Of course Jet - friends.

To give some sort of answer Gini - here is my interpretation of the various labels:
Transgender - the overarching label sort of the bridge between male and female.
Transsexual - someone who believes they are not the same sex as their designated body and know they must do something about it.
TGirl - someone who dresses in women's clothes to become the woman they would like to be but who also have a fully male life
Transvestite or TV - someone who dresses in the clothes of the opposite sex. Often seen as a stage prior to transsexual.
Cross dresser or CD - someone often men who like to wear some clothes of the opposite sex. This may be for sexual reasons.
Drag Queen - someone who wears women's clothes in an exaggerated manner often for entertainment.

I will add the caveat that like Jet I do not intend to annoy or discriminate. As I've said before a label I use for myself is genderqueer which in the States means one who does not have a fixed concept of their gender being reasonably happy in both roles.

I was only asking a friend recently for some sort of list that gave the abbreviations and their meanings to help me.

Let me go back and read everyone's responses.

Thanks everyone for replying x

The label? I like best, simply as it applies to me is,'The Genderbread Person', which for greater fluidity in all areas of my gender identity/sexual orientation rather than just simply restricting it to my gender and genitals!

ps. those areas include, identity, orientation, expression and sex, which are present in all of us, and can be as fluid as we want them to be, providing greater freedom of expression...

Michael I have looked at "The Gingerbread Man" and come to the conclusion that there is a problem with people being able to conceptualise multi-dimensional space. While this persists we will have arguments about how many dimensions to actually use. Personally having been brought up in a science background it is easy to perceive of a three dimensional space using identity, orientation and expression as the axes. At present I can't see the need for the extra fourth axis 'sex' as it doesn't add anything; just blurring the identity axis.
BTW I disagree with the visual of genderqueer being primarily male and some female. The definition basically stated that the person was happy as a male when in male mode and equally happy when a female in female mode; the only 'problem' was the time when moving between modes.
PPS why use colours associated by most people with particular sexes on the spectrum diagrams. Looks like the person creating the diagram had a sexual orientation without recognising it.

I think we have a better understanding of each other if you'd talk in plain English, rather than trying to baffle everyone, including yourself with a lot of unintelligible terms.Don't 'beat about the bush', Josephin,'grasp the nettle' and say what you mean, please. All you've done, with your scientific mind is fail to relate reality to a graphic illustration. Which isn't the object of the exercise...

I think we have a better understanding of each other if you'd talk in plain English, rather than trying to baffle everyone, including yourself with a lot of unintelligible terms.Don't 'beat about the bush', Josephin,'grasp the nettle' and say what you mean, please. All you've done, with your scientific mind is fail to relate reality to a graphic illustration. Which isn't the object of the exercise...

I (unintentionally) read some quantum physics for my dissertation, but I still dislike ginger, and gingerbread men.

Michael which terms do you find unintelligible and I may have misunderstood? I'd be happy to explain them. I'm not saying the graphic is wrong but perhaps that trying to showing each element as one dimensional does not show any interaction between those elements.

Josephine, with all due respect, it's not what I find unintelligible, but common sense dictates when you're addressing a wider audience it's better to discard those professional terms applied to your particular discipline, and adopt the position of,'the man on top of the Clap[ham omnibus' or ordinary T-girl/Admirer. Otherwise you not only lose your audience but people start losing the will to live...

I hope we can get back on topic again soon cos this could be quite interesting to some. But I come from a science background myself and I have no idea what Josephine is trying to say to us. The topic wasnt meant to lead to any kind of discrimination it was mearly intended to show how confusing all the various terms can be both to those who identify with the lables and those on the outside who are not yet familiar with the variety of names and terminology in our community. The original post was simple and Deborah got it straight away and gave a good answer. I added my bit cos I thought it might be interesting to see how people identify themselves. By the way Daryl whats your opinion of ginger nuts?
This post was edited by Gini Mitchell at January 11, 2013 5:21 PM GMT

Quite right, Gina, thank you...

How do I identify myself? A woman trapped in a man's body. What name do I give for this - transgendered. I like this because to me it implies a journey which is what I'm on -any misunderstandings I'm happy to explain to the man on the Clapham Omnibus (will that take me to where I want to be?)

As for whether genders will blur. I don't think so. It may become less important in time in making judgements about people, and if you live in some parts of the world that is of massive importance, but the way men and women see the world is, in my opinion, fundamentally different. I can't imagine being a man and 50 odd (very) years of living in a male body with everyone thinking I am a man is quite enough thank you very much and I want out!

There is an organisation called WPATH who have published an interesting document on line , it is long and takes some reading , but if you jump to page 94 , there is a glossary of terms that attempts to explain each of the sub groups , its still fairly open to interpretation but may be of some small help , although i try to not label myself prefering just to use the term " female " , if for any reason i do have to use a label i still use transgender as i feel it reflects the " gender " side of it as opposed to the " sexual " , however having said that the more i read the more i start to think that " gender dysphoria " seems to be the more relevant term overall , anyway at the end of the day i feel female , i dress female and i present as female , so im female ! , we really should,nt label ourselves if we dont have to we are just people at the end of the day xxxxxxxxxxxx

I agree with you Jet about being female. The definition of gender dysphoria by WPATH is a good one as it focuses on what the issue is for all of us - the deep need to express our inner sense of gender variance and the pain that comes about when we cannot. To me it focuses on the problem rather than other terms which focused on how we strive to achieve resolution.