Hi cturner,
As others have said transgender is not a choice it is part of you, like your skin colour your ethnicity your eye colour. It isn't something you can switch on or off. Though many of us try.
I thought I'd copy this from the Australian sex discrimination laws, some of the best in the world, but it states what Australian law considers a legal transgender person, they are copied from
www.gendercentre.org.au and excellent resource for transgender people.
Who is counted as transgender under anti-discrimination law?
If you live, have lived, or want to live as a member of the opposite gender (sex) to your birth gender, the anti-discrimination law counts you as transgender. This means you are legally counted as transgender if:
· you want to live as a member of your preferred gender (the opposite gender to your birth gender);
· you are in the process of changing over to your preferred gender;
· you live as a member of your preferred gender;
· you have lived as a member of your preferred gender in the past; or
· you are intersexual (born with indeterminate sex, for example, with sexual parts of both sexes) and you live as a member of your preferred gender.
You do not have to have had any sex-change or other surgery. You do not have to have taken any hormones in the past or be taking them now. It does not matter what your gender was at birth.
It does not matter which gender is your preferred gender. It does not matter why you are transgender. It does not matter how you describe or label yourself (for example, as transgender, ->-bleeped-<-, transsexual or something else).
What matters is how you live and behave, or how you want to live and behave. If you fit any one of the "rules" listed above, then the anti-discrimination law counts you as transgender.AS you can see these 'definitions' are very broad, and nowhere is how you present or if you shave legs, arms or anything else.
To understand and help you through the emotional mind-field of dealing with all this a gender therapist is often of great help and I suggest you try to talk to one. You will lose nothing.
What does it cost. Everything and nothing. Some have lost their jobs, their spouse, their friends, their children, their relations, their religion. They have paid a lot of money for surgery and hormones. For some that is a high cost and for others it is the cost of being themselves.
Personally it has cost me nothing, at least nothing I consider a loss or an impost. Yes it costs money but I need to eat and that costs money. Being me has cost money but if I hadn't paid that, then it would have cost me my life.
Sadly far too many of my brothers and sisters have paid that price.
Cindy
