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This is short response to a very involved question, especially for intersex people.
Transsexual- a person who identifies mentally and emotionally with a gender not of their assigned sex at birth. Chaz Bono would be an example of this - born female, identifies male .
Transgender- multiple definitions for this one
one can be the same as transsexual - in the wrong body
or a person whose sexual role is fluid , does not strongly identify as male or female and who does not conform to typical gender roles expected by society. These are often people called " androgynous" .
They typically have either male or female genitals . Again, this is a mental and emotional state of being.
Intersex- this is a physical condition which can have profound mental and emotional effects on people.. Intersex people cannot be easily identified via chromosomes, internal gonads or external genitals as either male or female. This is a very complicated condition with varying degrees of medical confusion. You really need to read up on this one to try to understand it.
I have quite a few transgender friends. They are very different from each other. They identify with the opposite gender.
Transsexuals have had the surgery. Not all transgenders become transsexuals.
Intersexuals are sometimes born with two sets of genitals.
I love my transgender friends. They all seem to love me for allowing them to be themselves when in my company.
Acceptance is a huge thing.
My spouse does not conform to the expected roles of her biological gender. It's just who she is. For example, dressing in traditionally feminine clothing would be akin to dressing in drag for her and she's always been that way, ever since childhood. Generally this is not an issue for family or friends (well, my mother is an exception but that's typical for her), but one year another parent at our children's school overheard and reported to us about how a school office worker referred to my spouse as "he/she/it --- whatever THAT is"...
I remember a reality show some time ago about people getting sex change operations, didnt really watch it much but one show caught my attention when a guy and gal couple both had sex change operations now he was a she and she was a he,For some reason i found the resultant persons a rather confusing scenario.
She has malformed genitalia that appears as both male and female but tends to look more male in appearance. She also has partial ovary and fallopian tube delvelopment.
She was raised as male but during our childhood and adolescence it was extremely clear that our parents had made the absolute wrong decision.
She is 42 years old and is undergoing surgery to correct things.
Estrogen therapy was implemented 12 years ago.
She was able to utilize the wrong gender marker on her birth certificate in order to marry her wife.
My sister is a beautiful, vibrant and loving human being that never deserved the incongruity and emotional pain she grew up with.
Now she is living a life filled with wonderful people and positive life experiences.
I love her deeply.
It's not really correct that transsexuals have had surgery and transgender people have not. "Transgender" is an umbrella term, and includes transsexuals and others. A person is transsexual if they live as or desire to live as the gender "opposite" the gender they were assigned at birth. They may or may not use body modification to blend in as their affirmed gender. Body modification may include hormones, hormone blockers, surgeries, hair removal (laser, electrolysis), as well as gender typical grooming. Surgeries can include "top" surgeries (mastectomy, breast augmentation), "bottom" surgeries (five possible procedures for "male-to-female" (trans women), 11 procedures for trans men), facial surgeries and others. Most transition medical care is not covered by insurance. Hormones are inexpensive, but surgeries are not. Complete "bottom" surgeries (GRS) for Trans women average around $25,000, and for Trans men, $85,000. Bottom surgery is often not satisfactory for Trans men and few get it. Most transsexuals cannot afford this out-of-pocket. Some transsexuals cannot get medical clearance for GRS due to health issues. It is major surgery with a significant risk of complications, including irreparable fistulas, bleeding, and as with all surgeries, infections. Because few people see our genitalia besides our lover, many transsexuals opt out of surgeries, by necessity or by choice. One can still have a high quality of life without GRS. The issue of insurance coverage is rapidly changing, with GRS now being covered by insurance for more than 300 corporations, and the public Medicaid systems in eight Canadian provinces and several states. The teachers' union in my state won coverage this past Friday.
