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We are born as questions. We do not know who we are, nor do our parents. The only things you know about a person from the moment they’re born are rather trivial. You know their eye color, their skin tone, what particular genitalia they have. You may be able to see the fragments of their parents, scattered throughout their facial structure. But there is so much more in the beneath. You don’t know who this person is going to become, what they’re going to become, or HOW they’re going to become anything. You can only prepare them and hope for the best, as parents.

And even after years have past, you may not even know yourself yet, not entirely. This is the situation a lot of preteens and teenagers find themselves in. A person can go a long time before they figure out that they’re gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, or any multiple of non hetero-normative variations. But what does that mean?

I’ve been in high school for a while know, and I have found that many people do not know the difference between terms like transsexual or transvestite. This is understandable, as we are shielded from such knowledge by our parents and teachers. This is probably because such information is deemed “inappropriate” or worse, “unimportant.” But if there’s one thing I know for certain, it is that it is MORE that appropriate and ENDLESSLY important to understand humanity, and transsexualism is a part of that.

The following are terms that have been misunderstood by peers of mine, and as such may not be related in a way that you yourself will sympathize with. As such none of these definitions are any more or less important, nor are they superior or inferior to one another. They merely are.

• Transsexuals] A transsexual is an individual who believes that they were born in the wrong body. To be more specific, they believe that the gender they belong to is not who they truly are. Some state that it is as if a man’s body is in the body of a woman, or a woman’s in the body of a man. As such, these individuals often take steps to correct the biological mistake. These steps include multiple surgeries and hormone therapy.
• Transvestite] This is an individual who dresses in articles of clothing that are typically associated with the opposite sex, i.e. a man in a dress. They may do this every day, or occasionally. They may do this for sexual reasons or for a greater sense of fulfillment similar to the transsexual. But keep this in mind, they are not the same thing. A transvestite (usually) makes no attempts to alter their body through scientific/medical process. 
• Transgender] This can refer to either of the above interchangeably. Although some people may take offense to it being used to describe them.
• Hermaphrodite] This is an individual who is born with the reproductive organs of both sexes. This term has fallen out of favor in some circles due to it being seen as misleading or stigmatizing. Edit, additional information provided by sexwithspencer; “It was also used to describe individuals whose chromosomal makeup didn’t match their perceived sex, or a “lack of development” of “normal” sex organs/gonad.”
• Intersex] This term encompasses a large variety of conditions having to do with anomalies of the reproductive and sexual system. This can mean that one is born with external and/or internal reproductive organs that are different from other people’s, however this is a wide and varied amount of situations, so as such there is no predetermined intersex body. Intersex refers to the abnormalities of the reproductive and sexual systems.
• Drag Queen] Primarily a (male) performer who dresses as a flamboyant and exaggerated version of the female archetype for the sake of entertainment. There is not necessarily any overlap between this and any of the above.
• Drag King] The inverted Drag Queen, primarily a (female) performer dressing as an exaggerated version of the male archetype for the sake of entertainment.
• Genderqueer] Most commonly used to refer to an individual who feels that his/her identity does not fit into the socially constructed norms associated with his/her biological sex. Genderqueer is an identity that can fall anywhere between man/boy/male and woman/girl/female on the spectrum of gender identities. 

These are only the definitions I have been asked about in day to day life, and there are many more that have to do with this topic. But as you can see, the scope of gender identity is a very wide spectrum of self awareness and sexuality. People come in all shapes and sizes, you see.

And we must NEVER forget that above all, these are not just terms, these are people. All with different life stories, all with different struggles, all with different pleasures, and all with different situations. We must never devalue this knowledge.

If I have made any errors in my logic, reasoning, or definitions, please let me know. :]