Toward a TS Dictionary - the letter Ii

    BOLD=cross reference, see item when appropriate letter posted

Iatrogenic, Iatropic

A condition, resulting from medical examination or treatment, that would not otherwise exist. This is an acknowledged problem in medicine and doctors seek to minimise it. At its worst it is Grooming. However, the concept is abused by some who use it to attack conditions that they find upsetting. Critics of Transsexualism such as Janice Raymond and Paul McHugh maintain that transsexualism in general is Iatrogenic. Other conditions such as Multiple Personality and Recovered Memories are also said by some to be Iatrogenic. See also Pseudo-Pathologies.

Identidad de Género, Ley de (2012) Argentina

Argentina became the first country in Latin America to have a Gender Identity Law. Passed 55-0 by the Senate. Personal data in the National Registry, particularly name and gender to be modified, and personal documents changed accordingly. In addition, all medical treatments (hormones and surgery) for Transitioning to be included in the Compulsory Medical Program, which guarantees coverage by practices throughout the health system, both public and private. Approvals of neither doctor nor judge, nor surgery are required for a gender change. Legal guardians cannot deny a change for those under 18. President Christina Fernández personally delivered the first batch of new identity cards.

Identidad de Género, Ley de (2018) Chile

The law, introduced in 2013 was enacted after five years, established a legal procedure that allows the change of name and registered sex in all official documents. For unmarried persons over 18 years of age, the change is requested by submitting a request to the Civil Registry and Identification Service, without being required to prove hormone replacement therapy or having undergone sex reassignment surgery

Identidade de Género, Lei da (2011) Portugal

This law allowed changes of name and legal gender, In 2016 a second law was passed allowing legal gender changes based solely on self-determination. 

Identidad de Género, Ley de (2007) Spain

In 2004, Spain’s Socialist Party, the PSOE, was returned to power, and quickly implemented an equal marriage law, but kept delaying the promised Ley de Identidad de Género until prominent trans woman and PSOE activist Carla Antonelli threatened a hunger strike and this attracted international press attention. Finally the Ley de Identidad de Género (which Antonelli had helped draft) was passed three years later. Antonelli was the first in the Madrid area to change her legal identity.

Identity Erasure

The systemic denial, removal and invalidation of what is existentially essential for queer, racial and gender minorities. This was common until the later 20^th century, and right-wing and some religious groups seek to re-introduce it. See Queer Erasure.

Identity Politics

Political movements based on group membership, such as nationality, religion, tribe or sports teams. More recently there have been movements based on gender and sexuality. 

Iel

A gender-neutral French pronoun, from combining Il and Elle.

Ikwekaazo (= "one who endeavors to be like a woman")

Two-spirit among the Ojibwe. They dressed as female and married men but their husbands were not thereby considered Ikwekaazo. They were considered to be strong spiritually, and they were always honoured, especially during ceremonies. See also Ininiikaazo, Niizh manitoag.

Illusionist

A female impersonator who combines glamour with being fully passable.

Imatatore

Italian for a stage Female impersonator.

Imbricated

Overlapping, intertwined, as are gay and trans histories. A term taken from roof tiles or fish scales.

Imperial Court System

An LGBT charitable organization founded in San Francisco in 1965 by drag performer José Sarria which has spread across North America. Participants adopt mock-monarchy and nobility titles, and cross-dressing is welcome at their social events.

Impersonator

One who impersonates: a) celebrities as entertainment b) ordinary persons for purposes of fraud , that is: identity theft c) politicians, that is they be political decoys d) the other gender.

The most popular target for Celebrity impersonators is Elvis Presley who is impersonated by both men and women.

Gender impersonation is done for a variety of reasons:

• To express and maybe resolve the performer’s issues with both genders.
• A safe place for a trans person to experiment before going on the street.
• A way for trans persons to make a living.
• To satirise or deconstruct the gender stereotypes that oppress both genders.
• To ridicule women – see Cod Drag.

