Jeshi:

While the logical reasoning makes sense, the difference between Transwoman and Trans Woman seems really nit-picky. It seems like a technicality that I doubt even most trans people are aware of. And in modern language people verb nouns and adjectify nouns and noun adjectives all the time. And the way this writing came off it seemed like the person writing didn’t understand this, and felt that it’s impossible to using a noun as an adjective without distilling somebody to being nothing but the noun. 

If somebody says that someone is Black, they aren’t implying that the person is nothing more than black, and saying they are an African-American doesn’t imply that they are nothing more than African-America, it’s simply describing one attribute of the person. To say that somebody is a transman rather than a trans man seems like such a technicality because they could be using the noun as an adjective. It would mean the same thing as trans man but with a space missing.

It just seems like the difference between The slender man, and The Slenderman. Sure, one implies less familiarity than the other, but it’s referring to the same concept, and criticizing somebody for using one of the other when there is a good chance they didn’t even know there was a difference is just getting really nit-picky.

Plus, in speech it’s hard to differentiate, since you don’t usually pronounce hyphens. And unless Transman and pronounced Tran-Se-man(Which I’m pretty sure it isn’t) you won’t hear the difference between transman and trans man. So in most conversations the technicality wouldn’t even come up.

I’m gonna remember to put spaces between trans and gender from now on, but I don’t think I’m gonna be calling people out on not including the space. Usually, at least amongst the people I know, we just refer to trans people as whatever gender they identify as. And the topic of whether they are trans never comes up.

Just so you know, I’m honestly considering the things you are saying very seriously. I’m going to start by breaking down the parts where your logic and analogies are wrong, but that’s not because I just want to prove you wrong and destroy your reasoning and claim that I know everything or anything along those lines.

First of all, the word “black” in the sentence “someone is black” is not a noun, but an adjective (the word black describes someone). If it were a noun, it would be “someone is a black”. I will assume that’s what you mean (as you correctly use “someone is an African-American” as an noun in the next sentence).

The issue of using words as nouns is unrelated to the issue of the space in trans person. The latter is an issue of prefix vs. adjective. However, the noun vs. adjective issue does apply to “an MTF”, so I will discuss it now.  First of all, many people are insulted when their identity is used as a noun. For example, you might have noticed that when I changed “black” to a noun in the earlier example, it sounded a lot worse (“someone is a black” vs “someone is black”).  Other identity-words, however, are often used as nouns (ie “an African-American”, “a liberal”).  Some people are opposed to that, as well, and feel like those words, too should only be used as adjectives.  However, perhaps these people, and myself, are being nit-picky, and certain identity terms describing trans individuals can be used as nouns (ie “a transsexual”).  I still insist, however, that MTF and FTM should never, ever, ever be used as nouns unless referring to specific trans people who identify by these terms.  I know many people who don’t identify by these terms even as adjectives because they feel that it emphasizes their birth-assigned sex more than it should, and when they are used as nouns, they add an additional implication that this transition is their gender. (However, there are binary gendered trans people who prefer these initialisms, even as nouns, to describe their gender).

As for the space, I still think it’s vastly important, because it does describe a different kind of man/woman.  You give the example of “slenderman” and prove my point exactly: we never say slenderman; or fatgirl; or blackmale; or conservativewoman.  We only use this adjective as a prefix when describing trans folk. This is very insulting to trans folk, and it translates into the way people think; thus, we tend to mention a trans person’s trans status more than we should.  For instance, it angers me when people describe their sexuality by describing who they are and aren’t attracted to, and break it down into four genders: man, woman, transman(sic), and transwoman(sic). This completely ungenders trans individuals! I’ve also heard many complaints from trans people about partners of trans people saying things like “I went on a date with a transguy(sic) last night” or “I slept with a transwoman(sic) last weekend”.  A person’s trans status isn’t necessary to mention in these contexts, but we do, because the term forces us to do so! (Imagine someone saying “I slept with a fat girl last night!” or “I went on a date with a black guy last weekend”.  It’s usually unnecessary to mention these facts about people!)

I usually don’t call people out on not adding the space, because it’s usually due to simply not knowing, and calling them out creates hostility and disturbs discussion. However, I make sure to use it myself and educate others whenever I do have the chance. It also does change the pronunciation of the word: say “There’s a blackbird” vs “Look, a black bird” or “I live in a white house” vs “Obama lives in the White House” to see what I mean.