Terminology
The terms gender variance and gender variant are used by scholars of psychology and psychiatry, anthropology, and gender studies, as well as advocacy groups of gender variant people themselves. The term gender-variant is deliberately broad, encompassing such specific terms as transsexual, butch, queen, sissy, travesti, hijra or tomboy.
The word transgender is sometimes used interchangeably with gender-variant, but usually has a narrower meaning and somewhat different connotations, including a non-identification with the gender assigned at birth. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) Media Reference Guide defines transgender as an "umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from the sex they were assigned at birth." Not all gender variant people identify as transgender, and not all transgender people identify as gender variant--many identify simply as men or women.
Gender identity refers to one's internal sense of being male, female, both, or neither. Gender expression is the external manifestation of one's gender identity, usually through "masculine," "feminine," or gender variant presentation and/or behavior.
Read more about this topic: Gender Variance