Of course it depends on the person you're speaking with, but The Gay And Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation website has some references about what is or is not a derogatory term:
https://www.glaad.org/publications/reference
And transgender and transsexual are both accepted terminologies according to this organization:
http://www.glaad.org/reference/transgender
From what I've understood of Kemetic Reconstructionists, a number of their deities can actually be very genderfluid according to historical epithets and mythology. (As well as, of course, Kemetic deities being associated with animals and/or humans and/or concepts in society…all wrapped up in a deity or deities, all very fluid.) Example: Atum, the Great He-She.
That is a literal translation, by the way. "He-She" is now of course derogatory to say to people.
Anyway, it sure seems as if Ancient Egyptians might have had more respect for non-binary gendered people than modern people do, but that might just be wishful thinking to somebody with modern values. I'm not that well-versed in Egyptian paganism, although it is I think one of the most popular branches of paganism, whether Reconstructionist or influential of Thelema or anything else, so it shouldn't be too difficult to find more information about that!
looking at this now, I find many grammatical errors in here. First, "transsexual" isn't really used and, anyway, it's an adjective, NOT a noun. "Transgender" is the correct term, but, again, it's an adjective. just so ya'll know.
This is an old post lol but I know back then there wouldn't be any safe gender confirming surgeries, nor would they be anatomically correct. Though the ancient Egyptians had eye surgery, from what I've heard.
Transsexual means they are going through the process of changing. Transgender would mean they are one who live as the other. How do I know? I had a friend who was transsexual. Once the surgery was complete, he was full female, so considered a she; a full woman.
Transexuals and Transgender people did not exist at the time of anicent Egypt due to the facts that no such sergery was invented and it was probably not an excepted concept.
Although in ancient Egyptians belief; they would weight their "hearts" against Anubis the God of the underworld to see if they were worthy of the after life. Egyptian priests would often go as far as to act out this ritual. However if a "heart" or "soul" was deemed corrupt they believed it would be trapt on earth, unable to go to the afterlife. By this standard it could be possible for women to go to the after life.
But in all honesty, the ancient Egyptians died long ago... So it'd be impossible to know what they would have thought...
Myrala, I know I brought this up again, but I was looking through my favourites and this said it had new replies and then I read the whole thing... Yeah, anyway. Thank you to everyone who's replied, you've all had interesting replies.
You don't need to physically transition to identify as a gender that is not your own. Even if the concept wasn't recorded, I highly doubt that all of human history was strictly binary in gender.
Myrala, there are actually multiple cultures that do not see gender as binary. Also, the gender you identify as IS your own, whether it was assigned to you or not. But Western culture (ie, America and some places in Europe) kind of enforce a binary on everyone. And it's not just gender, it's orientation, too.
