That depends who you ask.

“Transsexual” is an antiquated term that’s considered exclusionary by some and thus bigoted in a sense, as it implies that one must experience body dysphoria and seek medical treatment to change their body’s sex traits in order to feel more comfortable with them.

“Transgender” simply refers to someone who identifies as a different gender than the one they were assigned at birth.

“Non-binary” people identify as something other than the two “genders” that are typically assigned at birth, so technically they fall under that same umbrella of transgender.

But also… we consider sex and gender to be different technically speaking. Sex is considered to be a biological thing, and gender is more of a social/cultural thing typically based on sex.

… Which would mean doctors don’t really identify (or “assign”) genders at birth, they assign sex, which kind of contradicts the notion of transgender people, aka someone who identifies as a different gender than their “assignment” at birth.

I personally think transgender is too broad a term and causes a lot of confusion, and that we’d be better served by once again referring to people as either transsexuals, or gender queer/non-binary.

It’s complicated. Some non-binary people do have body dysphoria and do seek medical care to change their body’s sex traits, while not identifying as either a man or a woman.

Unfortunately in LGBT+ spaces, it’s often seen as social suicide to make these distinctions, as when you make distinctions you necessarily make divisions and thus exclusions, which feels bad if you or someone you love is the one being excluded.

Other trans people would probably call me “Tru-scum” for thinking this, because in their minds what I’m saying is equivalent to saying “there’s transsexuals, and there’s people who play with make-up and clothes and expect other people to refer to them differently”…

Except I’m not saying that, and I don’t think gender queer or non-binary people are “playing”, or are less valid in any way.

I just see the ways that people are similar, and different, and I refuse to blind myself or bite my tongue about it.