If there was one thing you wanted people to view transsexuals as rather than what the modern society thinks of them now. On the stigma of transsexualism.

What would it be?

I would change this erroneous notion that they...or I guess we...are going against what God- or whatever supreme being- made them at birth. It never occurs to these people that God might have put the desire to transition in there as well.

I'd have them know that Transsexual has nothing to do with sex - it's unrelated to homosexuality, and it's not a fetish.

So many people can't seem to distinguish between Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation.

Quote from: Teknoir on June 14, 2009, 10:50:04 PM
I'd have them know that Transsexual has nothing to do with sex - it's unrelated to homosexuality, and it's not a fetish.

So many people can't seem to distinguish between Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation.

Seconded.  I wince every time I see the T appended to LGB because even though we're all fighting for rights and acceptance, coupling ->-bleeped-<- with LGB just compounds the perception that it's a sexual orientation issue rather than a gender dysphoria.

I know some people see it as a natural alliance but I don't think one has to break that alliance to draw a distinction between LGB vs. T and *stop* correlating the two.  If the transgender community keeps making this conscious correlation, how can we expect the uninformed cisgendered common populace to know better?

Quote from: Teknoir on June 14, 2009, 10:50:04 PM
I'd have them know that Transsexual has nothing to do with sex - it's unrelated to homosexuality, and it's not a fetish.

So many people can't seem to distinguish between Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation.

What he said and Finewine gave a good explanation also 

the obsession with genitals.

I'd like people to stop believing that being born in the wrong body is a choice, or thinking about Jerry Springer every time they hear the word 'transsexual'.

I'd like it if I could read an article online about a person who's going through transistion, and not see an overwhelming amount of comments yelling about what freaks we are.

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

Quote from: Dominick on June 15, 2009, 12:36:32 AM
I'd like people to stop believing that being born in the wrong body is a choice, or thinking about Jerry Springer every time they hear the word 'transsexual'.

I'd like it if I could read an article online about a person who's going through transistion, and not see an overwhelming amount of comments yelling about what freaks we are.

i agree with this one most. its what my folks use to think of TS

Priscilla Queen of the Desert is NOT about transsexuals!

Quote from: GinaDouglas on June 15, 2009, 08:53:00 PM
Priscilla Queen of the Desert is NOT about transsexuals!

That's OK, Virginia, Goddess of the garden is all about human rights for all

I would erase all knowledge of preconceived social "gender-roles" making it easier for the Trans community to explain that "I want to be a woman, I don't just want to do a woman's job", which would make it less likely for people to associate Trans with sexuality.

Cause for me, sometimes the reaction I've found is that people see me as a butch woman, not a man, and they assume that I just want to be treated as a man in the sense of social roles.
I don't care about social roles. I don't want a man's job. I don't really care if I'm sir'd as long as I'm not she'd.
What I want, Is for my body to match my brain. Ain't got nothing to do with anyone else.

Thank you for reminding me to finish my sentence

Quote from: Teknoir on June 14, 2009, 10:50:04 PM
I'd have them know that Transsexual has nothing to do with sex - it's unrelated to homosexuality, and it's not a fetish.

So many people can't seem to distinguish between Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation.

I also think alienation is created by the term 'Transsexual'. I personally will never promote the fact of my orientation and prefer to keep quiet about it. I can never understand the celebration of 'transition' or 'look at me', 'I used to be a man' and whole website's dedicated to someone's transition with all the gory details. Sometimes we create our own problems and media nightmares.  For me it's a personal thing and transition is not something I want to broadcast. Each to their own.

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. As we have seen in the cases of those disabled, from somethign as simple as an amputee to something as extreme as the situation presented in "The Butterfly in the Diving Bell", the mind, not the body, is the essence of identity and by extension much of our definition of humanity (though the two do affect each other).

I worked at a very large quasi federal government organization (you'd know the name) and a memo came out about a guy that was transitioning and would be coming back to work as a female. My coworkers (some of whom I had known for a long time) were simply aghast at the concept, and some not very nice things were said about the situation.

I had to stand there and just absorb it; if I said anything then I fear would have started getting unwelcome personal questions.

So i'd say that i'd like to see the public get more educated on what it means to be transgendered/transsexual, and why a person might choose to go thru transition. And also have the public learn that a trans person is not a sexual deviant, he/she is just a neighbor with a medical condition.

---

Post Merge: June 18, 2009, 01:17:39 PM

---

Quote from: chrysalis on June 18, 2009, 01:17:12 AM
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.

Well said. I might add that the reverse is also true for our brother FTMs.

I had to stand there and just absorb it; if I said anything then I fear would have started getting unwelcome personal questions.

So i'd say that i'd like to see the public get more educated on what it means to be transgendered/transsexual, and why a person might choose to go thru transition.

If not you, then who?  If not at that critical moment, then when?  Oh, far be it from you to make your own life uncomfortable, but, given that, who is going to be for you when that happens?  If not you, who?  If not now, when?

Nice, fine and dandy to wish, but real people make real change happen.  You were given a chance to really make a difference, but, instead of working on that change then and there, you come in here an whine to us, and WISH, it would be different someday.   

How very strange.

Quote from: tekla on June 18, 2009, 10:42:04 PM
I had to stand there and just absorb it; if I said anything then I fear would have started getting unwelcome personal questions.

So i'd say that i'd like to see the public get more educated on what it means to be transgendered/transsexual, and why a person might choose to go thru transition.

If not you, then who?  If not at that critical moment, then when?  Oh, far be it from you to make your own life uncomfortable, but, given that, who is going to be for you when that happens?  If not you, who?  If not now, when?

Nice, fine and dandy to wish, but real people make real change happen.  You were given a chance to really make a difference, but, instead of working on that change then and there, you come in here an whine to us, and WISH, it would be different someday.   

How very strange.

The topic of the thread is "if you could change one thing". I gave my answer to that specific question while relating an experience that I had to show WHY I would change that one thing. Of course wanting to change something (the thread topic), and actually changing something (activism), are two different things, but that's not the topic of the thread now is it?

What you said is true tekla, but that experience happened to me before I figured out that I had GID, before I joined this site, and before I had really put much thought into the matter. I would not have been a good spokesman for trans issues at that time. Today I would probably have a different and better answer.

Now let's quit hijacking the thread.

I'm pretty new to the site and all, but I saw this and I'd like to add my 2 cents.

If I could change one thing about the stigma that is usually attached to transsexualism, it would be, to remove the thought(s) that being who you are on the inside and bringing that out, is somehow "wrong" by "typical societal standards".

the quotes are merely to compensate for the gross generalization, my apologies that I cannot articulate it better, but I believe it may communicate the intended message.

I'd simply want people to accept us for who we are and stop trying to deny who we are, because it's not their place to decide, and it's not their place to judge us.