Please stop saying “transpeople”

“trans” is an adjective.

I am a “transgender man”. “Trans man” sounds good, too.

I am not a “transman”.

I can only speak for myself, but I really prefer that you don’t make it into a noun. I am not another species.

I am a person, and I am trans. Therefore, I am a trans person. ‘Trans’ is an adjective.

I know it sounds nitpicky, and this isn’t a linguistic hill I would die on. Plenty of folks want us dead already anyway; take a number.

And, I mean, there are already words like “councilman” and “chairperson”. But for some reason, “transperson” makes it sound kind of like…a choice or a subspecies or a subtype or, as in the examples, a whole career or lifestyle. It’s not.

It’s a circumstance, and a really hard one to live with sometimes.

So, please. Spare me the noun, and just let me be a person.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.