What does the asterisk in “trans*” stand for?

by Sam Killermann · 34 comments

in Edugraphics

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A few people have asked why I write “trans*” (with the asterisk) instead of just “trans” when referring to trans* folks on my site.  Well, I’m happy to answer that!

Trans* is an umbrella term that refers to all of the identities within the gender identity spectrum.  There’s a ton of diversity there, but we often group them all together (e.g., when we say “trans* issues).  Trans (without the asterisk) is best applied to trans men and trans women, while the asterisk makes special note in an effort to include all non-cisgender gender identities, including transgender, transsexual, transvestite, genderqueer, genderfluid, non-binary, genderfuck, genderless, agender, non-gendered, third gender, two-spirit, bigender, and trans man and trans woman.

The origin behind the asterisk, as I understand it, is a bit computer geeky.  When you add an asterisk to the end of a search term, you’re telling your computer to search for whatever you typed, plus any characters after (e.g., [search term*][extra letters], or trans*[-gender, -queer, -sexual, etc.]).  The idea was to include trans and other identities related to trans, in the most technically awesome way.  I <3 Geekdom.

I created the graphic below to help raise awareness of this so folks can be more inclusive in their writing when referring to trans* people.  Share the original post on Facebook if you pledge to write “trans*” from now on."Trans*" Poster

Tagged as: gender, graphic, terminology, trans

Written by Sam Killermann

Sam is a writer and performer who uses those skills as an ally to advance progress in the realms of LGBT equality and social justice. He tours the country speaking to college students about stereotypes, prejudice, and oppression, and writes for this site when he's at home in Austin, TX.

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  • Carina

    While I’m down with trans* as a more inclusive and rich expression, the explanation of the asterisk’s original meaning is a misunderstanding of how it applies in computing.  /* tech geek, sex ed geek */

    “The origin behind the asterisk, as I understand it, is a bit computer geeky.  When you add an asterisk to the end of a search term, you’re telling your computer to search for whatever you typed, plus any characters before and after (e.g., [extra letters][search term*][extra letters], or trans*[-gender, -queer, -sexual, etc.]). ”

    The asterisk is used in globbing, for wildcard expansion of zero or more of any characters; it is also used in regular expressions, to match zero or more specified characters.  In either case, it only does so at the asterisk’s specific location in the string of characters. The way you’re using it would be globbing.  In which case, “trans*” expands to “trans” by itself, as well as expanding to trans[any number of other characters which may or may not be letters]” but does not expand to [extra]trans (which would be *?trans) or [extra]trans[extra] (which would be *?trans?*)

    Fun, no?

    Geekery clarification aside, I’d like this ideas of trans*.  Even if it doesn’t literally cover all the gender identities we’d like it too, it makes sufficient intuitive sense and opens up conversation about the complexity and diversity of labels and connotations.  Which is exactly the conversation I do want to be stirring.

    • http://samuelkillermann.com/ Samuel Killermann

      Hahaha – I love it!  Thanks for setting me straight.  I made a [lazy] revision based on your correction.  Is it accurate now?

      • Carina

        Yep!

  • Carina

    By the way, as a programmer, the use of asterisks in the poster initially confused the heck out of me.  ”f*ck” is a censorship indicator rather than anything in tech, the asterisk before “bigender” appears to be a terminology separator rather than related to tech usage, and the rest are very funky use of globbing. “&agender”, for instance, would be a legit expansion of the glob but makes no sense and “non-transgender” would be legit even though that’s clearly not the intent.  So, within a tech geeky context, as an answer to “what is the asterisk for?” the poster is completely wrong.  How framing it instead as “What is trans*” “It’s [list of terms without any asterisks at all].”  Distanced from the distinctive meaning for programmers, that’d keep the substance of your message at the forefront.

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  • Sevan

    Hey Sam! I wanted to share something awesome! (that’s come as a result of this graphic!) Our local support/social group has always used the “trans*” and the people in the group either knew what it meant already, or just accepted it as the name. We meet at the local LGBT center and the broader community didn’t know about the importance of the *. People kept asking me, and while I’m happy to explain it…it does get old to go one person by one person. So this graphic went around our local community (and likely much broader than that!) people started to really “get it”. 

