Creating A New Wardrobe On A Budget

Transition is expensive. In my wardrobe consultations with a new TG woman, we establish how to begin buying on a basic backbone while incorporating the concept of “Capsule Dressing”.

For example, buying one high quality skirt suit in a solid color and wearing the skirt several times per week. Pair them with less expensive blouses, sweaters or quality cotton T-shirts, from a discount store. Your next good purchase will be a classic dress that could be dressed up with pearls, or down with your classic pump. A black cocktail dress is another basic that you can wear for different occasions, from a dressy dinner to a formal play or opera. Go for a fitted classic line, simple but sophisticated. By using Capsule Dressing, and building your wardrobe on a basic style and color backbone, you will begin to see your wardrobe build and improve. Here are more tips for creating your wardrobe on a budget, emphasis being kept on classic pieces, not fad.

What shoes are best for the TG woman for business?

I suggest an open toe and heel pump in a low heel. A sling back is ideal for the wider foot. A pair of good quality boots for winter and rainy days. Scandals and tennis shoes for summer and Friday casual. Always be sure your shoes are darker than your purse, or outfit. Remember, it is best to keep your heel under 3 inches for business attire. Be sure your pump matches your bag as closely as possible. If you wear a belt, try to match it to your shoe. TG women generally need to wear a woman’s WIDE or an open toe in a medium and Nordstrom’s and PayLess Shoes carry size 10 and over and have several styles in WIDE.

Avoid wearing rhinestones, pearls, black hosiery, or any shiny fabric during the day.

Keep your look casual- sophisticated, and add femininity with colorful scarf’s, blouses, classic jewelry, and feminine accessories. Don’t be afraid to add accessories, they can be a girls best friend. Try fun things; a wool pull over cap or beret for those rainy mornings, or add a matching cashmere scarf and gloves. Straw hat and bag for summer, or pretty clips for your hair. Look in magazines and at other women to get ideas, experiment with how comfortable you are with adding in accessories and changing your look. Also, experiment with different hairstyles, perhaps wearing a French Twist or perhaps pinning a flower behind your ear for evening, gives you another look.

Should you buy expensive hosiery?

I have not found much difference between the two. Stock up on several pair and always watch for a sale. Often a store such as Mervyn’s will have a sale advertised so go early as the best colors fly out of the store; as women purchase 5-10 pair at sales. Also, stores such as K-Mart and Walgreens have some great pantyhose, so don’t feel you have to pay more. Look for the tall sizes in hosiery as they generally fit the TG woman’s frame better. Wear a hosiery color that is as close to your natural skin tone as possible. Always wear darker hose after October and wear lighter hose (scandal foot toe) starting around Easter. Sheer hose run very easily, so I recommend you select hosiery that has some spandex; generally these hose are called mild to medium support. Total support (opaque) hose are ideal for the CD that doesn’t always have the opportunity to shave her legs.

Also, purchase a lingerie bag for your washing machine that zips up. (Available at most retail stores in their lingerie department for under $15.00) Tossing your delicates in this lingerie bag helps to machine-wash your hosiery and bras without ruining them (use the delicate wash cycle). I also use my lingerie bag to wash good sweaters and other more expensive delicate items. I generally don’t use the dryer for my better clothes. Purchase a small clothes line for your garage area and hang 75% of your better clothing, or of course have it dry-cleaned. I recently bought a new Maytag Washing Machine, as it does not have the center spin pole that twists clothing. Consider this the next time you need to purchase a new washer/dryer. Keeping your clothing clean is an important part of looking feminine.

I recommend all my TG women have a “beauty day” (Sat or Sun) when they wash, iron and sew their stained or torn items. And, every 2-3 weeks you’re off to the nail salon to get your acrylic nails filled, and of course make time to color your hair and or eyebrows. Basically, stay ahead of the dressing game; and be prepared for the next week. Gosh, being a girl and looking good is hard work!

Twin sets (shells with a matching cardigan) are ideal for work and for cooler evenings. They also help cover larger upper arms and shoulders. Tunic (open slits on the sides) pantsuits are also ideal for the TG woman. Add one good umbrella, winter coat, and raincoat with a zipper lining.

Need to hide a potbelly?

Jackets and sweater vest hide a barrel shape belly, just add a feminine blouse! Clothing that drapes is better than tight clothing that you tuck. Loose is best, always. Again, a tunic style top is ideal to hide a multitude of sin. Consider waistbands that have elastic and have the blouse or sweater always on the outside. Keep one solid color around the waist area.

What is the best length winter coat to buy? Three-quarter, or knee-length, to go with pants or skirts. Short winter coats generally do not look good with a dress or skirt. And, girls keep your winter coat clean, especially if it is black. Keep a lint brush in your closet.

What’s the best coat choice for everyone?

A trench coat with zip-out lining or a wool knee length in one of your basic colors. Remember to buy your expensive items; such as your winter coat, boots, shoes and leather handbags/wallets, during the off-season in January. Shop stores such as Wilsons Leather for a 50% on your leather or better retail stores have an end of the year sale for these items.

High quality polyester travels well without wrinkling. Also add a few expensive fabrics, a silk blouse and some pretty cashmere sweaters, and wool gabardine suits. I love Jones of New York, Ann Taylor, and Liz Claiborne for great fabrics with lining for my business suits.

Ideally, the best time to buy is twice a year at the beginning of the season.

For TG women a good alterations person is a must. Buy larger tops for your shoulders and longer arm length and have your pants and skirts taken in or purchase tops that do not have buttons or zippers. A good alterations person is a must-do expense. If you prefer to wear hip pads, please wear padding on the smaller size, over time these become annoying. I encourage my TS women to generally not wear a bra over a C cup, and to keep hip padding minimal, if any.

Does dress size matter?

Yes. If you’re a perfect size 10-12 woman, you can buy less expensive clothes and they won’t pull on you. If you’re larger and don’t have a lot to spend, I suggest saving for one good outfit. Also, check for correct dress sizing.

Most TG women will wear Misses or Womens clothing so always measure yourself and understand what category you wear, before ordering anything from a catalog. If you’re able to try on clothing at a department store, you will be happier with your results. Perhaps take your SO or a genetic female with you, if you’re uncomfortable in the dressing room.

