Transgender (LGBT culture)

Transgender is a term for people who falsify and misrepresent their biological sex. A clear distinction should be made between those individuals who in the past did so for an ulterior motive - usually women who wanted to enter an occupation restricted to men - and those who do so because they are actually deluded about their sex, or because they are sexual fetishists.

The LGBT movement in the 20th century has sought to privilege transgender behavior by claiming that sex and gender are two different things, and that some people experience an innate mismatch between them. This theory is unscientific, and amounts to nothing more than an attempt to enshrine gender-behavior stereotypes that feminists in the 20th century have criticized and rejected.

Transgender people are sometimes called transsexual if they undergo physiological intervention to impersonate the opposite sex [NB This is not medical treatment because it is not curing a disease and in fact has a negative effect on the health of the patient]]. Transgender is also an umbrella term: in addition to including people who impersonate the opposite sex, it may include people who display a range of other behaviors, in some way denying their sex. The LGBT movement has invented a range of terminology that sometimes attracts ridicule from those who are sceptical of the ideology e.g. genderqueer, bigender, pangender, genderfluid, or agender). LGBT theory claims - wrongly - that people's sex is "assigned at birth". The scientific fact is that sex is fixed at conception by the chromosomes which are either XY or XX and this is merely observed and recorded at birth. LGBTs have invented a third gender as transgender, or conceptualize transgender people as a third gender, There is only a hazy and dubious distinction between the terms transgender and cross-dressers.

Being transgender is independent of sexual orientation: transgender people may identify as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, asexual, etc., or may consider conventional sexual orientation labels inadequate or inapplicable. The transgender ideology seeks support from the existence of so-called intersex people, a term that describes people born with imperfectly formed physical sex characteristics. This is however, a fallacy, as such people are in fact all either male XY or female XX, and their sexual organs have not developed properly. All can be correctly identified by DNA testing and it is often possible to help them with surgery. Many intersex people object strongly to being used as arguments for the transgender ideology, which they do not believe.

Sex is not a spectrum, it is a binary.

The degree to which individuals feel genuine, authentic, and comfortable within their external appearance and accept their genuine identity has been called transgender congruence but this is not science as notions of "genuine identity" and "authenticity" are subjective and hazy, and cannot be measured. Many transgender people experience gender dysphoria, and some seek medical treatments such as hormone replacement therapy, sex reassignment surgery, or psychotherapy. These treatments are risky, experimental and involved extensive mutilation of the healthy body. The result is a sterile, maimed person who is unable to function sexually in any way at all.

Since transgender behavior is a form of dishonesty, and the impersonation of the opposite sex is rarely convincing, other people naturally find it disturbing and are reluctant to work with those who choose to behave in such a way. Transgender ideology calls this "discrimination" but it is in fact the freedom of other people to exercise their own moral judgement and also to protect their own rights regarding truthfulness, fairness, privacy, safety and religious belief. The LGBT movement has encouraged transgender people to demand so-called sex-change treatment be categorized as "healthcare" and demands that other people should pay, through insurance or taxation, the immense costs of lifetime hormonal treatment, genital surgery, secondary sexual characteristic surgery and other cosmetic treatment. This is a huge burden on other people to subsidize disturbed behavior that is not health care. The costs are spiralling all the time.

Capitalist Motivation

The clear winners from the transgender ideology are the cosmetic surgery providers and the pharmaceutical industry, both of which are gaining immense profits from the spread of this dubious ideology.

Feminist Critique of Transgender Ideology

Many leading feminists have been skeptical of transgender ideology, pointing out that it is incoherent and incompatible with other belief-systems, as well as lacking in scientific foundation.

Autogynephilia Theory

The research of Professor Ray Blanchard of Toronto University and others has suggested that a lot of so-called "transgender" behavior, particularly that of men who pose as women, is motivated by "autogynephilia". This is a "paraphilia". The man is sexually aroused by the image of himself pretending to be a woman. This is why many transgenders adopt exaggerated "drag queen" behaviors and choose to work as prostitutes. There are also some women who display the fetish "auto-androphilia". He has written many detailed research papers and holds a skeptical view of LGBT "transgender" ideology.

Dangers of Transgenderism

LGBT activists disseminate a myth that if gender dysphoria is not affirmed the sufferer will commit suicide. However research establishes that people are more likely to attempt suicide after transitioning treatment then before.

