Apr
19
A court decision in Canada has struck down a law requiring Gender-reassignment Surgery (GRS) as a precondition to having one’s gender changed on their documentation.
There are undoubtedly people on both sides of this issue who will be unhappy about it – post-op transsexuals who may feel that anyone who can tolerate the “bits” of the opposite gender is not truly transsexual, and others who may feel that this just makes it too easy to play games with one’s gender and official documentation.
But, remember that most people who eventually undergo gender reassignment surgery spend years living as the gender opposite to what their identification indicates. They do this for financial reasons, or even for reasons of uncertainty and fear of going through with the surgery. They are not fooling around; this is serious business in their lives, and having a passport or ID that matches the gender they are living is important.
Read More»Dec
19
A recent post at T-Central by Alice, of Alice in Genderland fame and an exchange of comments with other bloggers there led me to start thinking again about the makeup of the trans community and my place in it.
My first step was to drop in on Alice’s website and gather more info. There she answers the question posed in the title to this post, basically, “What’s the difference between a transsexual and a crossdresser?”
If I may bottom-line her multi-paragraph answer, it is: “Not much.”
Her point of view tends to infuriate some (many? most? all?) transsexuals, who see nothing at all in common between themselves and crossdressers. As one blogger put it:
Read More»I don’t see a link between the two. The former loves clothing and other accoutrements that are generally considered to be for women. The latter has a profound brain-body disconnect that requires treatment by hormone therapy and surgery. Crossdressers emulate women. Transsexuals change anatomical sex. How are those related?
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