How do you draw the eye up to your face and away from larger shoulders and hands?

Wear great earrings and necklaces drawing attention to your face. I always encourage my TG women to not wear large rings or dark nail polish. Keep your nails manicured and have acrylic tips applied at your nail salon, to give your hands a more feminine look. A short to medium length is best, or an athletic length. For mature women, an oval nail shape is generally best, leaving the square tips for the younger women. If you feel your hands are too large, it is best to wear only one thin ring on each hand, or no rings at all. Again, the white French-tip acrylic nails applied at a nail salon are the absolute best effect for large hands.

What it the best jewelry color to buy?

I suggest buying pieces combining both gold and silver. This prevents you from having to buy all your pieces in both colors and this is an important tip to remember when you’re buying your watch. When you’re first beginning to purchase your jewelry buy simple pieces. Another tip I recommend for TG women is to wear jewelry in three of your four jewelry zones. Your four zones for jewelry are: ears, neck, wrist, and fingers. Leave out the zone that you don’t want to bring the most attention to. Wearing all four zones is too much jewelry for a TG woman.

Organizing Your Closet For Transition

Before a new TG woman purchases new clothing for her wardrobe, she should organize her closet and chest of drawers. How do you begin the process of knowing what clothing will work for transition? Get rid of the 50 percent of clothes that you don’t wear and keep clothes you wear most of the time. A good rule is, if you haven’t worn something in 3 years, there is a reason. Toss it out of your closet; you can’t afford a cluttered closet on those busy mornings getting out of the house in your new femme role. (Donate clothing that is in good shape, to a woman’s organization-not GoodWill.) Getting out dressed in femme is much harder than most new TS women anticipate. Remember, time is the enemy. Running late and looking half put together can ruin the experience of transition, and I see this as one of biggest problems encountered by TS women re-entering the work force. Here are a few tips I have learned from helping clients with their closets.

First, install a good light in your closet, and put a door mirror close by. Purchase extra shoe storage and plastic wardrobe boxes for folding your small items. Purchase good hangers (all available from K-Mart) and toss out all those wire hangers. Install hooks to hang necklaces, braclets, belts and purses. Buy a compartmentalized jewelry cabinet for fine jewelry. Use the special hangers designed for your skirts and pants. Keep scarves folded in plastic containers on a shelf for easy access or hang them with the outfits that match.

Next, determine if your prefer putting all your colors together, or putting pieces together, or assembling complete outfits including their accessories, on one hanger. This is very important for you new girls transitioning at work. Have separate drawers for your cotton T-shirts, workout clothes, undergarments, hose and socks. I recently bought a lingerie chest and I love it! They are tall with thin drawers and can easily fit in a corner of your closet or room. Always look for old chest of drawers at garage sales with large, deep drawers. You can always store chests in your closet or room for the clothing you fold.

Some women separate business, casual and evening clothes into different areas of your closet and others (including myself) separate clothing by sizes. In other words your thin clothing and your fat clothing! Consider hanging your evening and cocktail gowns and expensive fabrics in a zippered garment bag in the back of your closet or in another closet in the house. Store dressy shoes, evening bags, and accessories together in plastic (clear) wardrobe boxes, and again K-Mart has these containers. Also, organize your vanity or makeup area with good lighting, mirrors and remember to give your bedroom a new splash of color with a new feminine bed spread and color coordinated throw pillows. Make it fun ladies; this is what you have always wanted, so go for it

I recommend putting a clock nearby with a radio. And, give yourself enough time to get dressed. It is much more time consuming to pull yourself together as a woman. It takes time, energy, shopping, and it requires you to get up at least one hour earlier in the morning. By being organized, and having at least 5 outfits fully coordinated (like a uniform) you will find getting out of the house to be a more enjoyable experience ~ therefore helping you create success in your new femme role.

Now, get busy with organizing your closet!

2008, by Denaë Doyle @femimage.com

Skin Care Tips For Trans Women

I recently spoke with a beautiful woman, who is 74 years old, and looks 50. She shared a few of her “natural, in-expensive” skin care tips.

1. Avoid soaking in your bathtub, or taking long showers–as this destroyus the substances that keep skin cells intact. And, avoid bath oils in the bath-as the oil is wasted going down the drain and can make for a slippery tub to fall in. Oils are best applied when you get of of the bath or shower, after you are well rinsed off and gently towel dried.

2. Use a pure plant oil, such as olive oil, after your mositurizer over dry areas. She has used olive oil for over 50 years. I have read about using olive in, in many other beauty books also! I always put lip balm at night to prevent dry lips, which allows day time lipstick to smoothly glide across. And, gloss (or “Chap Stick” during the day, if in guy mode).

3. Lastly, get rid of all the dry, dead skin! We have many layers of skin, and if you have never removed the first layer…you will be shocked at how gray your top layer of skin is. Turn skin cell over with a good AHA or BHA- which can be found in your local drug store. Ask for help. Many men use this, for a healthy, younger look in guy mode. Shaving does help, but you do need additional help to remove the years of buildup of old skin cells and allowing them to be replaced by newer, smoother ones. So, for these beauty tips, visit your grocery store, or drug store, and get your skin ready or summer ~ and for a smoother look while wearing makeup!

Also, don’t forget to wear sunblock on your chest and arms for protection, and to avoid the “male shirt-tan” which is difficult to hide …when wearing a lovely open cut blouse. And, wear a hat and sun-glasses to protect your eyes from getting burned also! Now, I’m off to the beach, with my hair, eyes, and skin protected! After all, I am in Santa Cruz, CA just one mile from the beach!

2008, Dane @femimage.com

Ten Transgender Voice Tips

1. WATCH OUT FOR DRYNESS.

Dry climates, excessive talking, poor intake of water or clear liquids, and too much caffeine (to name a few) will dry out the throat and vocal folds. When the vocal folds become dry, they become stiffer, which makes it much harder to control your pitch. You may experience more pitch and voice breaks when your dehydrated. Depending on body size and the climate where you live, most TG women should consume between two and four liters of water daily. Remember the saying, “pee pale.”