Dangers of Cross-Sex Hormone Treatment

Many studies have shown that taking cross-sex hormones i.e. testosterone for women or estrogen for men, does serious health damage. A series of studies has revealed that people taking cross-sex hormones are more likely to develop cardiovascular disease. A recent study carried out in 2018 by leading clinicians in transgender health care in The Netherlands found that men taking estrogen were more than twice as likely to have a stroke as women are, and almost twice as likely to have a stroke as normal men.

Men taking estrogen were five times and 4.5 times more likely to develop blood clots than normal women and men.

Men taking estrogen also had heart attacks more than twice as often as average for men, and over three times more often than women.

Other research done in 2018 confirms that transgender adults receiving hormone therapy have far higher than average rates of strokes, heart attacks and blood clots.

Women posing as men, who have not had a hysterectomy and who take testosterone, are at increased risk for endometrial cancer because androstenedione, which is made from testosterone in the body, can be converted into estrogen, and external estrogen is a risk factor for endometrial cancer.

Changing Sex is a Delusion

This is an open letter written by a British transgender person.

Leanne Mills

A Letter to Young Trans People, from Leanne Mills, formerly Lee Anthony Mills. Born male, he "transitioned" and now passes as female. He is now 57 and this is what he has to say from his own life experience:

"Like you I was once a trans teenager. Decades ago I participated in a TV documentary in which I attempted to show how difficult life was for a young transsexual, for example in trying to find work. I saw the programme again recently and the first thing that struck me was how naive I seemed as I touchingly described my hopes for the future. I can be forgiven for that, I was only 19 after all.

"Since then I've been through the transition (the most challenging period of my life) and nearly a quarter-of-a-century later still have gained much enlightenment in my 'female' role.

"I use quotes here, for the most profound lesson I've learned is that I can NEVER be a 'real' woman. This is not born of opinion, but of cold, indifferent medical and scientific evidence. I realise that statement is crushing to all trans women (or transmen if going the other way), regardless of how breath-takingly convincing your transformation might be. But simple logic dictates that I can never escape the male body which Nature imposed on me at birth. Though I've permitted drastic and intrusive surgical modifications it shall forever be male. I'm reminded by the evidence on a daily basis. For example I still find it necessary to shave off facial hair despite having had laser treatment. I must continue to take female hormones for the rest of my days or my bones will start to decay and fracture. And that's not all - the risk of Deep Vein Thrombosis, heart attacks or strokes is ever present.

"I can't bear children for I possess no uterus. Don't even bother to ask me where the menopause is supposed to come in. I am unable to experience love as a woman because my vagina is artificial, a mere tube of penile skin that lacks feeling. When I came out of hospital in 1995 I was handed a collection of glass dilators which were required to keep it from shrinking; This happens because Nature resents Mankind's meddling and fights back, attempting to close a space between my thighs that really shouldn't be there. As a consequence also I am beset by messy post-op complications, causing a painful burning sensation which sometimes is excruciating. Some individuals even suffer prolapse, finding themselves on and off the operating table. Vaginal reconstruction is in itself a risky affair, any wrong move on the surgeon's part can lead to lasting damage to the bladder or rectum. Others find they cannot pass water, requiring an emergency visit to the hospital. Tragically none of this will be found referenced on the Mermaids transgender promotion group UK website.

"My male past shall forever haunt me, no biological female ever began as a man after all. When out in public I feel I must always be on my guard lest someone 'read' me, that is to say see through the illusion of femininity that I project. For example characteristics like jaw-line, large hands, tallness, especially the Adam's apple can be tell-tale signs that one is not what one appears to be. Indeed in the final analysis all I can ever hope to be is a facsimile of a woman. I was born trapped in a man's body. The only way I will ever leave it is when I take my last breath. All I can truly claim to be innately feminine is my demeanour, my emotional responses, my self-expression, my interaction with others...

"So does it mean then that all the pain, abject misery and hell I've clawed my way through for many years now amount to nothing? Not necessarily. Though sex reassignment surgery is a pragmatic solution, it does not alone resolve the hell of gender dysphoria. I believe the key to survival is calm, logical acceptance of clinical reality together with the limitations that fact places on the transsexual person.

"For many transitioning today who fail to comprehend the reality I describe, I fear you will only meet with disaster.

