There is a lot of talk in America today about “transgender rights.” News outlets talk about “transgender athletes,” “transgender prisoners,” and “transgender students.” Our society is steeped in debate about so-called transgenderism. However, I see very few people asking the question, “What does ‘transgender’ mean?” or “What exactly is ‘trans?’”

The crux of the matter is this: People across the political spectrum have been persuaded to accept that there is a coherent category of people for whom sex is irrelevant and that this category of people is called “transgender” (or simply “trans”). Democrats on the whole support “rights for ‘transgender people,’” and Republicans on the whole oppose allowing sex-confused people to hijack sex-specific spaces. But regardless of whether or not a person supports or opposes “rights for ‘transgender people,’” that person probably believes that there is such a category of people.