2. GET YOUR BEAUTY REST.

Poor sleep is near the top of the list of problems that have a negative impact on the voice. Inadequate sleep results in physical fatigue causing a loss of mental focus on your voice techniques. Common remedies include the use of ear plugs, eye shades and room darkening window coverings. Also avoid caffeine, sugar, and junk food. Practice meditative or breathing relaxation techniques on a regular basis and go to bed when you’re tired, don’t resist sleep.

3. AVOID YOUR SMOKING AND USE OF ALCOHOL, DRUGS AND MARIJUANA.

Alcohol and most recreational drugs (i.e., cocaine) have a significant drying and irritating effect on the vocal folds. Marijuana and cigarette smoke are highly irritating to the delicate issues (mucosa) of the vocal folds. The heat and dry smoke “burn” the vocal mucosa causing redness, swelling (in some cases) and poor vibration.

4. AVOID THROAT CLEARING.

The vocal folds make contact (vibrate) every time you make a sound. When you clear your throat, the vocal folds “slap” together, which, if done excessively, will irritate your vocal folds. Sip water instead of clearing your throat. Keep a water bottle (near room temperature) with you at all times. If you experience excessive mucous and feel it’s impossible to avoid clearing your throat, contact your doctor-there may be medical problems underlying the excessive mucous production.

5. DO YOU SUFFER FROM ACID REFLUX?

Gastroesphageal reflux is a medical problem that requires diagnosis and treatment by your physician. Symptoms of gastric reflux are not always consistent with heart-burn. If you experience excessive mucous, a bitter taste in your mouth, a rough “morning” voice, or frequent belching, you may have acid reflux. Contact your doctor. Acid is a problem for the TG woman’s voice because the chronic irritation to the vocal folds from stomach acid will make it very difficult for you to have a “beautiful” feminine voice.

6. AVOID EXCESSIVE LOUD TALKING.

When environmental background noise is high, when we’re talking on the telephone, or in the car, there is a natural phenomenon to push the voice (called the Lombard Effect). This vocal strain can create vocal fold irritation and leave you with a rough, husky voice. The solution is to learn techniques for controlling airflow and reducing tension in the neck when you speak in noise.

7. BREATHE RIGHT FOR A BETTER VOICE.

The single best technique you can learn for your voice is abdominal/diaphragmatic breathing. There are many ways to learn these techniques. Learn to speak from your diaphragm.

8. THAT DARN TELEPHONE.

“Yes, sir,” may be two of the most annoying words when you’re speaking to someone on the telephone. The answer to this problem is to warm-up your voice and “tune” your pitch before you makes calls. Use an upward inflection when you speak. Avoid speaking in a whisper.

9. WHEN YOU’RE SICK (with a cold).

Acute laryngitis occurs when your sick with the flu or a bacterial infection. The “common cold” sometimes affect the voice, and when it does your pitch will drop significantly. Treat your cold, rest your voice, drink plenty of water and warm-up gently. When in doubt REST YOUR VOICE.

10. MEDICATION.

Some medications (like tricyclic antidepressants and decongestants for treating allergies) have a drying effect. The solution is to speak with your doctor about your medications if you are experiencing excessive dryness that does not resolve by increasing your hydration.

Interview with Denae Doyle and Kathy Perez Voice Pathlogiost in CO.

2008 – Denae Doyle ~ @femimage.com

Lingerie Glossary

Lingerie Glossary 101 ~ Cruious about what to call our feminine unmentionables?

Ladies, I am often asked about feminine terms. Now you don’t have to be curious about a name, phrase or word related to womens lingerie. Here are the most important terms you will need when shopping, I like to call it ~ Lingerie Glossary 101

Now you will know from A to Z the correct name, terms and fabrics used to describe womans lingerie; the types of frabric, the different names of hosiery, different names for specific bras, panties, bustier, bridal lingerie, camisole, and all the other unmentionables!

Adjustable Back: The back of a garment, usually a bra, which has multiple settings to allow for individual sizing preferences. Typically, adjustments are made with hook-and-eye closures.

Adjustable Shoulder Straps: Straps located on bras, shapewear, chemises, slips and other undergarments that allow for shortening or lengthening that provide wearer with the desired fit.

Air Bra: Bra that contains air-filled pads in the cups for a fuller, natural shape. Many CD’s enjoy the natural look. Also, Gel Bra gives that nice silicon feel.

All Over Shaper: Type of women’s shapewear bodysuit designed to hold a woman’s breast, stomach, buttocks etc. in a particular position of an aesthetically pleasing silhouette.

Arthritis Bra: Bra designed especially for women with limited hand or upper body dexterity resulting from arthritis, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, torn rotator cuff, or other limiting conditions. The features of an Arthritis Bra may include larger hook closures, Velcro or loop closures for easy dressing. Helpful for many CD’s with wider shoulders.

Athletic Underwear: Varied range of underwear that is generally worn for athletic pursuits: the gym, sports, running, biking etc. Some features of athletic underwear may include wicking power (draws moisture away from your body), compression (for energy conservation and muscle support), mesh (for ventilation), specific silhouettes (tank tops) and stretch (for body-hugging security during athletic activity and a body-conscious look for fit men and women).

Average-Figure Bra: Bra that offers light to moderate support, with narrow straps, back and sides. Average-Figure Bras usually made from slightly firmer material.

Baby Doll: Woman’s short nightgown sometimes with lace, ruffles, bows and ribbons, optionally with spaghetti straps. Sometimes Baby Dolls are made of sheer cloth, like chiffon.

Back Closure: Part of the bra that hooks together behind the back and consists of two or three rows of hook-and-eye clasps.

Backless Bra: Style of bra that usually fastens low on the back so it can be worn with backless gowns.

Back Seams: Stitched seam running from heel to buttock on the back of stockings or shapewear designed to give the leg a sexy line and lean appearance.

Balconet or Balcony Bra: Bra styled to create a lifted, fuller round look with push-up features, wide straps and a low-cut décolletage.

Banded Underwire: A bra with a Banded Underwire has an extra piece of fabric below the underwire to give extra control.

Band-less Underwire In a bra with a Band-less Underwire, the underwire is the bottom of the bra. This look is designed to be more natural.