"How many of you, for instance, are even doing so for the right reasons? There will be those (influenced by social media) who see it as cool, merely swept along with the many trends and fads that mark our modern age. Others are inspired by the glamour, competing with their peers for those coveted 'likes'. The trans celebs must take responsibility here, placing too much focus on beauty rather than pragmatism, after all excuse me if I suggest that none of them ever seem to look like 'the back end of a bus'. And their encouragement of young followers to purchase hormone pills over secret sites on the web is dangerous in the extreme. More will be transitioning in the belief that 'the grass is greener on the other side', an answer to inner feelings of self-doubt and inadequacy, or simply searching for love which you feel lacking in your lives.

"And that doesn't even begin to include the countless numbers who are just confused, possibly being gay, cross-dresser, asexual or even autistic as opposed to transsexual. Mermaids transgender promotion group UK are dangerously muddying the waters still further, overly-promoting gender identity theories based on nothing more sound than faith and philosophy. They need to understand that no matter how hard trans people are encouraged to believe or feel themselves to be a member of the opposite sex, it will not make it so - and neither will limitless surgery.

"Looking ahead, you will be infertile (especially crossing over so young) so you can forget ever having children yourselves. That also means no grand-children. What you also don't realize is you have youth on your side only for now. Old age comes to us all. The looks that we all seek will no longer be as much in evidence 30-40 years from now, many of your friends will have moved on and family members passed away (as for all people). But the most important thing you should know is that there are very few men and women in society who will commit themselves to a life with a transsexual person. I know this from experience. And then there is societal prejudice - you simply can't force people to love you no matter what legal rights you may be given, that's basic human nature. The most unfortunate will find themselves chronically lonely, isolated and maybe even suicidal.

"Of course I'm not suggesting that everyone will end floundering on the rocks, you do get happy endings. But the ones that don't make it are indeed out there in significant numbers, unseen and unheard. I am merely one who has chosen to come out of obscurity and present an alternative reality in the hope of slowing the runaway train of the 'trendy to be trans' culture.

"Transition if you truly feel that is the right path for you (not because someone else suggests you do) but be a realist and acknowledge that the end result may fall rather short of your original dream. Leanne Mills."

"Desistors", Notable former transgenders, speak out

The fallacy of transgender ideology is attested by more and more former transgender people who coming forward and making their stories public. One of them is Walt Heyer an American man who identified as a "woman" for eight years.

He relates that the seed of gender confusion was planted in him during childhood, when his grandmother over several years, cross-dressed him and told him how pretty he was as a girl.

Walt Heyer

A few years later, he was sexually abused by an uncle. That abuse caused him to not want to be male any longer. He indulged secret fantasies cross dressing and pretending to be a girl. In his early 20s he got engaged to be married, and confided to his fiancée about cross-dressing. She figured they could work it out. They got married and had two children.

Despite a successful career, the girl persona still occupied his thoughts. With weekly travel away from home, he indulged in cross-dressing, fueling the desire to be a woman. By the time he was 40, he felt torn apart, wanting to be a good husband and father, but in also needing to be a woman.

He consulted the top gender specialist at the time, Dr. Paul Walker, who had co-authored the 1979 standards of care for transgender health. He diagnosed gender identity disorder (now gender dysphoria) and recommended cross-sex hormones and sex change genital surgery. He said that the childhood events were not related to Walt's current gender distress, and that sex change was the only solution. Walt started taking female hormones and scheduled the surgery for April 1983 in Trinidad, Colorado. At age 42, he underwent full castration, breast implants, and other feminization, followed by hormone treatment.

His wife and children were devastated. His wife divorced him.

Walt lived as “Laura” for eight years, but transitioning didn’t fix the underlying ailments.

He decided to pursue being a counsellor and started courses at the University of California-Santa Cruz in the late 1980s. There, he began to question his transition. Hidden underneath the makeup and female clothing was the little boy hurt by childhood trauma. He still experienced gender dysphoria, but this time felt like a male inside a "female" body. He was still deeply suicidal.

With expert guidance, he revisited the emotional traumas of his youth. It wasn’t easy, but it was the only way to address the underlying conditions driving the gender dysphoria.

At the age of 50 he had the breast implants removed, and 1996, at the age of 55, changed his legal documents back to Walt, and male sex. He still has to take hormones regimen to try to regulate a system that is permanently altered. He met a woman who still wanted to marry him despite his body state.

