Transitioning is…
There’s a lot said about what transitioning is and who trans people are in the press, almost all of it bad. There are campaigns to ban trans people from entering changing rooms and toilets and bans that exclude trans people from sport. It can be difficult to sift the truth from the constant barrage of lies, especially if you are cis, and it can also be difficult to transition if you are new to it.
Overtime, this page will be built as a beacon of truth and hope. It will be a map of other pages on this site and other sites and will separate the truth from the fiction and help show you trans people’s lives. It is for cis and trans people to use.
Transitioning is what, exactly?
Transitioning is a process that alters the outward gender expression of an individual, and incorporates many elements within it. This includes social transitioning, medical transitioning, and legal transitioning. A trans person may do all, some, or none of these.
Social Transitioning
Social transitioning is a non-medical process of changing an individual’s gender expression. It is the only form of transitioning young children can do, and is completely harmless and reversible. The only change to the body that social transitioning makes is a haircut. Other than this, social transitioning is no more than changing clothes, and using a nickname with different pronouns.
Many young children who experiment with social transitioning will revert back to previous gender expressions. It is simply an exploratory process whilst they learn who they are and has no long term impact. Some young children who experiment with social transitioning will realise they are transgender and medically transition when they are older.
Although cross-dressers may appear to socially transition, there are differences between the two. Normally cross-dressers won’t appear cross-dressed in public, and there is a kink/humiliation aspect to the dress. They get a sexual thrill from being emasculated. For a trans woman, wearing a dress can be a euphoric experience. There is no sexual thrill to it, and she doesn’t feel humiliated.
Medical Transitioning
Medical transitioning is a complex process made of many other processes. Whilst some cis people reduce it to “the surgery,” it’s more complicated than that.
Teens who want to transition can be placed on puberty blockers. There has been a lot of outcry about puberty blockers in the press, and how we “don’t know the long term effects” (which is nonsense: they started being used in the early 1980s, we have over 4 decades of knowledge on their effects), how they are irreversible (also nonsense, but didn’t you just say you don’t know the effects? how can you know they’re irreversible if you don’t know what they do), and that they cause trans people to have softer bones (it’s complicated and often misrepresented).
Hey, don’t take my word for it. Study confirms short term use of puberty blockers does no long term damage on ovaries or uterus, and effects are restored after medication is withdrawn. Here is a full explanation of how they work, and that there is no serious long term effects. Also, it points out that they were used on a one year old child that started puberty – banning puberty blockers would seriously impact on care for precocious puberty. A study from Australia found they were “safe, effective, and reversible.” Puberty blockers are life-saving drugs for trans teenagers, study proves.
But they do make bones less dense, right? Well, no, not quite. Here is a long term study of 75 individuals that found no difference in bone density in trans men (those assigned female at birth) but did find less bone density in trans women (those assigned male at birth). Here is a comparison of the bone density of cis men and cis women – cis men have denser bones and more bone mass than cis women.
This quote “it is unknown if the Z score in a BMD of a transgender individual should be done according to the affirmed gender or birth determinate sex” from this study is illuminating – most studies to this point have compared bone mass in trans women to cis men. The quoted study shows that whilst trans women have less bone mass than cis men and cis women, their bone mass is close to that of cis women, which previous studies have not accounted for. Also, these studies are all about HRT, not puberty blockers.
Hormone Replacement Therapy
Transgender teenagers are placed on puberty blockers until they reach an age where they are allowed to consent to HRT. If they decide not to transition, they are taken off puberty blockers and enter the puberty they would have had. If they decide to transition, they are given hormone replacement therapy.
History of HRT
HRT has a confusing history that has been rewritten multiple times. In treating trans people, it’s probably been used since 1919. Magnus Hirschfeld, the pioneer of trans health care, started treating trans people with hormones at his Institut für Sexualwissenschaft. Unfortunately, the Nazis burned a lot of his work (that’s what the infamous burning book picture is of) hey, wait, burning and banning books sounds familiar. Isn’t the US currently doing something similar?