Bikini: A women’s panty or men’s brief style cut in the shape of a swim bikini. They usually offer more coverage than a thong and less than a standard brief. Typically, this brief sits far below the navel and low on the hips but is slightly higher than a low-ride or hipster cut. The sides are usually high cut, occasionally with strings, or with thin widths of fabric that connect the front to the back.

Bodice: The portion of a woman’s garment that covers the upper part of a woman’s body, including the breasts.

Bodysuit: Garment made from stretchy opaque fabric, similar to that of a leotard, which covers the entire body from neck to ankle.

Boning: Originally, corsets and bustiers were given their structured form by stitching whalebone, or similar bone, into the garment. Today, similar yet less restrictive garments are structured with man-made “bones” as support. Boning creates a defined waistline and shapely torso. Boning is also used in some bras to achieve a certain shape and support.

Boot Length Sock: Slightly longer men’s sock style designed to be worn with boots.

Bottom Shaper: Type of shapewear designed to shape a woman’s buttocks. For CD’s look for the highest waistband that will not roll down. Look for a thick band, under your bra.

Boyshort: Panty designed for women with higher cut leg holes and lower riding waistline. Legs usually rest just above or at the buttock-thigh crease, with the waist on or below the hip. Also known as “Boylegs”.

Bra Size: A Bra Size is made up of a number (in inches), determined by measuring around the body over the largest portion of the breasts (e.g. 34, 36, 38, etc.); and a letter, determined by measuring under the breasts, then calculating the difference between the two numbers (e.g. B, C, D, etc.). Examples of bra sizes would be 34B, 36C (the average size), 38D, etc.

Brassiere: Long form of Bra, a woman’s undergarment worn to support and give contour to the breasts.

Breast Forms: Silicon breast forms that fit in many bras for the CD. There are also “TABS” which look exactly like silicon breast forms but are not silicon and are much less expensive. Look for a bra with insert. Or, a breast form that you can hold on with Velcro .

Bridal Lingerie: Type of bras, bustiers, corsets etc. characterized by sensual attributes (sheer fabric, decorative flourish, racy silhouette) that are worn on wedding nights or for similarly seductive situations.

Brief: Close fitting, knitted undergarment with an elastic waistband, with or without an overlapping fly front. Originally inspired by the brief swimsuits worn in the South of France in the 1930s.

Bustier: A bustier is a one-piece garment that uses flexible boning to give a desired shape. Its length varies, going from the bust, down to anywhere between the rib cage and the hips.

Bust Shaper: Type of shapewear designed to hold a woman’s bust in particular form.

Camisole: A garment fashioned to wear under blouses, suits, etc. that covers from bust to waist. Usually sleeveless, camisoles – or camis – traditionally offer little if any breast support, though some modern styles now incorporate a sewn-in bra for additional support. Some contemporary styles are worn as outerwear.

Camisole Straps: Camisole straps are usually found on full-figure bras. This type of strap is actually an extension of the cup, and give a smooth shoulder line.

Camouflage: Inspired by military fatigues designed to help hide troupes in the jungle, camouflage is a random pattern usually consisting of earth tones and is sometimes used as a print on trendy undergarments.

Casual: A broad hosiery term used to describe all women’s sock and any men’s socks with the exception of dress, athletic, and work styles.

Chantilly Lace: A delicate ornamental lace usually in black or white with an outlined design pattern. Typically floral, these designs are sometimes used to embellish women’s underwear.

Charmeuse: A shiny, opaque fabric.

Chemise: A woman’s sleeveless undergarment or loose-fitting dress that hangs straight from the shoulder without a waist.

Chest/Back Shaper: Shapewear piece designed to hold a woman’s chest and/or back in particular form.

Chiffon: An extremely light, thin and sheer fabric usually made of nylon, rayon or silk.

Clear Straps: Transparent straps on bras made from stretch synthetics, such as polyethtlene, meant to be worn with garments where strap invisibility is desired. Clear straps can be at the shoulders and also between the cups in order to accommodate plunging necklines.

Cleavage: The clef, separation or hollow visible between a woman’s breasts when a low-cut garment is worn.

Combed Cotton: Type of extra-soft cotton. When cotton or another fabric is “combed” the shortest, additional fibers of a batch are removed. The result produces high-quality yarns with excellent strength and softness.

Comfort Top: A wide ribbed nylon band that holds sheer knee-highs up without cramping the calf.

Comfort Straps: Various types of bra straps that can be cushioned, made from gel or constructed wider for more comfort around the shoulder area.

Compression Bra: A bra designed to hold the breasts firmly against the body and restrict their movement. Compression Bras may be used for minimizing or for athletic endeavors, such as running.

Compression Underwear: Performance underwear that utilizes body-hugging synthetic fabrics for muscle support during athletic endeavors.

Contour Bra: A bra designed to help create a shapely silhouette. Typically padded, contour bras usually have underwires and provide shape and support. A Contour Bra also designed not to show, providing a natural look.

Control Brief: A panty shaped like a brief but designed to flatten the tummy and give support while providing a smooth silhouette.

Control Panty: A panty that is designed to provide support and enhance the shape of the tummy, bottom and waist.

Control Top Pantyhose with spandex in the top for soft girdle or “control” effect.

Convertible Bra: A bra that is designed with straps that may facilitate a variety of styles. The straps may be moved, removed and/or adjusted to create looks such as halter, strapless, crisscross or open back. A Convertible Bra is an innovation that gives women flexibility with a single garment. The straps can be worn or detached, or can be crisscrossed in the back like a halter top.

Corset: Type of tight-fitting, body-enhancing undergarment used for centuries by women to create an hour glass-shaped silhouette. Modern lingerie variations of the corset tend to be less restrictive and more comfortable.

Cotton: A unicellular, natural fiber that grows in the seedpod of the cotton plant. Fibers are typically 0.5 inch to 2 inches long. The longest staple fibers, longer than 1.5 inch, including the Pima and Egyptian varieties, produce the highest quality cotton fabrics. Underwear made from Pima cotton is known for its super-soft, luxurious qualities.

Crew Neck: Term that applies to a T-shirt with a neckline that forms a round, collarless circle around the neck.

Cut and Sewn Cups: Cut and sewn cups have seams because they’re made of two or three pieces of material sewn together. The seams of Cut and Sewn Cups will show through clothing.

Décolletage: A low neckline on a woman’s garment.

