Question and Answer - What is a Transsexual?

[Renae.Lupini]

as do I and will leave well enough alone.

[Fer]

Hmmmm...yeah, but you have to understand that some of us dont consider SRS to be a cosmetic procedure.  For some of us, it is a necessity, a second chance to keep on living...

tink

for some of us, having a body that matches who we are on the inside is the reason for our existence.  True, medically, SRS is viewed as a cosmetic procedure (thats the reason why we have to pay for it in most instances), but emotionally speaking (at least, in my case), the entire experience of having an anatomy congruent with my gender goes much deeper than a correction of a birth defect since the entire aspect of the surgery pertains to my indentity as an individual, a very painful struggle which I have had to endure since I can remember.

Furthermore and IMHO, I dont believe that there is anything in life which we can compare with GID, for transsexualism is (IMO) the most difficult, painful path in humanity anyone can endure.

Alas my answer to a poll that I have just answered:

Acute GID - I have unrelenting GID, obtaining SRS is an absolutely necessity to resolve my situation.

I concur, Tink because I wholly understand. 

[Renae.Lupini]

Furthermore and IMHO, I don't believe that there's anything in life which we can compare with GID, for transsexualism is (IMO) the most difficult, painful path in humanity anyone can endure. 

Is being TS really as difficult as we all want it to be or do we make it harder than it has to be?

I am not pointing fingers. I am simply asking questions.

[Fer]

Furthermore and IMHO, I don\'t believe that there\'s anything in life which we can compare with GID, for transsexualism is (IMO) the most difficult, painful path in humanity anyone can endure. 

Is being TS really as difficult as we all want it to be or do we make it harder than it has to be?

I am not pointing fingers. I am simply asking questions.

It is to me.  If I didnt have to deal with any of this, my life would be more simplistic and less excruciating. 

[Yvonne]

What is a transsexual?

A very unhappy person that has been denied life since birth.

[Jeannette]

A transsexual is an automaton until the day he/she breaks free.

[taru]

I don't think being TS/having GID is the worst thing that can happen.

There is treatment available that can make things much easier for us (HRT+SRS). Would someone here be rather wholly paralyzed and spend the rest of their time in a hospital? I think that would be worse from a personal perspective.

[katia]

Hmmmm...yeah, but you have to understand that some of us dont consider SRS to be a cosmetic procedure.  For some of us, it is a necessity, a second chance to keep on living...

tink

Alas my answer to a poll that I have just answered:

Acute GID - I have unrelenting GID, obtaining SRS is an absolutely necessity to resolve my situation.

I concur, Tink because I wholly understand. 

This is the deal folks, having [unrelenting] gid is a....ahem...disgrace. hence, if you don't suffer from [unrelenting] gid, you'll never understand why some ts women feel the way they do.  believe me, if there were another option for me, i'd take it in the blink of an eye, yet there isn't.  i can't think of anything that could be worse than [unrelenting] gid either.  being burnt alive maybe? death? i guess my questions will remain unanswered since i've never been dead or burnt alive.

[Renae.Lupini]

Being transsexual isn't all that bad. It is the social stigma's which society places on us that mess us up and make it bad.

My $.02

[seldom]

Being transsexual isn't all that bad. It is the social stigma's which society places on us that mess us up and make it bad.

My $.02

My opinion as well.

I have seen people suffer from bi-polar disorder and schizophrenia, trust me, those are much much worse, and you are considered lucky if that can be treated even partially. 

Being transsexual is something that may be tough to face, but easily treated.  In many cases it is social stigma and fear that hold us back from facing these issues, as well as having a negative impact on our life.   

[Kate]

Being transsexual is something that may be tough to face, but easily treated.  In many cases it is social stigma and fear that hold us back from facing these issues, as well as having a negative impact on our life.   

Exactly. And I'm beginning to think most of the "social stigma" that kept me imprisoned for so long existed mostly in my head, a projection of my own insecurities and fears.

I don't think it's the worst thing possible. I actually owe a LOT to growing up with this struggle... it's taught me things, pushed me to look at the world in ways I may have missed otherwise. I've always said that my favorite taste and mood is best described as "bittersweet," and TSism certainly has given me a bittersweet life. There's a certain tragic beauty to being TS. I look around and see how lost many people are, how they spend their lives searching for meaning, for a purpose. I've never had to do that, my purpose and destiny was always right there, in my face, pushing me every second of every day since the day I was born.

That's tragic.. but it's beautiful too.

~Kate~

[Nero]

I don't think being TS/having GID is the worst thing that can happen.

There is treatment available that can make things much easier for us (HRT+SRS). Would someone here be rather wholly paralyzed and spend the rest of their time in a hospital? I think that would be worse from a personal perspective.

Being transsexual isn't all that bad. It is the social stigma's which society places on us that mess us up and make it bad.

My $.02

My opinion as well.

I have seen people suffer from bi-polar disorder and schizophrenia, trust me, those are much much worse, and you are considered lucky if that can be treated even partially. 

Being transsexual is something that may be tough to face, but easily treated.  In many cases it is social stigma and fear that hold us back from facing these issues, as well as having a negative impact on our life.   

I don't feel this way. Parapalegics and schizophrenics are not denied their very identity. (I've known a schizophrenic, too and I agree it is very sad) Of course these things are great hardships, but these people don't have to face being told they are someone they are not every moment of their life. When I tell people who I am, I am called a liar or delusional. I would rather be born a disabled man in a wheelchair than be born female and have to live out my whole life as someone I am not.
That's just how I feel. That is the degree of my dysphoria.
Yes, I think it is the worst thing possible a human could ever be born with.

Just my own feelings.