    Our group was honored to receive this year’s “Group Rainbow Award” recently and on the certificate they made sure to add the asterisk! When people were congratulating us on facebook they made sure to add the asterisk. It made me so happy! As a non-binary person it just touched me so much that everyone was sure to add that into our name rather than leaving it off. :)

    • http://samuelkillermann.com/ Samuel Killermann

      :)  Thanks for sharing that story, Sevan.  It seems like this graphic came at an ideal time for a few people, and I’m happy to hear that and happy that I made it.  It’s one of those wonderful coincidences.  It’ll likely be here for a month or two before it gains wide popularity, so it’s good to know that it was helpful in the first few days for a small group as well.

  • Whitexalbum

    The asterisk is entirely pointless, it’s like having a separate definition for Star Trek fans.

    • http://www.facebook.com/elsie.broek Elsie Broek

      Just call us Trekkers, not Trekkies ;)

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  • conejo

    thank you! I have been wondering for months!

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  • http://www.facebook.com/monkeyangst Brad Hawkins

    Oh for Pete’s sake! I have been a computer user for over thirty years and should have at least had some inkling that that’s what it might have been. As it is, I have on so many occasions scrolled down to the bottom of blog posts to see what footnote the author is referencing with that fucking asterisk. When there were none, I chalked it up as an error on the editor’s part… then, after it happened a few times, chalked it up to one of those affectations of the social-justice blogosphere that I wasn’t privy to.

    Which I still think it is, but I at least slapped my forehead when I read your explanation. Thirty years of using wildcards daily. Duh.

    • http://samuelkillermann.com/ Samuel Killermann

      Hahaha it’s okay, Brad. I wouldn’t have felt compelled to make the thing if people were getting it already.

      And I can’t hear wildcard without thinking of It’s Always Sunny, which would have made for a much different graphic.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/remyisawesome Remy Yolo Swagington III

    Hi Sam– just wondering, is this a distinction you came up with? (if you did, it’s very astute) If not, what is the source for it? I am doing a research project surrounding trans* identities and am looking for something to site about literally the exact thing you just wrote about.

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  • Nova

    This answers a LOT of questions for me as to the little asterisk, which I’ve seen some of my friends use, but never knew what it stood for. Thanks.

  • donkeyfly69

    There’s nothing more offensive or divisive than that damn asterisk. It promotes the idea that all of those things you listed below don’t fit into the “trans” or “transgender” umbrella. Just because more people need to or choose to transition, doesn’t mean they get a monopoly over the word.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Elliott-Collins/6717591 Elliott Collins

      I think it may be hyperbolic to call the * “the most offensive thing”, but I’m curious for you to elaborate. In any context with as much complexity and ambiguity as gender, it seems natural for definitions to diverge, even among like-minded people. For lack of prior consensus on what the maximally ambiguous umbrella term is, ” Trans* ” strikes me as pretty good. After all, that’s what the asterisk has been for since the dawn of the Unix epoch.

      • donkeyfly69

        It completely discounts the experience of trans people who don’t transition as if we’re an afterthought. We’re already here. We’ve been here. We’re going to continue to be here.

  • James

    I have never heard of the terms, “genderqueer”, “genderfluid”, “agender”, “nongendered”, “third gender”, “two-spirit”, or “bigender”…can someone explain?

  • SexEduAdvocateNH

    I am a blooming Comprehensive Sexuality Education teacher in New Hampshire and I find this Trans* (with the asterik) is going to be very effective when it comes to teaching gender identity and gender expression to adolescents and teens. I think what you are doing here is AWESOME and I support your mission 100% Keep up the good work and the good laughs!

  • http://www.facebook.com/hyden.seek.7 Hyden Seek

    I know I’m a bit late on this, but the issue has been coming up on Reddit for me lately, and I forget what your Reddit name is; I hate the term trans* because I’m not a footnote. The term transgender is an umbrella term that already encompasses those things. There’s no need to have an asterisk. And besides, in computer terms, “Trans*” would only search words that start with trans, so it’s exclusive to genderqueer, bigender, etcetera people.

  • Janey Butt

    Sam Killermann, waging a semantic war on behalf of self-obsessed people everywhere.

  • Lisa

    Hi Sam, thanks so much for this edugraphic! Now I finally understand :)