He now says "Had I not been misled by media stories of sex change “success” and by medical practitioners who said transitioning was the answer to my problems, I wouldn’t have suffered as I have. Genetics can’t be changed. Feelings, however, can and do change. Underlying issues often drive the desire to escape one’s life into another, and they need to be addressed before taking the radical step of transition.

You will hear the media say, “Regret is rare.” But they are not reading my inbox, which is full of messages from transgender individuals who want the life and body back that was taken from them by cross-sex hormones, surgery and living under a new identity."

Studies show that most people who want to live as the opposite sex have other psychological issues, such as depression or anxiety.

Evolution of transgender terminology

Psychiatrist John F. Oliven of Columbia University coined the term transgender in his 1965 reference work Sexual Hygiene and Pathology, writing that the term which had previously been used, transsexualism, "is misleading; actually, "transgenderism" is meant, because sexuality is not a major factor in primary transvestism." The term transgender was then popularized with varying definitions by various transgender, transsexual and transvestite people, including Virginia Prince, who used it in the December 1969 issue of Transvestia, a national magazine for cross dressers she founded. By the mid-1970s both trans-gender and trans people were in use as umbrella terms, and 'transgenderist' was used to describe people who wanted to live cross-gender without sex reassignment surgery (SRS). By 1976, transgenderist was abbreviated as TG in educational materials.

By 1984, the concept of a "transgender community" had developed, in which transgender was used as an umbrella term; in 1985, Richard Elkins established the "Trans-Gender Archive" at the University of Ulster. By 1992, the International Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy defined transgender as an expansive umbrella term including "transsexuals, transgenderists, cross dressers" and anyone transitioning.

The term trans man refers to a woman who passes as male, and trans woman refers to a man who passes as female. LGBT advocacy groups demand the adoption by others of the name and pronouns identified by the person in question, including present references to the transgender person's past. This "affirmation" amounts to lying and is a violation of the rights of the other person. In LGBT terminology, normal people are termed cisgender which is an insult. It presumes that the simple terms "man" and "woman" have been appropriated by transgenders and no longer mean male or female according to biological sex. Such usage should be rejected as partisan and non-scientific.

Transgender activists affix the label "transphobic" to anybody who refuses to tell lies by affirming a false identity. This is a form of aggression and anti-social behavior. Telling the truth and sticking to science are not "phobias" though a deep dislike or your own sex may be one.

Transsexual and its relationship to transgender

See also: Transsexual, especially

The term transsexual was introduced to English in 1949 by David Oliver Cauldwell, and popularized by Harry Benjamin in 1966, around the same time transgender was coined and began to be popularized. Since the 1990s, transsexual has generally been used to describe the subset of transgender people who desire to transition permanently to the gender with which they identify and who seek hormone treatment or surgery (for example, SRS) for this. However, the concerns of the two groups are sometimes different; for example, transsexual men and women who can pay for medical treatments (or who have institutional coverage for their treatment) are likely to be concerned with medical privacy and establishing a durable legal status as their gender later in life.

Distinctions between the terms transgender and transsexual are commonly based on distinctions between gender (psychological, social) and sex (physical). Hence, transsexuality may be said to deal more with material aspects of one's sex, while transgender considerations deal more with one's internal gender disposition or predisposition, as well as the related social expectations that may accompany a given gender role. Many transgender people prefer the designation transgender and reject transsexual. For example, Christine Jorgensen publicly rejected transsexual in 1979, and instead identified herself in newsprint as trans-gender, saying, "gender doesn't have to do with bed partners, it has to do with identity." This refers to the concern that transsexual implies something to do with sexuality, when it is actually about gender identity. Some transsexual people (those who desire or have undergone), however, object to being included in the transgender umbrella. The definitions of both terms have historically been variable.

In his 2007 book Transgender, an Ethnography of a Category, anthropologist David Valentine asserts that transgender was coined and used by activists to include many people who do not necessarily identify with the term, and states that people who do not identify with the term transgender should not be included in the transgender spectrum. Leslie Feinberg likewise asserts that transgender is not a self-identifier (for some people) but a category imposed by observers to understand other people. However, these assertions are contested by the Transgender Health Program (THP) at Fenway Health in Boston. It notes that there are no universally accepted definitions, and terminology confusion is common because terms that were popular in at the turn of the 21st century may now be deemed offensive. The THP recommends that clinicians ask clients what terminology they prefer, and avoid the term transsexual unless they are sure that a client is comfortable with it.

