trans* is a neologism referring to a deliberately undefined cluster of loosely related identities and experiences that do not conform to traditional ideas about gender.
[2] Alan Pelaez Lopez explains how writing ‘trans*’ shifts the power perspective of studying transgender and gender theory.
[3] "trans*", as Lopez describes, recenters gender expansive people to allow them to express their experience while remaining detached from hegemonic epistemologies of evidence.
[3] Within the same written piece, they describe the vast complexities of trans*, from the emphasis on intersectional activism, to critiques of Western academia, to the reflection centering.
This remains politicized as often these analyses that follow legal or socio-psychological dynamics identify the identity politics that legislation and discrimination have on the trans experience.
One such analysis is done by Gizem Senturk, who analyzes the symbiosis of Jadzia Dax in the series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
[13][14][15] Within this framework trans* can demonstrate how it can be explained to a general population, or targeted audience, without having to reduce the theory and complexities held within it.
A piece by Robin C. Ladwig analyzes new potential organizational frameworks of the workplace to be more inclusive of diverse gender experiences, while a piece by Martin De Mauro Rucovsky analyzes Argentina’s legal recognition of trans people and the activism by those of gender expansive experience that went into ensuring that legalization.
[12][8] Both of these political cases use the umbrella term version of trans* to advocate and emphasize the change in expansion in policy and legislative work.
[1][8][12] However, while attempting to maintain the umbrella term definition Rucovsky often uses the expansive and future-thinking version of trans*, even using the asterisk as a conjunction as described by other scholars like Lopez.