Many transsexuals prefer to call themselves transgender (myself included) because of the confusion of sex with eroticism. The "sex" in "transsexual" refers to a person being male or female, not their erotic preferences. People who work in K-12 schools like me aren't supposed to be erotic or have sexuality in my culture (USA), producing our own babies with magic fairy dust. It's dangerous for me to be referred to as a transsexual, and so I call myself transgender. "Transgender" as an umbrella term includes those who have no intention to change genders permanently (such as cross dressers), as well as people who have a gender expression which is a combination of masculine and feminine (gender ***** or androgynous)
As for intersex, all human embryos at 6 weeks after conception have both the male (Wolffian) and the female (Müllerian) system. If the embryo is exposed to a critical level of testosterone at this point, the male system develops and the female system atrophies, and when the child is born they appear male and are assigned male. If not so exposed, the opposite happens, they appear female and are assigned female at birth. This flood of testosterone after 6 weeks is triggered by the SRY gene usually (but not always) carried in the Y-chromosome. Rarely the SRY gene is on an X chromosome, causing a female genotype (XX), in someone who appears completely male. Sometimes there are no testosterone receptors (complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome), and a person with and XY chromosome combination appears com
Last edited by Jilldavidson; 06-16-2013 at 09:46 PM..
My daughter's best friend in grade school was/is (I'm always confused what term to use) transgendered. She (in grade school), now he is a wonderful, caring adult and all of his friends and relatives are happy because he is now so very happy.
It's not really correct that transsexuals have had surgery and transgender people have not. "Transgender" is an umbrella term, and includes transsexuals and others. A person is transsexual if they live as or desire to live as the gender "opposite" the gender they were assigned at birth. They may or may not use body modification to blend in as their affirmed gender. Body modification may include hormones, hormone blockers, surgeries, hair removal (laser, electrolysis), as well as gender typical grooming. Surgeries can include "top" surgeries (mastectomy, breast augmentation), "bottom" surgeries (five possible procedures for "male-to-female" (trans women), 11 procedures for trans men), facial surgeries and others. Most transition medical care is not covered by insurance. Hormones are inexpensive, but surgeries are not. Complete "bottom" surgeries (GRS) for Trans women average around $25,000, and for Trans men, $85,000. Bottom surgery is often not satisfactory for Trans men and few get it. Most transsexuals cannot afford this out-of-pocket. Some transsexuals cannot get medical clearance for GRS due to health issues. It is major surgery with a significant risk of complications, including irreparable fistulas, bleeding, and as with all surgeries, infections. Because few people see our genitalia besides our lover, many transsexuals opt out of surgeries, by necessity or by choice. One can still have a high quality of life without GRS. The issue of insurance coverage is rapidly changing, with GRS now being covered by insurance for more than 300 corporations, and the public Medicaid systems in eight Canadian provinces and several states. The teachers' union in my state won coverage this past Friday.
Many transsexuals prefer to call themselves transgender (myself included) because of the confusion of sex with eroticism. The "sex" in "transsexual" refers to a person being male or female, not their erotic preferences.
People who work in K-12 schools like me aren't supposed to be erotic or have sexuality in my culture(USA), producing our own babies with magic fairy dust.It's dangerous for me to be referred to as a transsexual, and so I call myself transgender.
"Transgender" as an umbrella term includes those who have no intention to change genders permanently (such as cross dressers), as well as people who have a gender expression which is a combination of masculine and feminine (gender ***** or androgynous)
As for intersex, all human embryos at 6 weeks after conception have both the male (Wolffian) and the female (Müllerian) system. If the embryo is exposed to a critical level of testosterone at this point, the male system develops and the female system atrophies, and when the child is born they appear male and are assigned male. If not so exposed, the opposite happens, they appear female and are assigned female at birth. This flood of testosterone after 6 weeks is triggered by the SRY gene usually (but not always) carried in the Y-chromosome. Rarely the SRY gene is on an X chromosome, causing a female genotype (XX), in someone who appears completely male. Sometimes there are no testosterone receptors (complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome), and a person with and XY chromosome combination appears com
One of the best posts that I have ever read.
I had to highlight the part in blue (as it is true for all teachers, transgendered or not). People outside of teaching often don't realize this,
I had to highlight the part in blue (as it is true for all teachers, transgendered or not). People outside of teaching often don't realize this,
My wife is planning to be a teacher. Already agonizing over how she will dress and whether or not her gender presentation will be an issue when it comes to finding jobs. Everyone expects her to have some sort of trade career and it's difficult, I think, for someone who doesn't fit gender "molds" to have a professional career that isn't fitting some stereotype (you know, the effeminate hairstylist or interior designer or some artsy job, the butch cop or TSA worker or "construction chick")...
She was able to do an internship at our kids' school but only because the powers that be there have known us both for a long long time and it's a pretty liberal group.
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