Proliferation of Terminology

Terminology for the transgender phenomenon has proliferated in a way that some people find absurd. Harry Benjamin invented a classification system for transsexuals and transvestites, called the Sex Orientation Scale (SOS), in which he assigned transsexuals and transvestites to one of six categories based on their reasons for cross-dressing and the relative urgency of their need (if any) for sex reassignment surgery. Benjamin considered a moderate intensity "true transsexual" to need either estrogen or testosterone as a "substitute for or preliminary to operation"; people who meet Benjamin's definition of a "true transsexual" but do not desire SRS include Miriam Rivera. There are also people who have had SRS but do not meet the definition of "transsexual", such as Gregory Hemingway.

Challenges to the Ideology

"Trapped in the Wrong Theory: Re-thinking Trans Oppression and Resistance," an article by Talia Mae Bettcher was published in Signs journal in 2014.

Official Warning from Scottish Council on Human Bioethics

In February 2019 the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics issued an official warning about giving gender re-assignment treatment to children or young people. It pointed out that the often-repeated claim of transgender activists about children or adults committing suicide if treatment is denied or postponed is false. The opposite is true. Those who have had gender re-assignment are statistically more likely to commit suicide. They are often deeply depressed and experience many negative side-effects from the drugs and surgery.

"Scottish ethics experts have warned that people who go through irreversible gender reassignment surgery could be at greater risk of suicide in later life.

As ministers consider steps to make it easier for children and adults to change gender, the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics (SCHB) said it is concerned about a study of 300 people from Sweden who completed biological sex reassignment surgery over 50 years.

The 2014 research concluded that the procedure can lead to psychiatric problems and poor socialising, and that there were higher risks of mortality, suicidal behaviour and psychiatric morbidity.

In a submission to the Scottish government, the SCHB — an independent group of doctors, lawyers, scientists and others associated with medical ethics — noted the research found a link between reassignment surgery and increased suicide risk later.

The group said the study did not prove the operation was to blame, but noted “a significant minority” of transsexuals express regret after irreversible surgery, and that some revert to living in their original sex.

Three patients in Belgium who had biological sex reassignment asked later for their lives to end through euthanasia as a result of “unbearable mental or physical suffering”, the SCHB warns ministers.

A 44-year-old transsexual identified as a girl at birth was given voluntary euthanasia in Belgium after failed sex-change operations resulted in permanent depression.

Much of the research by the SCHB has centred on gender dysphoria, where a person experiences distress because of a mismatch between their biological sex and gender identity.

Dr Calum MacKellar, the SCHB’s director of research, urged the Scottish government to avoid changing the Gender Recognition Act without more research.

“Irreversible gender reassignment surgery should take place only after the person seeking to undergo it has had an extensive and appropriate psychological assessment followed by counselling. It is only when the person is fully informed of all the advantages and risks that he or she can fully give informed consent,” said MacKellar.

“Those affected by gender dysphoria should not become victims of political agendas.”"

Healthcare

The best healthcare for people who suffer from gender dysphoria is to desist from all transgender treatments. See Dangers of Transgender Treatment above.

Further information: Healthcare and the LGBT community § Issues affecting transgender people, and Transitioning (transgender)

See also: Gender transitioning

Mental healthcare

Gender disorder or dysphoria is a mental illness. It corresponds to the standard definition of any mental illness i.e. it is an irrational delusion that involves denial and leads to self-harm in the form of so-called "transition". Transgender people are aggressive, unstable and anti-social, frequently violent and seek to impose their delusion on others.

Gender disorder cannot be cured by so-called "transition". People who have transitioned are just as unhappy, maladjusted and insecure as before, and they are more likely to commit suicide than sufferers who have not been given hormones or surgery.

Examples are Chloe Sagal, who killed himself after transition, and Kate von Roeder. Roeder, a transgendered person in California, put a suicide note onto Facebook so it would be seen by all his friends.

