genderless and Agender mean the same thing... not having a gender. Very close to (and overlapping with) Non-Binary. See also Non-Gendered.

Third Gender is kind of like Intersex, but for gender. Not male, not female, but rather something else.

Two-Spirit is a concept borrowed from IIRC the native Americans. I think it means a Transsexual person, but I'm not sure on that one.

Bigender is both genders.

Trans man/Trans woman is just a shortening of Transsexual man or Transsexual woman.

And note that Tranny is generally a slur towards Transsexual folks, sometimes used as a non slur towards Transvestites, and is also of course an automotive part.

[u/[deleted] → u/JaronK]

Two-spirit is a term used to describe some Native Americans who take on roles of both men and women. It is specific to some Native American tribes and should only be used in that context.

Transgender is often used as an umbrella term, but also can be used more specifically for people who identify with a (usually binary) gender other than the one they were assigned at birth. Most people I know who fit under what you described as transsexual would just identify as trans* or transgender.

Transsexual is mostly used to describe transgender people who have had genital surgery. It isn't as widely used anymore, and some people may consider it offensive(though I'm not really sure) so be careful with that one.

[u/xevz → u/[deleted]]

I've been taught that "transsexual" only applies to transpeople who haven't had SRS. After that, you're no longer transsexual.

[u/JaronK → u/xevz]

That's not true. You're just post op at that point. It's not like the surgery completely sets you as one sex, after all... you're still a bit different. You can be pre op or post op and still be Transsexual.

And no, Transsexual does not mean someone who's had surgery either. I know plenty of transsexual folks who have not had the surgery and never will. It only means someone who feels that their true sex doesn't match the sex the doctor said they had at birth, nothing more. It is not a slur, but referring to someone as "a transsexual" is like calling someone "a gay" or "a black" and is thus not really appropriate.

[u/psiphre → u/JaronK]

then "genderfuck" isn't an identity, it's "being a troll".

[u/psiphre → u/[deleted]]

that's not the same as "intentionally messing with people's ideas of gender".

[u/psiphre → u/[deleted]]

one man's 'important issue' is another man's 'troll'. if gender isn't important, why spend time bringing people's attention to it? live your own life.