[Berliegh]

I strongly disagree with this. For me at least, the unavoidable fact that I'm not physically female is the source of my dysphoria. No amount of freedom regarding gender expression or roles will cure my problem. Even if society let me crossdress and act feminine for the rest of my life - I'd still be miserable inside. I have no specific desire to be a "woman" (culturally defined female role). I do however feel a compulsion to be female.

Absolutely spot on Kate.....for me it's got nothing to do with clothes (If I look like a genetic female in a boiler suit I'm reaching my goal). Too many generalisations are made on the subject and many variations of people end up under the 'transsexual' banner... that may or may not be suffering from gender dysphoria..

[asiangurliee]

I strongly disagree with this. For me at least, the unavoidable fact that I'm not physically female is the source of my dysphoria. No amount of freedom regarding gender expression or roles will cure my problem. Even if society let me crossdress and act feminine for the rest of my life - I'd still be miserable inside. I have no specific desire to be a "woman" (culturally defined female role). I do however feel a compulsion to be female.

So you would have no problem living as a man with a female body?

Edit: Fixed quotes ~ Kate

[Kate]

I strongly disagree with this. For me at least, the unavoidable fact that I'm not physically female is the source of my dysphoria. No amount of freedom regarding gender expression or roles will cure my problem. Even if society let me crossdress and act feminine for the rest of my life - I'd still be miserable inside. I have no specific desire to be a "woman" (culturally defined female role). I do however feel a compulsion to be female.

So you would have no problem living as a man with a female body?

LOL, who WAS that naive, silly Kate girl from a year ago?

I've done a LOT of backpedaling with things I've said this last year. I think my point back then was to say it wasn't *just* about freedom of expression; that even if I could act any way I wanted, it still wouldn't be enough. I needed the physical changes too.

But it's a package deal for me. I need to be both physically female (however I define that) AND socially female. One just can't stand without the other for me. I need the female LIFE, which is more than the sum of it's parts (physical and social).

So no, I can't live as a man socially. I never DID though, not really, though it wasn't due to being feminine or anything. People just seemed to always see through my facade, which scared me half to death. In fact, my wife tried to insist I didn't need to transition physically because she said I already had the life I wanted: to be treated as a female by people.

But it wasn't enough. Sooner or later, Facts would override Truth.

So now the physical changes are coming into place, but I'm struggling to grow up into a woman now at age 43. But I need it SO badly... so unbelievably, heartbreakingly badly...

I'm trying though. I really am

~Kate~

[Keira]

Compulsion to be female is the right word.
Why would I take hormones at age 21 if
not to be female bodied.

I didn't think of the social dysphoria at that time.
It was centered on the physical,

Cross dressing only brought very mild relief and I
stopped doing it past the age of 20, but I did
dress quite androgynely and routinely confused
people.

[Blanche]

A transsexual is a person that only has a mind but lacks a body.

[cindybc]

Hi Katia

Ive never been dead or burned alive..... hmmmmmm, no I guess not because if your dead you don't have to worry about being burned alive.*->-bleeped-<- wit*, Just pullin your leg hun.

Cindy 

[Wing Walker]

Oh...so many ideas of what we are or what we are not.  All I have to say is that I can only speak for myself and not for all the people out there who identify as transsexual.  I wish there were a solid definition that we all could relate to, unfortunately there isn't, and we, transsexuals, can only share what we personally experience, nothing more and nothing less, just that.

By the way, I don't like the term gender dysphoria either, so I will use the word TRANSSEXUALISM.  If I may, I have to say that I'd rather use the word transsexual instead of transgender.  Although I am aware that transsexuality has nothing to do with sex, to me TRANSSEXUAL implies that I am TRANScending from one sex to the other (anatomically speaking), and this is, in fact, true.  I have never changed my gender, for my gender has always been female, what I am changing is my physical sex to be congruent with my female gender.

Given that, to me, transsexualism is a state of conflict between my female gender and my physical sex.  And based on my own experience as a transsexual person, who has known her true gender since before the age of five, I can tell you that I was born into the wrong anatomy. I'm not suggesting it; I know.   I also know that this may seem impossible for some to comprehend, but just because we can't understand certain things, we can't conclude that they are not so. 

...If I were not able to have SRS,  I would be better six feet under.

tinkerbell

It's an odd twist of fate that the term "transgender" was coined by a cross-dresser which, by definition also, is a heterosexual male who is not looking for GRS because they are not interested in being anything but a hetero male.  As Tink said above, it is not sexuality with which we have a problem, it is with our gender. 

I don't like gender dysphoria as a term, either.  Given what's left in the lexicon I will call myself transsexual, however, for me I will use "transsexuality" instead of "transsexualism." It reminds me too much of alcoholism, another condition I am dealing with.  I am transsexual and a recovering alcoholic, recovering from alcoholism, and recovering from transsexuality.

I provided the bold face type above because it is what is in my heart, too. 

Borrowed from Tink's quote above:  "...I have never changed my gender, for my gender has always been female, what I am changing is my physical sex to be congruent with my female gender. 

Therefore, I am transitioning female-to-female, says me.

Thank you for hearing me out.

Wing Walker
Flying By My Own Maps

[Berliegh]

These days there seems to be such a wide spectrum of people under the transsexual banner that there doesn't seem to be a true or definative definition. I prefer the term 'gender dysphoria' as some quaters of the general population still percieve transsexual as a another term for a transvestite.

Other dirivatives such as 'Transman' or 'Transwomen' to me sound rediculas and only seem to enphasise that 'this person is different or weird' and not normal and almost makes a person sound like a 'superhero' or an 'alien'. I personally can't stand the terminology.

I live as a normal female and I never use any of those titles and don't feel I ever should do. A transition is a transition from a male to a female or vise versa, not a transition from a male to a transwoman. What on earth is that? and who started the crazy 'transperson' terminology in the first place?