Leslie Feinberg: “I've heard women criticize drag queens for 'mocking women's oppression' by imitating femininity to an extreme, just as I've been told that I am imitating men. Feminists are justifiably angry at women's oppression – so am I! I believe, however, that those who denounce drag queens aim their criticism at the wrong people. This misunderstanding doesn't take gender oppression into account. … There is a difference between the drag population and masculine men doing cruel female impersonations. The Bohemian Grove, for example, is an elite United States club for wealthy powerful men that features comedy cross-dressing performances. Many times the burlesque comedy of cross-dressed masculine men is as anti-drag as it is anti-woman. In fact it's really only drag performance when it's transgender people who are facing the footlights. Many times drag performance calls for skilled impersonations of a famous individual like Diana Ross or Judy Garland, but the essence of drag performance is not impersonation of the opposite sex. It is the cultural presentation of an oppressed gender expression.”

See also Copy without an Original.

Implants

See Top Surgery, Breast Implants

Importuning

1. Persistent, repeatedly requesting to the point of annoyance.
2. To request money for sexual activity
3. A false charge brought by British police against those who are victims of entrapment, against gay men cruising each other, and against those Walking While Trans.

See also Disturbing the Peace and Gross Indecency which are also ill-defined laws that the police have used to harass gay and trans persons.

Imposter syndrome

A feeling that one is inadequate or fraudulent even if one is actually quite successful. Many trans persons experience this in their birth gender even if others see them as successful in family and job. Such a feeling may contribute to the decision to Transition. However, cis persons can equally feel such. Research shows that ethnic women in particular, suffering both racism and sexism are afflicted.

A small number of post-transition persons suffer from Imposter Syndrome in their target gender. This can contribute to Detransition.

See Masquerade, Maskenfreiheit.

Incels

An abbreviation for Involuntary Celibates, mainly Heterosexual men who blame women and society for their sexual frustrations, while alienating women with their opinions and attitudes. There is discussion on Incel sites about Incel Cis men who Transition to female to escape being Incel. See Trannymaxxing, Transcel, Trans-Vestigiality.

Incorrect Gender Assignment

Gender assigned by medical professionals without consulting the person involved. This is particularly relevant to Intersex persons who may be subjected to supposedly “corrective” surgery before they are old enough to understand the issue. 

Indicatrons

John Money: “In recognition of the fact that psychology’s units of raw data all serve to indicate something or other to the psychologist or scientist, they can all be categorised as indicatrons”.

Indigender

Culture-specific gender identities that are often seriously and even violently misunderstood by Colonialism.

Infibulate

Females: the ritual removal of the external female genitalia and the suturing of the vulva, female genital mutilation. See also Clitorectomy. Males: placing a clasp through the foreskin.

Informed Consent

An adult and sane person can give Informed Consent to legal gender changes, medical care and transgender medical support without the permission of a Psychiatrist.

Ingersoll Gender Center

A support group in Seattle founded in 1977 by Marsha Botzer. It became known for its guides regarding doctors who offered gender surgery. It is still active after more then 40 years.

Ingle, Ningle

A Renaissance term for being queer. The verb form, ‘to Ingle’ usually means to have anal sex with an Ingle, or for an Ingle to have sex. Some Ingles transvested.

It is also a surname. Lady Bunny, the organizer of Wigstock, was born into the Ingle family. See also Catamite, Ganymede.

Ininiikaazo ("one who endeavors to be like a man”)

Two-spirit among the Ojibwe. They dressed as male and married women but their wives were not thereby considered Ininiikaazo. They were considered to be strong spiritually, and they were always honoured, especially during ceremonies. See also Ikwekaazo, Niizh manitoag.

Innie and Outie

Terms originally applied to belly buttons, and then later to genitals.

Inner Closet

The outer Closet is an attempt to fool other people; the Inner Closet is an attempt to fool oneself.

Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for Sexual Science), Berlin

Under the aegis of Magnus Hirschfeld, a few surgical operations for trans women were performed, using a technique of non-genital skin grafts, The operations were mainly done by Drs Erwin Gohrbandt, Felix Abraham and Ludwig L. Lenz. Dörchen Richter was operated on in 1922 and 1931; Charlotte Charlaque in 1929-1930; Toni Ebel 1930-1931. Abraham published a paper giving the details of the operations on Richter and Ebel in Zeitschrift für Sexualwissenschaft und Sexualpolitik in 1931. The Institute was destroyed after the Nazi takeover in 1933. 

Intergender

Between male and female. Some restrict the word to Intersex persons only; others use it as a synonym for trans or androgynous.

Intermediate Sex

A term used by Edward Carpenter and Magnus Hirschfeld in the early 20^th century to categorize gays and trans persons. 

Internalised Transphobia

The negative belief that being Trans is inferior to being Cis or Normal, that has been internalised by a Trans person.

International Bill of Gender Rights

A Bill drafted and adopted by the International Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy in 1993, and was revisited and revised in 1994, 1995 and 1996. While it has no force of law absent its adoption by legislative bodies and recognition of its principles by courts of law, it acts as an ideal to strive towards. It has ten principles:

1) The Right To Define Gender Identity 2) The Right To Free Expression Of Gender Identity 3) The Right To Secure And Retain Employment and to Receive Just Compensation 4) The Right Of Access To Gendered Space And Participation In Gendered Activity 5) The Right To Control And Change One’s Own Body 6) The Right To Competent Medical And Professional Care 7) The Right To Freedom From Psychiatric Diagnosis Or Treatment 8) The Right To Sexual Expression 9) The Right To Form Committed, Loving Relationships And Enter Into Marital Contracts 10) The Right To Conceive, Bear, Or Adopt Children; The Right To Nurture And Have Custody Of Children And To Exercise Parental Capacity.

International Classification of Diseases (ICD)

The globally used diagnostic tool for epidemiology, health management and clinical purposes. The ICD is maintained by the World Health Organization (WHO), which is the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations System.

The ICD listed homosexuality in ICD-9 in 1977, removed it from ICD-10 in 1990.

In ICD -10 transsexualism was located within Gender identity disorders, F64 in ICD-10 Chapter V: Mental and behavioural disorders under the heading "Disorders of adult personality and behaviour". 

ICD-11 in 2018 abolished codes F64 Gender identity disorders and F65.1 Fetishistic Transvestism, among other sexual practices, that used to be referred to as paraphilias. The above codes have been replaced in part by code HA60 Gender incongruence of adolescence or adulthood, which refers to the three conditions that classify the condition of gender dysphoria. The last sentence from code HA60: "Gender variant behaviour and preferences alone are not a basis for assigning the diagnosis."

See also Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM).

International Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy (ICTLEP)

Conferences organized by Phyllis Frye and held in Houston, Texas 1992-7. 

International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOTB)

The date, 17 May, was chosen to commemorate the World Health Organization’s decision in 1990 to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder. The Founder was Louis-Georges Tin – he acted as Chairman until 2013. At first, in 2005, it was just IDAHO. The T for Transphobia was added in 2009. The B for Biphobia was added in 2015. France became the first country in the world to officially remove transgender issues from its list of mental illnesses in 2009 as announced on the eve of 17 May. In France same-sex marriage was legal from 18 May 2013. Same-sex marriage in Taiwan was passed in Parliament on 17 May 2019. 132 countries around the world commemorate IDAHOTB

International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE)

The International Foundation for Gender Education was founded by Merrisa Sherrill Lynn in 1986, initially as an outgrowth from Boston's Tiffany Club. Although proclaimed as a group for both transsexuals and transvestites, they built in a heterosexual transvestite bias by creating a Virginia Prince Award, despite Prince’s anti-transsexual and anti-transgender obsession. The first award went to Prince herself. The next two went to IFGE organizers Merrisa Sherrill Lynn and Ariadne Kane. The IFGE took-over and published the TV-TS Tapestry Journal, which was originally a Tiffany Club publication. Later in 1992 it was renamed Transgender Tapestry. Despite the ‘International’ in the name, only once was the IFGE conference held outside the US: in Toronto in 1998. At its height IFGE had an annual budget of $325,000, a headquarters in suburban Boston, a bookstore, a perfect-bound four-color magazine, an annual conference, and an endowment worth some $100,000. The conferences ceased after heavy financial losses in 2010. The last Transgender Tapestry appeared in 2009.