In cis people, HRT really began in the 1920s, with animal testes being sewn into human patients, which is probably not the origin of the phrase “the dog’s bollocks,” but it damn well should be. Pharmaceutical oestrogen became available in 1927, pharmaceutical testosterone in 1937. It wasn’t until the 1960s that it began to be used regularly. That’s still 70 years of use. It’s in female birth control and is used to treat menopausal symptoms in cis women.
There is a suggestion that ancient trans women used mare’s urine to transition, but this seems unlikely to have the desired or suggested effect. Cheese would be a much better option.
Effects of Oestrogen and Testosterone
Oestrogen is the UK (and therefore correct 😝) spelling of estrogen. Most of the primary and secondary sexual characteristics in humans are hormone controlled, and using hormone replacement therapy changes the expression of those characteristics. This is achieved by suppressing the majority hormone created by the body and increasing the minority hormone. Cis women do have some testosterone and cis men do have some oestrogen.
You can read more about feminising hormone therapy here. You can read more about masculinising hormone therapy here.
The Surgery
This is one of the main differences between trans people and cis people (though more and more cis allies are becoming informed on the subject). In essence, cis people refer to gender reassignment surgery as the surgery. Trans people know that GRS is one of many surgery options available, and one not all trans people take up.
Being the nice kind people we are at Rebel Wrath, we prepared an infographic on how to talk about GRS with a trans person if you are cis.
Legal Transitioning
Legal transitioning is a process many trans people go through in addition to social and medical transitioning. It differs depending on the laws of the country a person is in, and can involve legal name and gender changes. It is not a requirement of transitioning.
Transitioning is who, exactly?
This next section is about people who are trans. It looks at trans people throughout history, and contemporary trans people.
The History of Trans People
The earliest traces of trans people are hard to find, mostly because the earliest traces of all humans are hard to find. Our cavemen ancestors left no written texts, after all. In Ancient Sumeria we see the first traces of trans people in the cult of Inanna. The goddess of sex, war, and justice, she was believed to have the power to change a person’s gender. You can read more about that here.
Akhenaten was an Egyptian Pharoah who may have been transgender; the truth is, we don’t really know. You can read about him here.
There have been trans people in the Indian sub-continent for millennia, although some of the terms used to refer to them may now be considered slurs.
Elagabalus became Emperor of Rome in 218 AD. They dressed as a woman often, were bisexual, and publicly declared a male lover their husband. They were assassinated.
We forbid dances and initiation rites of the ‘gods,’ as they are falsely called among the Greeks, since, whether by men or women, they are done according to an ancient custom contrary to the Christian way of life, and we decree that no man shall put on a woman’s dress, nor a woman, clothes that belong to men…
Council of Constantinople, 691 AD
Kalonymus ben Kalonymus, a Jewish philosopher and translator, cursed being born a boy, referred to their penis as a defect, and implored God to change them from male to female, in the poem Even Bohan.
In 1394, Eleanor Rykener was arrested for prostitution and found to be male bodied. In 1431 Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake for refusing to wear women’s clothing. Joan was recorded during her trial as stating “For nothing in this world will I swear not to arm myself and put on a man’s dress.” When threatened with torture and being burnt alive, she agreed on women’s dress, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Within days, she resorted to men’s dress. At her second trial, the judge asked why she did so, when it meant certain death. The court recorded her reply:
She said, of her own will. And that nobody forced her to do so. And that she preferred men’s dress to women’s.
Court record, Joan of Arc’s trial
We’re not saying that Joan of Arc was transgender. We are saying she was burnt at the cross for refusing to dress “as a woman,” and even with the knowledge it meant certain death, would not set aside men’s clothing. We’re also saying death before detransition is a popular sentiment amongst trans people for a reason.
Transgender shamanism has been a part of many cultures worldwide: Chile, Argentina, Venezula, Colombia, Brazil, Vietnam, Burma, India, Korea, Kenya, Angola, the Pelew Islands, and among the Zulu and Inuit people. Without the religious significance, trans people have historically been reported in the Sudan, Ethiopia, Nubia, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Senegal, and Uganda.
The transphobia we see now is a result of traditional cultures being crushed under colonialism and the weight of the Christian Church.