Hey folks, This is a post that's been a long time coming. 19 years of depression, give or take. It's been long and brutal and full of a lot of tears and angst and it's finally coming to a close. 10 days ago I purchased a shotgun and today, after the required California waiting period, I picked up that shotgun. A few of you have seen me offer up countdowns and references to October 1st at around noon; that was my nod towards this outcome. I'll be honest, I don't know what to say here. I've turned over the words in my head for a little over a week now and I'm still not sure how to find that balance between "TL;DR" and "here's why I put a 00 buckshot shell into the roof of my mouth". Initially my plan was to go into detail about my pains, waxing laborious about my struggles with transition (I shouldn't have done it. Not because I'm not trans, but because I didn't have a fraction of the personal strength to succeed at it, unlike some of the amazing trans people I've been privileged to know), my physical struggles (heat sensitivity, and more recently hair loss), or my mental pain (I can't even look at myself in the mirror.). But paragraph after paragraph of whining seemed like a poor way to go out; most of you have had to deal with enough of my bullshit Instead, I'll say this.. I'm scared as shit, but I think it's going to be better. I don't know what comes next, and that's intimidating. But I've always believed in, well, something. And even if that belief is wrong and there's nothing but blackness waiting for me, it beats living day after day trapped in my own misery. It beats being exhausted... All the time. I'm scared but I'm excited. There's tears, but under them there's this... giddiness, a spring in my step that I've never had before. All the hurt and the pain and the constant need to compare myself to all the normal people I meet.. That's all *done*. And that's very cool. I want to tie this off with an apology to those of you who I've inflicted myself on over the years. Whether it's reading the shit I spew onto Twitter or suffering my vortex of negativity as a colleague, I've been an albatross around the neck of a lot of people I respect and enjoy. To those who tried to befriend me and whose friendships I abandoned and allowed to wither and die, I'm also sorry. I wish I knew how to be a friend, but I just wasn't wired that way. For these sins and more, I'm sorry. I'm just not a good person. In any case, thank you to all the wonderful folks I've known over the years. Maybe I'll see you on the other side, maybe not. Either way, all the best and good luck. Kate

Most mental health professionals recommend therapy for internal conflicts about gender identity or discomfort in an assigned gender role, especially if one desires to transition.

Physical healthcare

The best physical healthcare for transgenders is to desist from all transgender treatment. See above.

Law

Main article: Legal aspects of transgenderism

Legal procedures exist in some jurisdictions, allowing individuals to change their legal gender or name to reflect their gender identity. Requirements for these procedures vary from an explicit formal diagnosis of transsexualism to a diagnosis of gender identity disorder to a letter from a physician that attests the individual's gender transition or having established a different gender role. In 1994, the DSM IV entry was changed from "Transsexual" to "Gender Identity Disorder."

The concept of "discrimination" against transgender people is unsound, since those who falsify their sex and attempt to deceive others are behaving in a way that the majority find unacceptable. Their self-harming behavior is also repugnant to people in a healthy, normal psychological condition.

The false doctrine that "discrimination" against transgenders is wrong has led to many injustices, such as the invasion of women's sports by male athletes, and the encroachment of men, with or without gender surgery, into women's private spaces such as lavatories (restrooms), gynaecology wards, refuges for victims of domestic violence, and even into lesbian events. Men posing as women have demanded and got the right to take advantage of scholarships or schemes for all-women candidate shortlists, intended to rectify the bias towards men in the first place. See [Liam/Lily Madigan]]

Nicole Maines, a trans girl, took a case to Maine's Supreme Court in June, 2013. She claimed that being denied access to her high school's women's restroom was a violation of Maine's Human Rights Act; a state judge has disagreed with her, but Maines won her lawsuit against the Orono school district in January 2014 before the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.

In April 2014, the Supreme Court of India declared transgender to be a 'third gender' in Indian law. This is nonsense as there is no third gender. Everybody is either male - XY - or female - XX.

Transgender people are also prohibited from serving in the US military, and this ban has been upheld under President Donald Trump in 2018. There are many reasons for the ban, including the exorbitant costs to the tax-payer of so-called "gender-reassignment" hormones and surgery, which the transgenders demanded should be paid by the US, for them and for any family members of service personnel. The result was to waste $ millions of dollars on mutilation of people many of whom later change their minds. (See Jamie Shupe).

Feminism

Main articles: Feminist views on transgender and transsexual people and Transfeminism

Some feminists and feminist groups are supportive of transgender people. Others are not.