Demi Bra: Low-cut bra designed to enhance the cleavage.

Demi Cups: The fabric triangle of the bra that covers the breast, designed proportionate to half a full cup, the demi typically runs straight across the breast just above the nipple and has a low center front.

Drawstring Waist: A waistband designed with a fabric chord that can be pulled to adjust to an individual’s own size.

Dress Socks: Light to medium weight men’s and boy’s styles. Lengths may vary from mid to over-the-calf.

Drip Dry: Allowing recently washed garments to dry naturally by lying flat or hanging. Most lingerie requires this method to retain structure and it is recommended that sun be avoided.

Elastane: A fabric designed with elasticity that adds stretch.

Elastic: A band of rubber or latex that has the property of high elasticity. Used for the waistband of certain styles of underwear.

Embossed: Embellished with a raised pattern created by pressure or embroidery – “brocaded silk”, “embossed satin”, “embossed leather”, “raised needlework” etc.

Embroidery: Decorative designs made from needlework or machines.

Fishnet: An open mesh fabric that has the appearance of netting and is often used to make stockings.

Flatlock Seams: Seams that are sewn flat for less bulk and less abrasion against the skin.

Frame: The frame of a bra holds the cups and sides together, and runs from the center of the bra, around the cups, and around to the sides.

Footsocks: Hosiery with a top which does not extend above the ankle bone. Also known as “footies”.

Front Close: A type of bra closure that is usually hook, barrel or clasp that rests between the breasts in the center front.

Full Brief: A panty style that rests at the waist and has full bottom coverage with a low leg line.

Full Cup Coverage Bra: A bra with the fabric cup covering and encapsulating the entire breast.

Full-Figured Bra: Bra designed for sizes 32-42C, D, or DD, and covers a larger area than average bras. The fabric used is heavier, the straps are wider and sometimes padded for extra comfort.

Full Support Bra: Type of bra that usually has an underwire or plastic boning holding them up. They can be worn by women of any breast size, and are specially suited for those with larger cup sizes. These bras offer a shapely cut and are built more like bikini tops than underwear. These also come in padded or unpadded version and are flattering on any figure type.

Fully-Padded Bra: A fully-padded bra is designed to give a smooth look, meaning it doesn’t show any seams, and uses fiberfill or foam to enhance the size of small breasts by up to a full size.

G-String: A panty with a very thin (string-like) band of fabric in the back.

Gown: A long dress or sleepwear item, usually floor or ankle length.

Gripper Elastic: Elastic designed to gently grip the skin to hold garment in place. This type of elastic is often seen on strapless bras or thigh-high stockings.

Gusset: The triangular or rectangular usually cotton lining in the crotch area of the panty or shapewear.

Halter Neck: A dress, bra or undergarment style where the fabric wraps behind and around the neck for support. Halters may tie, clasp or be an uninterrupted piece of fabric that slides over the head.

High-Cut Panty: A panty cut high over the thigh and sides but with total back coverage.

Hikini: Panty variation on traditional brief or bikini featuring higher cut leg-holes for a longer leg.

Hip Shaper: Shapewear piece designed to hold a woman’s hips in particular form.

Hipster: Type of panty or brief that is cut low in the front and back. This style of underwear was developed to be worn under low-rise jeans and trousers and also for those who wish to make their torso appear longer. See also Low-Rise.

Hook and Eye: A closure or fastener used to secure bras, corsets, some shapewear and other garments and which allows for adjustability. The fastener includes a small hook secured to one side of the garment that grasps a small partial oval secured to the other side.

Hook Back: A term for garment closures that secure in the back with one or multiple hooks.

Hook Front: A term for garment closures that secure in the front with usually one or sometimes multiple hooks.

Hosiery: Socks and stockings.

Interlock: The stitch variation of the rib stitch, which resembles two separate 1 x 1 ribbed fabrics that are interknitted. Plain (double knit) interlock stitch fabrics are thicker, heavier and more stable than single knit constructions.

Jacquard: Type of fabric weave that creates the effect of an intricate pattern or print.

Jersey Knit: A knit fabric – which can be cotton, silk, wool or synthetic – that has a smooth, flat face and a more textured, but uniform back. Used for panties, briefs, t-shirts, socks and other garments.

Kimono: A loose, light robe worn chiefly by women.

Knee-Highs: Short hosiery that comes up to just below the knee. Some are styled with elastic tops and stay up without the help of garters. They became very popular with the advent of women’s slacks. Knee high socks are also a men’s style of socks that run up to the knee.

Knit Fabric: Fabrics made from only one set of yarns, all running in the same direction. Some knits have their yarns running along the length of the fabric, while others have their yarns running across the width of the fabric. Knit fabrics are held together by looping the yarns around each other. Knitting creates ridges in the resulting fabric. Wales are the ridges that run lengthwise in the fabric; courses run crosswire.

Lace Bra: Provocative style of bra made entirely or almost entirely of lace.

Lace Edging: A type of garment trim sometimes used in lingerie comprised of selvedge lace fabric that is applied to necklines, hems, straps etc. for a decorative flourish.

Lace-Up Back: A closure in the back of a garment, such as a bustier that is a fashionable adjustment device.

Lace-Up Front: A closure in the front of a garment, such as a bustier that is a fashionable adjustment device.

Lace-Up Side: A closure on the side or sides of a garment, such as a bustier that is a fashionable adjustment device.

Laminated: Bonded layers of fabric or cloth.

Ladder Stitching: Garment stitching that resembles ladder rungs.

Latex Free Bra: Bra that is devoid of latex designed to be worn by women who are allergic to latex. A Latex Free Bra can contain nylon and spandex elastic.

Leather: Animal hide.

Leg Shaper: Shapewear piece designed to hold a women’s legs in particular form.

Leotard: Skintight knit hose covering the body from the waist to the feet worn by acrobats and dancers and as stockings by women and girls.

Lounge Pants: Loose-fitting pants constructed from soft, flowy fabrics designed for wearing while relaxing.

Lining: A layer of fabric sewn into the underside of a garment designed to add comfort and create smooth lines.

Liquid Filled Bra: Type of bra or bra insert which features cup pads filled with water for women who desire a curvier bust silhouette.

