A Primer by Transgender Nation
1. What does 'Transgendered' Mean? A 'transgendered' person is someone whose gender identity differs from conventional expectations of masculinity or femininity. Their gender identity differs from their physical sex as assigned at birth. Transgendered people are born this way and have no choice in who they are.
2. Who are Transgendered People? Transgendered persons include pre-operative and post-operative transsexuals; transgenderists (persons living full-time in a gender opposite their birth sex with no desire to pursue surgery); transvestites (preferred term: cross-dressers, those whose gender expression occasionally differs from their birth sex); "mannish" or "passing" women, whose gender expression is masculine and who are often assumed to be lesbians, though this is not necessarily the case. Transsexual and transgenderist persons can be female-to-male (transsexual or transgendered men) as well as male-to-female (transsexual or transgendered women).
3. Are Transgendered People Gay? Most transgendered persons identify themselves as heterosexual. Their intrinsic difference is their gender identity, not their sexual orientation; these are two different things altogether. However, transgendered people are perceived by most people as homosexuals, and thus are discriminated against in similar ways.
4. How are Transgendered People Discriminated Against? Like gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals, transgendered people face employment and housing discrimination. They are also denied public accommodations and access to health care for their medical conditions. They are also potential targets for hate crimes: verbal harassment, hate mail, harassing telephone calls, and acts of violence committed by the same persons who hate homosexuals and bisexuals. But unlike gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals, transgendered people are much more likely to fall victim to discrimination and hate crimes, because most of them possess physical or behavioral characteristics that readily identify them as transgendered.
5. What about their Privacy? Like the majority of gay men, lesbians, and bisexual people who keep their sexual orientations secret, the majority of transgendered persons also strongly desire to keep their transgendered states secret. Like gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals, transgendered people are vulnerable to their sexual minority status being revealed against their will, i.e., being "outed."
6. What are the Different Types of Transgendered Persons? The largest subgroup of transgendered persons are crossdressers who are mainly heterosexual men, although there are also women who crossdress. Apart from their occasional crossdressing, they lead lives that are quite ordinary in all other respects. Most crossdressers are married and many have children, so they have much to lose from their transgendered state being revealed. They also wish to remain in the sex they were born, unlike transsexuals.
7. What about the Transsexuals? Transsexual and transgenderist (non-operative transsexual) persons differ from cross-dressers in that they come to feel they can no longer continue to live their lives in the gender associated with the sex they were assigned at birth.
8. Why do they feel that way? The overall psychological term is called gender dysphoria, an intense feeling of pain, anguish, and anxiety from the mis-assignment of a transgendered person's sex at birth. All transgendered people suffer from it, but the feeling becomes more acute for transsexuals and transgenderists, usually in the middle of their lives. These feelings lead many transgendered people into depression, anxiety, chemical dependencies, divorces and other family problems, even suicide. In order to seek relief from their gender dysphoria, transsexual and transgenderist persons transition, or to begin living their lives in their true genders, which are opposite their birth sexes. This means they literally must "out" themselves to their employers, their families, their friends, everyone.
9. Why is that necessary? Gender transition is impossible to hide, since gender is a pervasive facet of all aspects of one's life. Beyond being the only way of relieving some of the gender dysphoria they suffer, transition for transsexual persons also marks the beginning of the real life test. During this minimum one-year period, they must be able to demonstrate to their psychotherapists their ability to successfully live and work full-time in their true gender. This is an absolute prerequisite for sex reassignment surgery (SRS), the only known relief from the intense, physical gender dysphoria of transsexual people. The crucial importance of this trial period to a transsexual person is impossible to overstate: it is literally life or death. It is also when transsexual persons are most vulnerable to discrimination, harassment, and violence.
From Jessica Xavier (Transgendered Nation and Washington D.C. PFLAG). One of a series of handouts available through the PFLAG-Talk/TGS-PFLAG virtual library. http://www.critpath.org/pflag-talk/