International Gender Transient Affinity (IGTA)

The first world-wide trans organization. This was done by mail in the days before the Internet, corresponding with others in many countries and issuing reports on transgender human rights. Organised by Phaedra Kelly, and an outgrowth of the Transconscient Art Movement.

International Journal of Transgenderism

The journal of the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association (HBIGDA), The first 6 volumes, 1997 - 2002, were, and are, available to the public. Subsequent volumes went behind a pay wall. web.archive.org/web/20070505034642/http://www.symposion.com/ijt/index.htm

International Transsexual Sisterhood

A group set up by Yasmene Jabar to help trans women in the middle east. It was active late 1990s, early 2000s. See also Cafe Trans Arabi and Trans Eastern Conference.

Intersex (IS)

Intersex is an Umbrella term for 40+ conditions whereby the genotype is not fully concordant with the male/female binary. The term was first coined in Germany in 1915. 

Intersex is differentiated from transsexual in that:

1. Intersex conditions can be detected at birth if the doctors look and do the tests.
2. Most Intersex activism has been directed at getting doctors to not change them until they are old enough to consent, and to establish that many Intersex conditions are not pathological.

There has been a push, mainly from the trans side, to establish Transsexuality and perhaps Transgender also as a type of Intersex. To some extent this is a matter of definition. However, simple courtesy says that it is the Intersex activists, not the trans activists, who will continue to decide whether or not trans comes under the Intersex umbrella.

While most Intersex persons stay with the gender of rearing, some do switch - that is, some are both Intersex and Trans.

Intersex Genital Mutilation (IGM), Intersex Medical Interventions.

Surgical, hormonal and other medical interventions performed to modify or reduce atypical or ambiguous genitalia and other sex characteristics, primarily for the purpose of making a person's appearance more ‘normal’. Such surgery can compromise sexual function and sensation, and create lifelong health issues. Interventions on intersex infants and children are increasingly recognized as human rights issues. Intersex organizations, and human rights institutions increasingly question the basis and necessity of such interventions. In 2011, Christiane Völling in Germany won the first successful case brought against a surgeon for non-consensual surgical intervention. In 2015, the Council of Europe recognized, for the first time, a right for intersex persons to not undergo sex assignment treatment and Malta became the first country to prohibit involuntary or coerced modifications to sex characteristics.

Intersex Society of North America (ISNA)

ISNA, founded in 1993, was the first North American organization to advocate for the rights of people born with Intersex conditions, and for more honest, less invasive medical treatment of intersex children. It published the journal Hermaphrodites With Attitude 1994-2005, although it also struggled to eliminate the use of the word ‘hermaphrodite’ for Intersex persons. It advocated a Patient-centred Model wherein an Intersex person is not to be subjected to treatments until old enough to consent. 

ISNA closed in June 2008. Cheryl Chase and some others moved to the Accord Alliance.

Intersex and Variations of Sex Characteristics (IVSC)

A term introduced to replace the tendentious Disorders of Sex Development (DSD)

Intersex, Sex and/or Gender Diverse (ISGD)

An Umbrella term for transgender, intersex and/or gender diverse persons promoted by Tracie O’Keefe. It is another attempt to redefine trans as a type of Intersex, and has not been taken up on the Intersex side.

Intersex UK (iUK)

A support and activist group for UK and Irish Intersex persons.

