Case Western Reserve's Non-Discrimination Policy includes protections against discrimination based on gender identity or expression.
TransFamily of Cleveland was founded to provide support and education for transgendered persons, their families, friends, and significant others. We are associated with PFLAG to promote awareness of transgender persons and their issues. We are also associated with SSAFE to bring awareness to our school systems, through their principals and counselors, by offering literature, speakers, consultation, and support.
Transgender (sometimes shortened to trans or TG) people are those whose psychological self ("gender identity") differs from the social expectations of the sex they were assigned at birth. To understand this, one must understand the difference between sex, which is one’s body (genitals, chromosomes, ect.), and social gender, which refers to levels of masculinity and femininity. Often, society conflates sex and gender, viewing them as the same thing. But, gender and sex are not the same thing.
It is also used as an umbrella term for transsexuals, cross-dressers, transgenderists, genderqueers, and people who identify as neither female nor male and/or as neither a man nor as a woman.
Transgender is not a sexual orientation; transgender people may have any sexual orientation. It is important to acknowledge that while some people may fit under this definition of transgender, they may not identify as such.
Transsexual refers to a person who identifies as a gender or sex other than the one they were assigned at birth. Transsexual individuals sometimes medically transition. Not all transsexuals can have or desire medical transition.