Many years ago, when I was a pre-teen and totally confused that I still had feelings for girls despite being a girl myself, I stumbled into my city library desperate for answers. I couldn't talk to my parents or even my brother, so I hoped to find this information myself by searching for any books relating to gender and attraction to the same sex. After awkward explanations to the librarian that I was looking for non-fiction gender studies books, she lead me to a small nook with a handful of old dictionary sized books with bold "HOMOSEXUAL STUDIES" written on a sticker below the books.

I couldn't take them with me to my house to look, but I did manage to read many chapters of each book there. One of the things that stuck out to me the most though, was a small chapter about gender identity and sexual orientation. To paraphrase, the chapter implied that many people after having surgeries or taking hormones to change their gender, still found themselves to be gay/lesbian or straight. However, if they were FTM and attracted to women pre-T, once they started to transition, they often found themselves being now attracted to men. The same applied in all situations. (MTFs who once found men attractive now found themselves attracted to women once they started transitioning, and what not.) I hope that makes sense...

I'll be honest, considering how many older studies have been debunked about gay/lesbian people as well as trans* people due to the obvious slant against things outside the norm, this wouldn't surprise me if it was pure lies/half truths. It doesn't even consider the shades of gray that is sexuality so it was obviously a flawed study in some ways. However, this really stuck out to me because I'm wondering if this has any grain of truth to it or if anyone else has read/seen something similar. So, can anyone verify this or does someone at least know what I'm talking about?

(I don't recall the publication date, the book's publisher, or even recall the author(s) names. This was nearly a decade ago and my memory is fuzzy. I just recall it being an older, blue hardback that was dictionary sized.)

Hi Wolf, I have not read anything but can give you an answer based on my experance. Before I started HRT I was strictly attracted to women. Now that I am almost 7 months into my physical transition I can tell you that I am looking at men in a whole new light. I still find women attractive but men are right there with them now. 

I haven't really read much of anything concerning that either... but what I DO know from anecdotes of various transgender and transsexual women and men, transmen, transwomen, and everything in between, it all depends on the hormones and you. Because we are going through second puberty, or your real puberty, it can also sometimes cause attractions to change as well, but not always.

Pre-hormones I was always attracted to men. Since hormones, I have been straighter than ever and I still like men sexually, physically, emotionally, mentally, etc.  I can totally appreciate a woman's body, but I dunno... being straight is pretty awesome too.

By the way, that study sounds horrendously outdated. I would never teach my children out of that!

I have no clue.

Just anecdotally, I do feel like I've met more gay ftms than one would expect to encounter in the general male population, but that could easily be a bias of my seeking them out or of them being more vocal. Cultural trends influence who is visible at any given time as well.

Since my transition (which is of course in progress but I consider to be complete) I've not changed my sexual orientation. As a girl, I always dated and slept with boys. I occasionally slept with girls, but that was largely because I was "manly" and lesbian women tended to initiate encounters. I'm still somewhat open, and sometimes I find particularly masculine or androgynous girls quite sexy, but I prefer guys.

Socially, at times I do wish I could play out the fairytale and find a girl and be her prince and sweep her off her feet etc. At least there's a script for that, and a romantic one. But other than societal pressures I'm not different since transition as far as I can tell.

I'm still very into males. Gay guys can be kinda awful toward transguys, but that's a whole nother thread there.

There's probably a bit of confusion introduced by the fact that once we're out, we're out. Like, if you're trans, you usually don't have anything else to lose by exploring or identifying attraction to any particular gender.

I think it differs from person to person. Sometimes, I wonder if some people are attracted to sameness and other are attracted to differentness rather than genders.

HAHA! sorry..Well lets see.I was straight before coming out (aka attracted to woman) btw i am a FtM.I am still attracted to woman and that will never change.Not for me anyway and i mean i cant speak for anyone else.They are two different things and even *IF* hormones played a part in that change,then it makes no sense why i was attracted to woman to start with because i have always had male hormones (i suffer with a sever case of PCOS and also there are FtM in the same case that are attracted to men) and this has been ever since i hit puberty.I am very confident in my orientation and i love woman,in many ways.And im afraid i have no idea what book/study your talking about,i can only speak of personal feelings and experience.It was only maybe 2 years ago that i even learned i was trans,so you can imagine-im still slightly a V to it all.The best way to get the truth behind ANY study,is to get up front testing/experiences and just like with then we are before,it depends on the person.Some can be attracted to one,or to another,or to none,or to all or what have you.

I've heard similar things in the past... I think it can happen for some people, but it certainly hasn't for me.  I was a lesbian, and now I'm a straight transman. 

I think that maybe for some people its a matter of not feeling the opposite in a relationship.  pre-transition a man with a transman the transman is the "girlfriend" or visa versa (woman + transwoman the transwoman pre transition is the "boyfriend") whether its conscious or not.  After transition the social situation changes and a more equal playing ground is there.  I guess sometimes people really do just change who they like though too.  Who am I to say?

Its all kind of beyond me, as it didn't happen to me.