Trans People in Modern History
Modern history is defined as beginning at the start of the sixteenth century.
Mary Frith was a cutpurse, fence, and fortune teller in London in the 17th century. She wore male clothing and is regarded as the first female smoker in England. You’ve probably heard of her as Moll Cutpurse. Was she transgender or a transvestite? At this point, it’s impossible to know.
One person we do know was transgender was the Public Universal Friend. Although many writers have portrayed The Friend as a woman, there can be little doubt about what is meant when a person says they are without gender, and asks not to be referred to by gendered pronouns.
Liberté, a decorated officer in Napoleon’s army, was born Angélique Brulon. That’s encycolpedia.com, because the entry on Wikipedia does not mention that she fought dressed as a man. Of course, she may not have been trans, this could be a Mulan type situation.
Charley Wilson lived as a man for over 40 years, before being discovered to have been born female. He may have ended up in a poor house, where they forced him to wear a dress, and where he reportedly told a friend “If I had money I would get out of here in men’s clothes and no one would detect me.” Or perhaps he moved to the US and became an outlaw.
Trans history is hard to find. If trans people passed, the history might not be recorded. If it was recorded, we have to consider the source: was Elagabalus transgender or was it a case of slander and libel after death? Sometimes there are conflicting sources, like with Charley Wilson. Terfs will point out that none of these people referred to themselves as transgender, a word which did not exist until the latter half of the 20th century. They won’t point out that a lot of these people didn’t speak English.
On entering the room the guard found two fellows [sic] in women’s attire, with muffs and wide shawls and the most fashionable turban-like bonnets… it turned out that each member of the club had a woman’s name.
Johann Wilhelm von Archeholz, historian, describing London pub The Bunch of Grapes, in the 1770s
We could go on for considerable time on this: the closer we get to the 21st century, the more evidence of trans people existing piles up. Transitioning is not new.
Contemporary trans people
Have you heard of the trans agenda? Sounds bad, right? Or like a conspiracy theory? Most trans people just want to live their lives, without constantly battling for rights. If you’re wondering what rights trans people don’t have, that’s a good question, if you’ve not been watching any news lately.
Trans people already didn’t have all the rights cis people have, and now those rights are being attacked. It’s hard to say what rights trans people in the US have, because under Trump’s government, it seems to change daily.
Laws that would improve trans people’s rights are failing to pass as governments try to appease a minority of bigots. Have you heard debates about transgender prisoners? Have you seen it making the front pages of national newspapers? Do you know that the 295 transgender prisoners in the UK in 2024 were 0.33% of the 87,869 prisoners in the UK? Such a tiny number, such a massive fuss.
But trans women are violent, right? Even if they aren’t going to prison, they still can’t be trusted in toilets, right? Trans people are 4x more likely to experience rape, sexual assault, and aggravated assault than cis people. Trans people are far more likely to be victims than villains.
trans women in sport
Okay, but what about sport? Trans women are dominating sports so hard that 0.000002% of Olympic gold medals have been won by trans women. That’s one medal out of 3836, and it was for football – the whole team won that medal together. The first out trans woman to compete in the Olympics, for weightlifting, didn’t place and won no medals. She came last in her group.
You missed out Imane Khalif! No, we simply didn’t think a cis woman who was the victim of a horrid smear campaign needed to be mentioned in a conversation about trans women in sport. As the IOC stated: “the Algerian boxer was born female, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, has a female passport. This is not a transgender case. There has been some confusion that somehow it’s a man fighting a woman. This is just not the case, scientifically. On that, there is consensus. Scientifically, this is not a man fighting a woman. I think we need to kind of get that out.”
Okay, but trans women do have a biological advantage when it comes to sport, right? No, not at all. First, the genetic advantage thing (based on men being larger and faster) is a generalisation. Sport is about specific people. Men might, in general, be stronger, but Rebecca Roberts is 6 ft 3 inches tall, and has won the competition for Strongest Woman in the World twice. Generally, men are stronger than women but specifically Rebecca Roberts is stronger than most men.
