User:LaffyTaffer/LGBT phrases to be avoided

This is an essay.

It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

This page in a nutshell:

Avoid using identifies as unless it's used by reliable sources. Simply use is instead.
There's typically no need to describe someone as openly queer.
When describing transgender individuals, trans is an adjective, not a prefix.
The word is transgender, not transgendered.
Describe subjects using their gender identity rather than in scientific terms when possible.

Shortcut

User:LaffyTaffer/LGBT

Language regarding queer people changes frequently. This essay is meant to discuss some terms that are contentious or disliked among queer people, and hopefully give adequate reasoning for why I've changed them in an article. This isn't meant to make accusations of hateful conduct, especially since these terms are frequently used with good intentions. Always assume good faith, especially regarding topics that the wider public aren't as educated on.

Identifies as

There's a subtle othering at play when saying that somebody identifies as queer. It comes with the implication that queer people are just "playing pretend" and that their identities are somehow less valid than other people's.

Consider the fact that you seldom hear this term applied to cishet people. A cisgender man doesn't identify as a man, he simply is a man, a heterosexual woman doesn’t identify as heterosexual, she simply is heterosexual. Similarly, queer people don't identify as anything; they simply are queer. This phrase is frequently used in reference to members of the queer community to subtly de-legitimize their identities, whether it's intentional or not.

Keeping or removing this phrase should be done on a case-by-case basis. Plenty of queer people are comfortable with the phrase identifies as. Some even prefer to use it, finding it useful for explaining their identities to a cishet audience. If reliable sources in an article (or the subject themself) use identifies as, then it should remain in the article body. However, if those words aren't explicitly used in any references, then the word is works much better and more concisely at conveying the same information.

Openly

Describing an article's subject as openly queer is generally unnecessary. If they weren't out, then we wouldn't know about it, and it would therefore violate WP:BLP. The phrase can be appropriate sometimes, such as when the subject is the first openly queer member of a political party, etc. Removal of the phrase in those contexts can lead to undue speculation about previous members, so use discretion when choosing to remove the phrase. In most contexts though, openly should be avoided.

Transperson

The following is a quote directly from trans woman at the time of writing this essay. A similar explanation is provided in the article for trans man:

The spelling transwoman (written as a single word) is occasionally used interchangeably with trans woman (where trans is an adjective describing a kind of woman). However, this variant is often associated with views (notably gender-critical feminism) that exclude trans women from women, and thus require a separate word to describe them. For this reason, many transgender people find the spelling offensive. Some prefer to omit trans, and be called simply women.

By using trans as a prefix rather than an adjective, there's an implication that trans women aren't "real women" or that trans men aren't "real men". More egregiously with transperson, it implies that trans people aren't human.

Outside direct quotes, it's my opinion that transperson, transman, transwoman, etc. should never be used on Wikipedia. Trans person conveys the exact same information while remaining respectful.

Transgendered

As noted above in the section on transperson, transgender is an adjective, not a noun. In the case of transgendered it's not a verb either; nobody "gets transgendered". The word comes with an implication that being transgender is something that happens to someone, rather than being a part of their identity. Like transsexual, transgendered is an outdated term that's confusing at best and potentially offensive at worst. Outside direct quotes, transgender should be used instead.

Biological man/woman

Describing transgender individuals in relation to their biological characteristics is often unhelpful and potentially degrading. Biological male/female is imprecise(such as by ignoring the existence of intersex people) and can de-legtitimize a subject's identity. Biological man/woman presents further problems by conflating sex as a scientific concept and gender as a social construct.

When possible, describe subjects in terms of their gender identity(e.g. cisgender, trans man, trans woman, etc) rather than scientific terms. In situations where a subject's assigned gender at birth is relevant but not implied, consider using the term assigned male/female at birth instead.