Long Line Bra: Bra whose fabric extends down to the navel or waist for a bodice effect.

Long Underwear: Type of long (ankle length), fitted drawers, usually in a heavier-knit cotton or cotton blend, often with a waffled texture. Also referred to as long johns because they were first worn by John L. Sullivan as a boxing outfit in public.

Loungewear: Clothing suitable for lounging, such as pajamas, slips, robes, loose-fitting t-shirts, etc.

Low Back Bra: Bra with low back strap designed to be worn with backless dresses.

Low-Rise or Low-Rider: Style of underwear that sits low on the hips for an invisible look when worn under low-rise jeans and trousers.

Lycra: An extremely elastic fiber made of synthetic fiber, originally trademarked by DuPont, for an elastomeric effect.

Maternity Bra: Type of bra that provides extra support, and is expandable, using stretch fabric, to grow with the expectant mother as her pregnancy matures.

Maternity Panty: Type of panty made from fabric designed to stretch to fit during pregnancy. Maternity Panties often have no seams or elastic in the front for further comfort.

Matte: A type of finish or fabric style with a flat, non-shiny look.

Merino Wool: Type of soft wool that is gleaned during the sheep’s second or third shearing. After the third shearing, wool grows back coarser and thicker.

Mesh: Type of fabric, often made of synthetic, that is full of small openings like a net. Used for lingerie/underwear as fabric for a full piece or as inserts for an effect that is intended to be either sensual or athletic, or both.

Microfiber: An extremely fine synthetic fiber that can be woven into textiles with the texture and drape of natural-fiber cloth but with enhanced stretch, washability, breathability, and water repellency.

Minimizer Bra: Type of bra that shapes the breasts outward to reduce projection, while maintaining support.

Molded Bra: Type of bra that has cups which are machine molded. Molded Bra cups are shaped to give the breast a natural look. Molded Bras are usually unlined and may be either soft cup or underwire. They are seamless to create a smooth silhouette, unless overlaid with lace.

Multi-Pack: Identical underwear items that come packaged in groups of 2 or more.

Natural Fiber: Linen, wool, silk and cotton. Natural fibers were used for all undergarments until the development of synthetics in the 20th century.

Nightgown: A loose garment worn in bed by women and girls.

Nightshirt: A long, loose shirt worn in bed.

Non-Stretch Straps: Non-stretch straps, also known as rigid straps, are usually used for sports bras or full-figured bras.

Novelty Underwear: Underwear item that has special, often light-hearted characteristics, i.e. shiny satin men’s thongs or heart-print boxer shorts. Novelty Underwear is sometimes associated with Valentine’s Day.

No-Wire Bra: Type of bra with no underwires designed for increased comfort. Some No-Wire bras give light to moderate support, for petite to average figures. Others furnish full support.

Nursing Bra: A nursing bra is an extra-support bra that comes with removable flaps on the cups, allowing a new mother to nurse her baby without totally removing her bra.

Nylon: A synthetic fiber that, along with polyester, made underwear fabrics more user-friendly by being easily washed and wrinkle-resistant.

Opaque: Material or fabric which is impervious to light and cannot be seen through.

Padded Bras: Type of bra with padded fiberfill cups. Padding is designed to add size and definition for a well-proportioned look to smaller bust lines.

Pajamas: Loose-fitting nightclothes worn for sleeping or lounging.

Panty: A general term for women’s undergarments. Panties come in a variety of styles but are specific to coverage of the female region.

Pantyhose: Nylon, silk or other material that stretches to fit next to skin and covers legs from hip to toe, or with open foot.

Petite-Figure Bra: A Petite-Figure bra is the smallest type of bra designed for women with smaller busts and are usually made of lightweight stretchy material.

Pima Cotton: A very strong, yet very smooth and soft, high-grade cotton of medium staple developed from selected Egyptian cottons in the southwest United States.

Piping: A twisted cord covered with a biased-cut fabric that is inserted into seams or garment edges as decorative detail and to add structure.

Plus Size: An extra long or oversized clothing size.

Polyamide: A synthetic fabric with wrinkle-resistant capabilities.

Polyester: Large class of synthetic fabrics known for their wrinkle resistance.

Pouch: The fabric triangle creating the cup area in a man’s thong or g-string.

Pull-On Bra: Type of bra made of stretchy material designed to be pulled on and are devoid of hook and eye closures.

Push-Up Bra: A Push-Up Bra uses padding and wires to push the breasts up, thus enhancing the cleavage and giving a fuller look.

Queen Size: Stockings, pantyhose, or knee-highs sized to fit the heavier woman. Queen size is usually considered an extension of standard garments into a larger size. Outsize, on the other hand, is considered a separate category of merchandise altogether.

Racer-Back Bra: Type of bra named after racing swimsuits that also have straps meeting in a V shape on the back between the shoulder blades. This bra style is designed to be worn with sleeveless tops, and also prevents straps from slipping off the shoulders.

Rayon: Any of several synthetic textile fibers sometimes used for underwear, which are produced by forcing a cellulose solution through fine spinnerets and solidifying the resulting filaments.

Reinforced: The stress areas such as the toe or panty portion which have been strengthened with yarns of heavier denier.

Rib Knit: Type of knit with raised ridges that has a very high degree of elasticity in the crosswire direction. Ribbed knits can be used for complete underwear pieces, such as briefs, boxer briefs, tees and tanks, and is also used for trim on such garments (leg bands, cuffs, neck bands).

Rings and Slides: Rings and slides are the mechanisms used to adjust the length of the straps and may be placed in the front or in the back of the bra, depending on how smooth a look is desired.

Robe: A long, loose-flowing outer garment.

Sandalfoot Hosiery: Type of hosiery with a nude toe, meaning no heavier yarn is used in the toe than in the leg.

Satin: A smooth fabric of silk or rayon which has a glossy face and a dull back.

Seamless Bra: A seamless bra uses a single piece of fabric for the cups, so there’s no stitching on the cups, giving a bra-less look.

Shaper: A style of lingerie created to provide support, shape and control.

Shapewear: Modern term for fitted women’s underwear, especially a girdle, that is designed to hold a part of the body in particular form.

Sheer: Thin, fine and transparent fabric.