Though second-wave feminism argued for the sex and gender distinction, some feminists believed there was a conflict between transgender identity and the feminist cause; e.g., they believed that male-to-female transition abandoned or devalued female identity, and that transgender people embraced traditional gender roles and stereotypes.

Most insulting of all is the assumption of the name "feminist" by men posing as women who use their assumed gender identity to demand that women relinquish their own essential biological self-definition. This is seen by feminists as a form of infiltration and encroaching on women's rights. Some call it identity theft".

Lesbians object to men posing as women calling themselves "lesbian" and insist that these "transwomen" are simply heterosexual men.

Scientific studies of transsexuality

Main articles: Causes of transsexualism and Transsexual § Causes, studies and theories

See also: Androphilia and gynephilia

A study of Swedes estimated a ratio of 1.4:1 trans women to trans men for those requesting sex reassignment surgery and a ratio of 1:1 for those who proceeded. Studies have investigated whether sexually dimorphic brain structures in transsexuals are more similar to their preferred sex or their birth sex; research is complicated because there are known differences between homosexual and heterosexual people and that the brain changes in response to hormone-treatment, which many transsexuals use. Studies consistently show that both androphilic and gynephilic male-to-female transsexuals show a shift towards the female direction in brain anatomy, intermediate between male and female. Brain-based research has also shown that female-to-male transsexuals have several male-like characteristics in their neuroanatomy.

Studies have found that male-to-female transsexuals were more likely than non-transsexual males to have a longer version of a receptor gene for the sex hormone androgen or testosterone, suggesting reduced androgen and androgen signaling contributes to the female gender identity of male-to-female transsexuals. A twin study found that 20% of identical twin pairs in the sample were both transgender, whereas among non-identical twin pairs there were almost no pairs where both were transgender, suggesting that genes rather than rearing are the main factor in transgender identity formation.

Brain structure differences associated with transsexualism do not exist in isolation. Similar brain structure differences have been noted between homosexual and heterosexual men and women. More recent studies have found that circumstance such as parenting, and repeated activities such as meditation, modify brain structures in a process called brain plasticity or neuroplasticity.

Population figures

See also: Category:Transgender by continent

One effort to quantify the population gave a "rough estimate" that 0.3 percent of adults in the US (1-in-300) are transgender, overlapping to an unknown degree with the estimated 3.5 percent of US adults (1-in-30) who identify as LGB.

But these estimates come from unreliable sources e.g. The Williams Institute UCLA which is set up for furthering transgender research and ideology, and has a vested interest in exaggerating the number of transgenders who exist and the size of the problem. To do so justifies their own existence, and attracts funding.

Latin America

In Latin American cultures, the travestis who are cross-dressing men, generally undergo hormonal treatment, use female gender names and require others to use feminine pronouns , and might use breast implants, but they are not offered or do not desire sex-reassignment surgery, and might be regarded as a gender in itself (a "third gender"), a mix between man and woman ("intergender/androgynes") or the presence of both masculine and feminine identities in a single person ("bigender"). They are framed as something entirely separate from transgender women, who possess the same gender identity of people assigned female at birth.

Other transgender identities are becoming more widely known, as a result of contact with other cultures of the Western world. These newer identities, sometimes known under the umbrella use of the term "genderqueer", along with the older travesti term, are known as non-binary, and go along with binary transgender identities (those traditionally diagnosed under the now obsolete label of "transsexualism") under the single umbrella of transgender, but are distinguished from crossdressers and drag queens and kings, that are held as nonconforming gender expressions rather than transgender gender identities when a distinction is made.

Falsifying your sex is designated by a single umbrella term that is known as sexodiverso or sexodiversa in both Spanish and Portuguese, with its most approximate translation to English being "queer".

Non-western cultures

Nong Tum, a Kathoey man portrayed in the film Beautiful Boxer

Asia

In Thailand and Laos, the term kathoey is used to refer to male-to-female transgender people and effeminate gay men. These men who cross-dress or castrate themselves, referred to as hijra in Hindiare not a third gender, but passive homosexuals or eunuchs.

In Iran, where homosexuality is illegal, transgender or transsexual behavior is encouraged as an alternative. By changing their official gender or having surgery, homosexuals can avoid being prosecuted or stigmatized. Bizarrely, the Western LGBT movement has welcomed this solution, and sees it as the liberation of transgenders, rather than as the persecution of homosexuals.

