Are girlfags & guydykes trans? (Ili)

That is one of the frequently asked questions that is not that easy to answer.

The concept of GF/GD is close to transgender (which is an umbrella term including a wide variety of gender variant people). Some girlfags and guydykes identify as genderqueer or transgender. Others don’t.

In my eyes for understanding the concept of GF/GD it’s important to realize that not only may biological sex and social gender be independent from each other – sexual orientation may also be independent from both. If we use girlfags as an example, you may imagine an axis where there are heterosexual fag hags on the one side and gay trans men on the other. Girlfags are somewhere in between.

To which side they lean to is different from individual to individual. So that’s why some girlfags prefer male pronouns for themselves, some female pronouns. What they have in common is that they are sufficiently in between the categories not to call themselves “heterosexual females” and not (yet at least) “gay trans men”. (“Yet” because several gay trans men have called themselves girlfags before identifying as trans men.)

You could also say that GF/GD is a sexual and social identity, while transgender is a gender identity. Both identities can appear together in the same person, but they don’t have to.

GF/GD as a spectrum between cis and trans, homo and hetero

The purpose of this scale is solely to help you understand the GF/GD identities in context of transgender. Sex, gender and sexual orientation are of course much more complex than shown on this scale!

In the GF/GD-Survey (multiple checkboxes could be selected) you can read:

Girlfags: Common identities were genderqueer (31), female (33), male (10), bigender (21), trigender (11), pangender (13), androgyne (21), questioning/ unsure (25), trans man (9), neutrois (5). Two trans women also listed themselves as girlfags. Write-in responses included: girlfag, Trans ?, gender-fluid, boi.

Guydykes: Genderqueer (7), bigender (3), trans woman (2), pangender (2). It is worth noting that only one identified as “female” specifically and none identified as “male” specifically.”