Intersex Wannabe

A significant number of trans persons maintain that either they personally or all trans persons are a type of Intersex. Most Intersex activists do not agree, and some are quite annoyed at constant applications from trans persons. These trans persons seem to think that it is more legitimate to be intersexed in that such a condition is no way chosen.

Intersectionality

A term first coined in the late 1980s by the academic and civil rights advocate Kimberlé Crenshaw; the idea is that we have many different identities – such as gender, race and faith – which are all interconnected.

Interzone

1. The Tangier International Zone 1923-1956 was known for diversity, tolerance and bohemianism. Several novelists and gay men lived there openly, including William Burroughs
2. A book of short stories by Burroughs, written 1953-8, published 1989.
3. A Science Fiction magazine since 1982.
4. In the 1920s US cities pushed ‘vice’ out of white and into black neighbourhoods, where interracial and queer lifestyles thrived. These areas became hospitable for drag and other gender crossing. Kevin Mumford proposed the term ‘Interzones’ for these areas.

Intrasex

Not Intersex.

Introjection

A term that has been used by Psycho-analysts and Gestalt therapists, but Sanda Davis puts her own spin on it. She proposes that most men have Introjections of their mothers, sisters, girls at school, wives etc, but in a male with GID these female introjections coalesce and become dominant. This composite introjection comes to think of itself as the true person in the body, and then starts wearing female clothing and proclaiming herself to be woman. Well-meaning friends and relatives make the situation worse by accepting the claim. Davis says that she can cure any case of GID by getting the female introjection to admit that she is not the true personality of the body.

Intromissive

The insertion or introduction of one part into another. In sexual activity the opposite of Submissive.

Introspective

The inward observation of self, the opposite to Extrospective. In Money’s “gender identity/role (G_I/R)” the two complement each other. It is by Introspection that a person knows that he/she is trans. 

Introitus Contracture

A tightening of the entrance to the Vagina.

Invert, Inversion

A term used by sexologists in the 19^th century and the early 20^th century whereby gays, lesbians and trans persons were all regarded as Inverts: male inverts were, to a greater or lesser degree, inclined to traditionally female pursuits, dress and sexual attraction and vice versa. Richard von Krafft-Ebing popularised the term based on proposals by Karl Ulrichs. Havelock Ellis titled Volume II of his Studies in the Psychology of Sex as Sexual Inversion. John Radclyffe-Hall repeatedly referred to the protagonist of The Well of Loneliness as an Invert – never as a Lesbian. Harry Benjamin, in his scale used ‘Trapped in a male body’ to describe Type V Moderate Intensity and ‘Total Psycho-Sexual Inversion’ for Type VI High Intensity. Ira Pauly in his two pioneering papers on “female” and “male” transsexualism, used the term “Psychosexual Inversion”.

From Magnus Hirschfeld in the 1910s onwards it was realised that homosexuals and trans people are conceptually quite distinct.

See Trapped Soul, anima muliebris in corpore virili inclusa. 

Involuntary Transition

Transition that is not consented to. This happens mainly to Intersex persons who are surgically altered when too young to either consent or understand. It happened to adult Intersex persons in the 19^th century when doctors deemed Gonads to be the ultimate determinant of sex, and some who were examined were then compelled by Church and State authorities to switch. There have been more recent examples where a family would rather have a Trans daughter than a Gay Son. See also Cross Rearing.

Ipsogender

Mainly used for an Intersex person who has accepted the medically assigned gender that resulted from non-consensual surgeries at an early age. It also applies to involuntary sex and gender changes resulting from family pressures and/or decisions made by doctors, priests etc.

Irrumatio

Fellatio where the movement is on the Penis side. If involuntary, it is oral rape. 

isiNgqumo

A Gay Speak used in the South African Black townships. It is influenced by Sesotho, Ng uni, isiZulu and other Bantu languages.

Isiaah/ Yĕsha‘ăyāhû (יְשַׁעְיָהוּ) 56:4-5

"For thus saith the LORD unto the Eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant; Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off." (KJB translation)