A survey published on Monday has found that some 35% of people in the UK don't know that a "transgender woman" is someone registered as male at birth, with the term "trans women" causing even greater confusion as 40% defined it incorrectly.
This comes as the Edinburgh-based policy analysis group Murray Blackburn Mackenzie commissioned Survation to conduct separate polls for each term — of 1,008 and 1,026 UK adults, respectively — in June this year.
While gender terms are finally becoming acknowledged and respected, there is still a long way to go as a significant share of society remains unaware of what simple terms such as "transgender woman" and "trans woman" mean. The language we use is crucial to ensure that the world is safer for trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming people, so awareness must be improved.
This survey is yet another example of how out of touch with reality the transgender movement is. Though it has become mainstream in progressive political parties, academia and the media to the point that it is illegal to "misgender" someone in some places, ordinary people barely understand what it means to say that someone is a "transgender woman" or a "trans woman."