Secondly, the idea that men are stronger, faster, and fitter than women in all ways is a myth. Men have certain areas where they outperform women, and women have certain areas where they outperform men. Women are better at endurance than men, putting them at the top of long distance swimming and ultra marathons. Women are, on average, also better at shooting than men, and are more flexible, making them much better at gymnastics.
Thirdly, multiple tests have shown that after two years on hormones, trans women perform at or under the levels of cis women.
Fourthly, sports is about biological advantages. Michael Phelps is biologically advantaged. In fact, if you designed someone to be good at swimming, they’d come out looking a lot like Phelps. We don’t ban people from sports for having a biological advantage. Did you know that Black people have denser muscles than white people? Or that coming from a higher altitude affects athletic performance? Or that different groups of humans have evolved in different ways to better adapt to different environs?
Banning trans people from sport is nothing more than bigotry. Want proof? Trans women have been banned from competing against cis women at chess. Now this is either because the organisers are transphobic or it is because they genuinely believe that cis men are more intelligent than cis women, and so trans women are genuinely advantaged. Transphobia or sexism, it’s bigotry either way.
Someone’s going to point out that men hold all the records in chess, but that’s because there are more male players. Men generally have access to better coaches and equipment in sport, and men are more encouraged to play. In equestrian sports there are records of women not being allowed certain horses that men were later allowed. Sexism is a rampant problem in sports.
trans people and pornography
There are two main reasons to do pornography. For some people, they absolutely love it. They have an exhibitionist streak, and the idea of people watching them does it for them. For others, it’s a way to survive.
Trans people are more likely to be homeless, to be abused in relationships, and to not have jobs. Added to that the fascination cis men have with trans women, especially the ones who hate trans women the most, and it’s not surprising so many trans women are in porn.
This is not a comment on trans women. It is a comment on a transphobic society that forces them to do what they must to survive.
We found no data on trans men in porn, but we did discover women watch 175% more trans porn than men.
In Memorandum
It would not be possible to list the names of every murdered trans person here, or to add to that list with the names of people who have committed suicide due to bigoted bullying, rampant transphobia, and denial of life-saving medicine. That list would only grow if we included state sanctioned executions in countries where being trans is punishable by death.
Nearly half of all trans murders happen in Brazil. In the US, 13% of the trans community is estimated to be Black, yet almost 75% of murdered trans women are Black. As to the UK, we have no idea, because “the sex of a homicide victim is determined by the police force that records the crime.” The Office for National Statistics (ONS) admits that “it is not possible to identify transgender victims in current homicide statistics.” The only one we know of for certain is Brianna Ghey.
You’ve maybe heard that trans people have a higher likelihood to commit suicide. That’s true, but what such reports generally don’t mention is the 20% decrease in suicidality after transitioning. Aside from dysphoria and poor mental health in general, trans people are more likely to be homeless, assaulted, sexually assaulted, or unable to find employment, so any reduction in suicidality must be pursued. Unfortunately, as HRT is a for-life medication, governments revoking treatment leads to an increase in the number of suicides, as many trans people do genuinely believe in the death before detransition mantra.
Afghanistan is just one of the countries in which being LGBT is punishable with death. There are several others.
It is not possible to list the names of all the dead, but it is possible to honour them. On Thursday, 20th November, 2025 Rebel Wrath will be lighting a candle and joining one of the many vigils held on Trans Remembrance Day.
We honour those who’ve come before, we endure with those we stand beside, we fight for those who will come after…
The Future for Trans People
No one can say what the future holds. At the beginning of WW2, no one really thought the Nazis would try and commit genocide on the Jews. At the end of WW2, no one could have predicted that 70 odd years later Israel would be committing it’s own genocide.
It’s 2025 and fascists are in power once more. They’ve started a societal genocide of trans people in the US. If it comes to actual war, which it might with Trump wanting to conquer Mexico, Greenland, and Canada, it’s going to be bad. The last time Trump was in power the military refused to use the nuclear option. Who’s going to say no to him now?
If we can get out of this without war (and we think there’s a good chance we will) then we have hope for the future. Hope is all we really can have, but it keeps us fighting.
Dispelling Myths
This section is not yet complete.
