What is the difference between Intersex and Trans?
Intersex does not fall under the trans umbrella because it does not have
Intersex is not cognitive—it is physical. When a baby is born, their physician assigns them to be “male, female, or intersex.” (This is when you are given a sex—not a gender). A doctor will look at the baby’s genitalia and assign “male” to those with a penis, “female” to those with a vagina, and can assign “intersex” to those with ambiguous genitalia. Folks that are intersex do not always have ambiguous genitalia or it is one of a few ways that make them intersex. Intersex is also when someone’s internal reproductive organs are different than the norm or imbalances in sex chromosomes and/or hormones.
Trans is an identity—it is cognitive and how someone chooses to express themselves. There are many identities that fall under the trans umbrella. If you think of gender as a spectrum, there is man and woman on separate ends, which is referred to as “the binary.” Folks can be somewhere in the middle, closer to one end than the other, and completely outside of this binary, etc. People are able to express and affirm their gender by medically transitioning, changing their fashion style, changing their names, and many other ways.
Folks that are intersex can take hormones to make them physically and hormonally male or female while some folks embrace and enjoy their
Cassidy Paul (pronouns: she/her/hers or they/them/theirs) is the Education Coordinator for the LGBT Center and Women’s Affairs Commissioner for Student Senate.
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