The idea behind these different forms of identity and expression is that traditional gender roles--how people are expected by society to act based on the gender assigned to them at birth--are a social construct, not a biological one. This is a concept that causes a great deal of debate in religious and conservative circles, but it's largely uncontroversial for many anthropologists who indicate that gender is flexible enough the different societies and people can construct and interpret it differently. So transgender, gender nonconforming, and genderqueer are terms people use to describe their gender identity and expression, and how they differ from traditional societal standards and expectations.
Transgender--or trans--is an umbrella term that applies to at least 700,000 Americans who feel their internal gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. Gender nonconforming people don't express their genders in a way society expects them to. Some gender nonconforming people might be androgynous, meaning they don't readily exhibit traits that can easily identify them as men or women. Men who exhibit feminine traits and women who express masculine characteristics may also identify as gender nonconforming. Genderqueer people generally don't identify or express as man or women, sometimes borrowing gender roles and traits outside society's typical expectations and other times taking elements from both masculinity and femininity. Androgynous people can also fall into this category if they identify their gender as neither male nor female. Sometimes there is an overlap between transgender, gender nonconforming, and genderqueer communities. People might identify with all, so, or none of these concepts, even if they exhibit traits attributed to these three forms of identity and expression. There are dozens of ways people identify and express themselves, so these three concepts fall far short of the full realm of possibilities.
It might be difficult for most people to fully understand the many hurdles that trans, gender nonconforming, and genderqueer people deal with on a daily basis. But they face huge disparities in nearly every aspect of society. Families shun and even disown children over their gender identity and expression. Employers and landlords may deny people jobs and homes because they don't conform to gender norms, which is legal to do under most states' laws. In social settings and media, trans people are commonly portrayed as purposely deceptive individuals and even sexual predators who want to trick or trap others into sleeping with them.
The 2011 National Transgender Discrimination Survey found trans and gender nonconforming people are nearly four times as likely to live in extreme poverty as the general population. They found 57 percent of trans and gender nonconforming people report family rejections. This rejection had horrible effects: Trans and gender nonconforming people who are rejected by their families are nearly three times as likely to experience homelessness, 73 percent more likely to be incarcerated, and 59 percent more likely to attempt suicide. Trans people, particularly trans women of color, face some of the highest rates of hate violence and murder in the country.
As with many other issues of discrimination, the root of the problem is prejudice: the idea that people who are not cisgender are somehow inferior or wrong about how they identify. The biggest issue is the mischaracterization that people who don't conform to society's expectations of gender are always try to deceive others. It is perhaps the stereotype that underpins so many of the issues these people face in their everyday lives, making it so they have a difficult time even entering the bathroom that corresponds to their gender--much less getting a job or gaining family acceptance.
Despite some progress at the state level, most states don't ban workplace discrimination based on gender identity. The nation appears to be at a transitional point on gender identity issues: While there has been some progress, there is a long way to go before trans, gender nonconforming, and genderqueer people have equality.