Sheer-To-The-Waist: Pantyhose without visible panty line or reinforcement in the panty portion. It is an all-sheer garment from waist to toe.

Shelf Bra: Same as Demi Bra.

Shimmer: Reflective finish on fabric, usually satin, that creates a subtle shine effect.

Silicone Cups: A type of bra cup filled with silicone as opposed to fabric options to create a smooth natural look.

Silk: Fine lustrous fiber composed mainly of fibroin and produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons, especially the strong, elastic, fibrous secretion of silkworms used to make thread and fabric. Silk fabric is sometimes used for men’s and women’s underwear.

Silk Knit: Silk fabric designed with stretchable blend to fit and stretch with the body.

Slip: A woman’s undergarment of dress length with shoulder straps.

Sleepwear: Garments designed to worn for sleep, such as boxer shorts, slips, camisoles, pajamas, etc.

Sock: A short stocking reaching a point between the ankle and the knee.

Soft-Cup Bra: A Soft-Cup Bra uses elastic under the cups for support, as opposed to wire.

Softel: Synthetic performance fabric with advanced absorption and wicking power. See Wicking.

Spandex: Synthetic stretch fabric or fiber made from polyurethane.

Sports Bra: A sports bra, sometimes known as an activity bra, is specially designed to eliminate bounce (as much as possible), for use in any activity that involves a lot of movement. The cotton-lined cups are high at the front and sides for support, and they have a comfort underband with non-curl elastic to stop it from riding up. They may also have a non-slip Velcro fastening strap.

Sports Sock: Sock with extra padding which differs according to where the protective padding is placed – ball, toes, instep, heel, arch, shin – how thick the padding is and what materials they are made of.

Stockings: Hosiery styled from above the knee or mid-thigh to toe.

Stretch Lace: Lace designed with stretch ability to create form fit.

Strapless Bra: A strapless bra has no shoulder straps, and is especially designed for wear with evening gowns and other sleeveless wear.

Stretch Straps: Stretch straps use low-stretch elastic to give more control and comfort, while reducing bounce.

String Bikini: A bikini panty with high cut leg line, thin string sides and full back coverage.

Tactel: Registered brand of synthetic performance fabric known for its springy, lightweight construction and wicking power.

Taffeta: A stiff lustrous silk or silk-type fabric with a slight rib.

Tailored: Garments designed to have the appearance of being custom fit and cut. Typically fitted to the body.

Tanga: A lingerie pant style that has thin straps across the hips. Similar to a boy short but slightly higher in the waist and lower in the leg.

Tank Top: Sleeveless shirt for men or women.

Teddy: Lingerie item that combines a camisole with a panty. A Teddy can be fitted to the body or loose and is worn either under clothing or as sleepwear.

Thermal Underwear: Long sleeve pullover or long underwear made in thick cotton or cotton blend with a waffled texture designed to retain heat for winter wear.

Thigh-Highs: Stockings that just reach the thigh and are held up by elastomer bands.

Thigh Shaper: Shapewear piece designed to hold a woman’s thighs in particular form.

Thong: An underwear style for both men and women with a thin fabric back that rests between the buttocks.

Thong Back: Term defining the back of a panty denoting the thin strip of material resting between the buttocks and exposing most or all of this area.

Thong Panty: A panty with a thin fabric back that rests between the buttocks, exposing the area.

Tie Back: A type of closure involving ties or laces that ties or fastens in the back.

Tie Belt: The sash or fabric used to tie a robe or Kimono that holds it closed.

Tie Front: A type of closure involving ties or laces that fastens in the front.

Tights: A heavy, opaque one-piece garment from hip to toe worn with leotards for dance, exercise, etc. It is usually made with 40 denier yarn and over and is sometimes made of yarn other than nylon.

T-Shirt: A knitted undershirt with short sleeves, usually a crew neck, although sometimes produced with a V-neck.

T-Shirt Bra: Type of seamless, contour cup bra designed to appear invisible under form fitting clothing. T-shirt Bras are absent of lace or ornamentation.

Tummy Shaper: Sometimes called a “tummy tamer”, this shapewear garment is designed to hold a woman’s stomach in particular form.

Undergarment: A garment to be worn under another, see also Underwear.

Underwear: Clothing or an article of clothing worn next to the skin and under other clothing. Examples of underwear include: briefs, boxers, panties, bras etc.

Underwire Bra: An underwire bra has a wire that runs under the cups for extra support.

Unmentionable: Term, used as a noun, to indicate an undergarment. Use arose in the Victorian era at the close of the 19th century when it was considered improper to mention the name of an undergarment by its actual name in public.

Vent: Predetermined slit, especially on the legs of boxer shorts, that provides more freedom of movement.

V-Neck: Neckline on a t-shirt that dips into a “V” in the front.

Velcro: Closure consisting of a piece of fabric of small hooks that sticks to a corresponding fabric of small loops.

Velvet: A cotton, silk or nylon fabric with a dense soft and usually lustrous pile and plain underside.

Viscose: A type of rayon with a soft and silky feel made from a cellulose solution.

Waist Shaper: Shapewear piece designed to hold a woman’s waist in particular form.

Wicking: Certain fabric’s ability to pull moisture away from the skin, allowing it to evaporate in order to keep the wearer cool and dry.

Wings: Side panels of a bra typically found in the larger or plus size cups that provide support in the bust area and under the arms.

Wool: Fiber or fabric made from the fleece of sheep or lamb. Wool also refers to all animal hair fibers, including the hair of the Cashmere or Angora goat or the specialty hair fibers of the camel, alpaca, llama or vicuna.

Woven Fabric: Fabrics composed of two sets of yarns. One set of yarns, the warp, runs along the length of the fabric. The other set of yarns, the fill or weft, is perpendicular to the warp. Woven fabrics are held together by weaving the warp and the fill yarns over and under.

Wrap-Around Elastic Band: In a bra with a wrap-around elastic band, the frame has an elastic band running completely around the bra, keeping it in place. It’s commonly used in sports bras.

Zipper Front: Womens garment with zip closure that opens and closes in the front.

