Answered by: tonidorsay on 3 May 2014

Trans, inter, cis, and two more that have yet to name themselves.

The Trans Community is in the process of doing what the Gay Community did when it went from Gay to Gay and Lesbian, and then to GLBT, and then LGBT.

Those other two will rise from the trans community. The job is to make space, not define them. They define and discover themselves.

The asterisk, itself, has never been something I have used with any regularity. I find it to be useless and distracting and to not be useful for the purpose you describe.

It ignores the reason for trans, itself, and erases the history that led to its development and use in place of the previous terms.

I find it interesting that you say the anti-trans trans people on tumblr are arguing against it out of prejudice against the gq/NB/ag contingents. It fits, of course, with the policing, assimilationist strategy they employ.

But that is a poor reason for such.

Anyone who thinks that NB/GQ/AG folks don’t exist is not facing factual reality with any degree of intellectual honesty, and comes from a transphobic position.

They do. Right now they are part of a collection of people that are best known as transgender people, and that in community and close to the community are called trans people.

They are creating their own culture and sense of community, however, and so will grow out of but remain linked to the T,

In the same way that L and B and T grew out of and remain linked to the G.

Since my job is to help them do that while helping the rest of the T at the same time, they factor into everything I write or consider about that community.

I answered a similar ask about this not too long ago. Go read it for more, or read the intro I wrote.