Transgender Issues

charged and convicted for robbery and murder. Only in prostitution are women more heavily involved. In addition, intimate partner violence is the same in same-sex couples compared to heterosexual couples.

TRANSGENDER ISSUES

A transgender person is one whose gender identity is different from their assigned sex. Those who get medical assistance to make a physical transformation are said to be transsexual. The term transgender is sometimes used to refer to people who consider themselves bigender, gender fluid, or gender queer and is sometimes called the third gender, although we have already discussed that most transgender people do not feel that this is the case.

Transgender issues are completely different from sexual orientation. The transgender person may be asexual or may be heterosexual, homosexual, or even bisexual. Some do not like to label their orientation at all. Transgender is different from being intersex, which is a medical term used to describe someone who has ambiguous genitalia. A person who is cisgender believes they have a gender identity that is the same as their assigned sex. Transvestitism is not the same thing as transgender and refers specifically to how one prefers to dress.

The terms “trans man” and “trans woman” refers to the assignment the person desires. So, for a person who is a male transitioned to female, this would be called “trans woman” and for a person who is female transitioned to male, this would be called “trans male”. The words trans-masculine and trans-feminine are also increasingly used.

As mentioned, a transsexual is a subset of being transgender. These are people who desire to have hormones and sex reassignment surgery. The word transsexual has more to do with one’s physical sex than transgender, which has more to do with one’s psychological sex. Some transgender people do not like the term “transsexual” because gender involves more than just sexuality. Each transgender person is different with regard to how they would like to be labeled so one should always ask about this when dealing with the individual person.

There are other categories that need to be considered. The non-binary or genderqueer person does not desire to be categorized as being specifically male or female. There are some people who see themselves as genderless or gender fluid. These too are different from sexual orientation.

The transvestite or cross-dresser prefers to dress in clothing of the opposite gender to what they were assigned at birth. Most people in this category prefer to be called crossdressers. There are people who do this as part of their livelihood, such as “female impersonators”. Most cross-dressers are heterosexual and do not want to change their physical bodies. Cross-dressing is different from transvestic fetishism, where the person dresses in the opposite gender because of a sexual fetish.

A person who dresses in drag does so for purposes of entertainment or performance. It can be something comedic or theatrical. Drag queens are men who dress in female drag, while drag kings are women who dress in male drag. A faux queen is a woman who does female drag.

Because of some of the confusion between orientation and gender, the terms androphilic and gynophilic are used to describe the attraction to a man or woman, respectively, while bisexual means an attraction to both genders and asexual means an attraction to neither gender. This avoids the confusion of what a person would be if they were biologically one sex, transitioned to the opposite sex, and attracted to the gender they have chosen as their preferred sex.

There is a mental health classification for gender dysphoria or gender identity disorder, despite the confusing roles of sex and gender in society. A person who is transgender, however, does not have to have gender dysphoria if they are happy with the gender they have chosen. The problem is that mental health and medical insurance does not pay for a person who is otherwise happy with themselves so many of these people are labeled as having gender dysphoria in order to get the care they need. Some prefer to call it “gender transition” to define a person needing medical assistance to achieve the gender they desire but do not have true dysphoria. It can also refer to people who want to undo their previous transition.

There are therapies available for transgender people who desire medical help to change their physical appearance. Trans men can take hormone replacement therapy, which will alter their voice, skin, hair, and fat distribution. Trans women can take hormones to feminize their fat distribution but it will not change their voice or hair growth. These people need voice lessons and laser hair removal to alter these features. There is surgery also to alter the Adam’s apple, breasts, and genitals. Trans men can have their female reproductive structures removed. Those men who do not do this run an increased risk of endometrial cancer because of the hormonal changes to the endometrium.

Transgender people are discriminated against in the workforce and are more likely to be unemployed. In many places, their status is not legally protected and it takes a diagnosis of gender identity disorder in order to get funding for sex reassignment and hormone therapy. In Europe, sterilization is required to receive treatment.

There are few good research studies on the biological basis for transgender phenomena. There is an increased risk of being transgender if an identical twin is transgender but it is only about 33 percent of identical twins who choose this route. Hormone levels have not been found to be statistically different in transgender people. There some studies suggesting brain chemistry may play a role but this has not been proven.