If you could change one thing

[LordKAT]

I would change ppl telling me how I "WANT" to be a man, I already am just someone screwed up when it came to body development.

[tekla]

Actually I'd change people from writing about 'what upsets them' and get them writing about what they intend to do change it.  But I guess people like being powerless in the end, more to complain about.

[Lacey Lynne]

Just to accept us as we are.  We are not the spawn of satan, perverts, making a choice to be this way.  If you can accept a person for being just who they are, would that not be better than hating them.

Janet

Janet Lynn is right on.  Transsexuality is a birth defect ... nothing more ... nothing less.  My one cousin was born without his right hand.  There is just a stub after his elbow with two, very tiny, residual fingers there.  Nobody (except true idiots) hates or rejects him because of his birth defect.  They should not hate or reject us because of ours.  Hugs!   

[xsocialworker]

I would change the concept that being "transgender" is not an identity. I would just as soon be out to everybody that "needs to know" just as the Gays and Lesbians in my community can out themselves in many places and in casual conversation without raising eyebrows. As far as I am concerned, I worked on looking like a passable female for self-protection, fun, looking good in clothes, and autogynophelia   I say we should have the right to be honest about our pasts without consequences. I did have surgery for arthritis last year and disclosed to all the medical staff who took a history and the reaction was mainly "so what, as long as you can take a catheder"

[Genevieve Swann]

Just to be considered another person in society without gender becoming an issue.

[Chamillion]

I would change the fact that people always assume transsexuals look like their birth sex. Countless times I've heard friends tell me that this transguy I know who's been on T much longer than I have "looks just like a regular guy". Yeah, that's kinda the point of transition.

[Kayden]

I'd change the public's implicit perception that a Transsexual is a man becoming a woman. People don't understand the mindset of the Transsexual and that she mentally, for all practical purposes, is a woman.

I would change this, too, but for a completely different reason.  I would change the perception that transpeople are only transwomen.  Transmen seem to be more ignored by the media (for better or worse), the general populous, and sometimes even the trans community.

It seems that unless I'm in the FtM area or unless a guy is posting, I constantly see references to only transwomen and I often feel the urge to post something inflammatory.  I did once and got some flack for it.  I just read that entire ->-bleeped-<- ->-bleeped-<- post [6 pages.. whew], and even after a few guys posted, everyone still continued to define a ->-bleeped-<- as someone after a transwoman, when it's really someone after a transperson.

Also, when I come out to people, the common perception has been when I tell them I'm having surgery is that I'm getting a fully functional penis sewn on somehow.  This assumption comes from the fact that "surgery" for MtFs is a vaginoplasty, I suppose.  They just generally know more about how things work for MtFs.

That said, I don't envy the objectification many of the women on here face, but we all face it, albeit the men not as often.  Trust me, I enjoy not being objectified the way I used to be when I presented as female.

Hope I didn't step on too many toes.

[finewine]

I would change this, too, but for a completely different reason.  I would change the perception that transpeople are only transwomen.  Transmen seem to be more ignored by the media (for better or worse), the general populous, and sometimes even the trans community.

Ok I will confess that before I joined this site, if someone asked me to picture a transsexual in my mind it would have been a transwoman.  In fact, I had no appreciation at all for just how man transmen there are and while I've heard guys talk about transwomen (always with the non-specific "transsexual" term), I've never heard them mention transmen.

So why is this? Probably a number of factors.  One is the male fascination with transwomen (whether that be from the ->-bleeped-<-s or from the transphobics - the vast majority of bio men probably reside in one or other of those groups).  Frankly, and I apologize for this, but most bio men probably visualize transmen as an extreme form of butch lesbianism - and a rare one too.  Women on the other hand seem less freaked out and phobic about transmen (well, generally anyway).  I think the asymmetric reaction between men and women on people transitioning away from their gender is fundamental to this asymmetry in public perception.

Also, as Kayden said, the media and the adult industry overwhelmingly focus on transwomen; there are some exceptions but I believe that's very much a minority...possibly for similar reasons as the above.

I just read that entire ->-bleeped-<- ->-bleeped-<- post [6 pages.. whew], and even after a few guys posted, everyone still continued to define a ->-bleeped-<- as someone after a transwoman, when it's really someone after a transperson.

There's a well known so-called "TS dating" site and I defy you to find a single female ->-bleeped-<- ->-bleeped-<- or transman there.    It's full of male "f**k-my-arse" ->-bleeped-<- ->-bleeped-<-s and transwomen (the latter being mostly hookers advertising their "samurai power").

All rather depressing, isn't it?