Transsexuality

A transsexual (sometimes transexual) person establishes a permanent identity with the opposite gender to their assigned (usually at birth) sex. Transsexual men and women make or desire to make a transition from their birth sex to that of the opposite sex, with some type of medical alteration (gender reassignment therapy) to their body. The stereotypical explanation is of a "woman trapped in a man's body" or vice versa, although many in the transsexual community reject this formulation.

Definitions

The minimum requirements for a person to be considered transsexual are debated. Some feel that hormone-induced changes, without surgical changes, are sufficient to qualify for the label transsexual. Others, especially health care providers, believe there is a certain set of procedures that must always be completed. The general public often defines "a transsexual" as someone who had or plans to have a "sex change" surgery. The current term in widest use for modification of sexual characteristics is sex reassignment surgery (SRS), a term which reflects the belief that transsexual people do not consider themselves to be changing their sex, but to be correcting their bodies. However, it is also often accepted (and is also evident in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) that to express desire to be of the opposite sex, or to assert that one is of the sex opposite to the one with which they were identified at birth, constitutes being transsexual. (This does not include delusions about ones current sex.) In contrast, some transgender people often do not identify as being of or wanting to be the opposite sex, but as being of or wanting to be another gender.

Related Topics:
Hormone - Health care - Sex change - Sexual characteristics - Sex reassignment surgery - Diagnostic and Statistical Manual - Transgender

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Transsexuality (also known as transsexualism) is one of a number of behaviours or states collectively referred to as transgender, which is generally considered an umbrella term for people who do not conform to typical gender roles. However, many in the transsexual community do not identify as transgendered. Some see transgender as subsuming and erasing their identity, rejecting the term for themselves because to them it implies a breaking down of gender roles, when in fact they see themselves as fitting a gender role -- just not the one they were assigned at birth.

Related Topics:
Transgender - Gender role

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Transsexual people are often construed as belonging to the LGBT or the Queer community, and many identify with the community; others do not, or prefer not to use the term. It should be noted that transsexuality is not associated with or dependent on sexual orientation. Transsexual men and women exhibit a range of sexual orientations just as non-transsexuals (cissexuals) do. They almost always use terms for their sexual orientation that relate to their target gender. For example, someone assigned to the male gender at birth but who identifies as a woman, and who is attracted solely to men, will identify as heterosexual, not gay; likewise, someone who was assigned female sex at birth, identifies as a man, and prefers male partners will identify as gay, not heterosexual.

Related Topics:
LGBT - Queer - Sexual orientation - Cissexual - Heterosexual - Gay

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(As stated above, older medical texts often described sexual orientation in relation to the person's assigned sex, not their gender of identity; in other words, referring to a male-to-female transsexual who is attracted to men as a "homosexual male transsexual." Again, this dwindling usage is considered scientifically inaccurate and clinically insensitive today, and such a person would now be called and most likely identify herself as a heterosexual transwoman.)

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Transsexuality should not be confused with cross dressing or the behaviour of drag queens, who can be described as transgender, but usually not transsexual. Also, transvestic fetishism has usually little, if anything, to do with transsexuality.

Related Topics:
Cross dressing - Drag queen - Transvestic fetish

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