Cross-dressing communities exist in Japan Nepal, Indonesia, Vietnam, South Korea, Singapore, and the greater Chinese region, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the People's Republic of China.

In India, the Supreme Court on April 15, 2014, recognized a third gender that is neither male nor female, stating "Recognition of transgenders as a third gender is not a social or medical issue but a human rights issue."

On January 5, 2015, Reuters stated that the first transgender mayor was elected in central India.

North America

The claim that many Native American and First Nations peoples recognised the existence of more than two genders is at best a vast exaggeration and in general false. Among the hundreds of Native North American tribes there are a handful that have special names for non-conformist or homosexual individuals, but the culture as a whole is well aware of the biological reality that there are two sexes, and this cannot be disproved by a few deviants on the margins such as the Zuñi male-bodied Ła'mana, the Lakota male-bodied winkte and the Mohave male-bodied alyhaa and female-bodied hwamee. Such people were previously referred to as berdache but are now referred to as Two-Spirit, and their spouses would not necessarily have been regarded as gender-different. In Mexico, the Zapotec culture includes a third gender in the form of the Muxe.

Media representation

As more transgender people are represented and included within the realm of mass culture, the stigma that is associated with being transgender can influence the decisions, ideas, and thoughts based upon it. Media representation, culture industry, and social marginalization all hint at popular culture standards and the applicability and significance to mass culture as well. These terms play an important role in the formation of notions for those who have little recognition or knowledge of transgender people. Media depictions represent only a minuscule spectrum of the transgender group, which essentially conveys that those that are shown are the only interpretations and ideas society has of them.

Transgender History

Like all LGBT groups, transgenders disseminate a myth that they were persecuted by the Nazis (German National Socialist Party) during the 1930s and 1940s. This claim has been exhaustively researched and refuted by a history scholar, Eva Fels, who is a transgendered person. In the article "Transgender im Nationalsozialismus" published in 2014, Fels examines documents from archives concerning the reporting, arrests and any criminal convictions of such people in this period. In the 1930s genital surgery was practised in Germany and those who underwent it got a "transvestite pass" as the terms "transgender" or "transsexual" had not been invented. Transvestites were not criminalized and Nazi heroes such as Richard Wagner were known to have worn women's clothing when composing. As late as 1940 there were transvestite balls taking in place Berlin with hundreds of guests. There are 25 documented cases of transvestites getting trouble with the police under the Nazi regime and in every case it was because of homosexual behaviour. Fels found 17 recorded cases of male cross-dressers facing criminal charges but all of them for homosexual activity, not for the mere fact of being transvestite. The only case of a transvestite being criminalized for mere cross-dressing was that of Erna Kubbe, a woman who dressed as a man. Fels writes "Of the 18 ‘transwoman’ cases available to me, seven ended up in jail and concentration camps due to sex with men […] Transvestites with no criminal record for homosexuality after 1934 were not persecuted for their transgenderism [sic].” These sentences were short term penal sentences, not death sentences, and the conclusion is that no transgender people were exterminated under the Nazis.

Pride symbols

Main articles: LGBT symbols § Transgender, and Transgender flags

Transgender Pride flag

A common symbol for the transgender community is the Transgender Pride flag, which was designed by Monica Helms, and was first shown at a pride parade in Phoenix, Arizona, United States in 2000.

The flag consists of five horizontal stripes, two light blue, two pink, with a white stripe in the center.

Helms describes the meaning of the flag as follows:

The light blue is the traditional color for baby boys, pink is for girls, and the white in the middle is for "those who are transitioning, those who feel they have a neutral gender or no gender", and those who are intersex. The pattern is such that "no matter which way you fly it, it will always be correct. This symbolizes us trying to find correctness in our own lives."

Other transgender symbols include the butterfly (symbolizing transformation or metamorphosis), and a pink/light blue yin and yang symbol.

Several gender symbols have been used to represent transgender people, including ⚥ and ⚧.

See also

• History of transgender people in the United States
• List of transgender people
• List of transgender-related topics
• List of transgender-rights organizations
• List of transgender, transsexual and intersex fictional characters
• List of unlawfully killed transgender people
• Transgender publications
• Transphobia
• Transsexual pornography

External links

• Media related to at Wikimedia Commons
• Transgendered (sic) at DMOZ

See: LGBT Agenda Homosexual Agenda