2008, Denae Doyle ~ Femininity Coach ~ @femimage.com

Etiquette and Dining Tips for The New Trans Woman

Are you really nervous about going out to eat en femme? Know you’re not alone, this is an important right of TG passage, and all “new women” have these normal concerns. I often see very well groomed TG women who have spent endless hours on perfecting their makeup and clothing, revert back to their male conditioned habits, when the food arrives.

Etiquette is an extremely important aspect of being a lady, so next time– think about how you’re being perceived by others before you begin chowing down while you’re beautifully dressed.

Here are some helpful dinning tips to consider before your next luncheon or dinner.

Check out the restaurant ahead of time. That way you’ll know exactly what’s on the menu what you might want to order, what other women are wearing and where the rest rooms are located.

Always take your coat off when entering, and carry your coat and handbag to the table. Spread your coat open and lay it across the chair (sitting on the inside of the coat) placing the collar over the back of the chair. Place a small handbag next to you in your chair, or a larger one beside your foot. Please don’t hang your coat over the back of the chair, and don’t leave your purse on the table or on the floor where others could trip on it.

Be polite. Make an effort to speak softly and say “please” and “thank you” to your server as well as to your host and call them by name. Smile! A smile is an important part of being a woman. Always tip well, so you are welcome to return the next time you are dressed and want a safe place where you feel welcome.

Are you not sure what utensil to use? My mother taught me an easy way to remember what to use when. Start at the outside and work your way in. Your salad fork will be on the far left; your entree fork will be next to it. Your dessert spoon and fork will be above your plate.

Generally, liquids are on your right, solids on your left. For example, your water glass will be on the right and your bread plate will be on the left.

The very first thing you do, once everyone is seated is put your napkin on your lap.

Remember what your mother spent years telling you – keep your elbows off the table, sit up straight and don’t talk with your mouth full!

Slow down, men generally eat very fast. I recommend you eat a small snack before you go out and always stop fluids 2 hours before leaving.

Keep your voice soft. Set your utensil down between bites.

Pat (don’t wipe) your mouth with your napkin. Use a straw for your cold beverage.

If you need to, apply lipstick only at the table; do not apply other makeup. Excuse yourself to go the ladies room for makeup touch-up and hair. Ladies, always and get in and out of the ladies room as quickly as possible. Limit your conversation in the restroom. Please realize women wash and dry their hands!

During the Meal:

Don’t order messy food – pasta with lots of sauce, chicken with bones, ribs, big sandwiches, large portions and whole lobsters are all dangerous. Try food a woman would order, such as a salad.

Do order food that is easy to cut into bite-size pieces. Ladies always leave some food on their plate!

The polite way to eat soup is dip your spoon away. There’s less chance of spilling in your lap that way too!

Break your dinner roll or bread into small pieces and eat a piece at a time.

If you need to leave the table, put your napkin on the seat or the arm of your chair.

When you’ve finished eating, move your knife and fork to the “four o’clock” position so the server knows you’re done.

Remember to try and relax, listen, and participate in the conversation. Females are very animated listeners. Smile! You can always ask your dinner guest questions as this avoids bringing up the subject of your own transgendered expression and feeling the need to always discuss it.

If you take your cell phone, leave it off unless you have Caller ID or the caller is expecting a woman to answer. It could be embarrassing having to speak using a male voice.

Alcohol:

It’s wise not to drink more than a glass of wine while out in your new femme role. Passing effectively while out is touch enough without adding alcohol to the mix. Also, if you will be driving you will enjoy the evening more if you don’t stress about being pulled over– while en femme.

After the Meal:

Put your napkin on the table next to your plate.

Realize many TG women forget their social graces when they are nervous and when they’re hungry. Again, please remember to eat slowly, with your mouth closed, while taking small bites. You may be able to speak with your mouth full-with your guy friends- but not so when dressed.

If a lady must smoke, she should be considerate of the feelings and needs of those around her.

Think of female conversation to have during and after dinner.

If you’re eating alone. Have cash to pay for your dinner. Unless you have female ID and credit cards. (You might have to show your ID with a credit card). If eating with a gentleman, women can share in the cost of the meal, depending upon the circumstances. Women eating together will generally pay for what each of them has ordered, and most often will not split the bill, as men generally do.

Put your coat on at the door, not at the table. Find your keys and place your purse into position before stepping outside.

Walking, gesturing, sitting and rising from your chair correctly will top off the perfect dinning experience. While passing is important; if you’re a kind and interesting person who dresses with integrity and respect, you’ll be accepted in most circumstances. Don’t expect perfection the first time out, even the most refined lady might slip now and then. And remember-have fun and enjoy your dining experience.

Bon Appétit!

2008, Denae Doyle @femimage.com

Feminine Body Language & Dating For The New Trans Woman

Feminine gestures can send silent signals of desire, or communicate a complete lack of interest.

Are you new at going out as a woman and understanding the subtle signs of attraction or lack thereof? Before you launch yourself into the line of fire, take time to practice the basics of creating that first three-second impression that states Female and not “Guy In A Dress”.

As a “Femininity Coach” for genetic women and now Transgendered women, I have created the most important signals a TG woman must focus on and practice – to not give off those subtle male cues. I often hear, “Is it my voice”? Or, “perhaps my beard concealer isn’t working”. Being perceived as female is not as simple as paying to have makeup, wigs, and beautiful clothing, but instead requires time, practice, and a new awareness of not falling back into moving, gesturing and speaking as a male.

First, let’s remember that when it comes to the silent signs of sexual attraction, we are no different than the animal kingdom – which communicates their interest in mating, by using certain body signals. Often, with females it boils down to the message, “I am submissive, harmless and more approachable”. For the new TG woman, you may be wondering ‘what are these secret signals genetic women know how to use?’ Welcome in to the circle of knowing and using age old flirting techniques of confident women – and now this secret potion lies within your reach also! I have made a list of my top eight body language cues, which I teach my TG women to be perceived as a female especially during flirtation. Let’s start at the top and work down.

Tilted Head and Lifted Shoulders

Women tend to have more animated head and shoulder movement, while men are socialized to hold their head and shoulders very linear. When a female is flirting, two of the most easily detected signs of attraction are (1) tilting her head slightly forward while looking up at someone from under the eyebrows and (2) smiling while lifting and rolling her shoulders. These motions indicate that a woman is softer, more compliant and interested in dating!

Pointed Toe and Knee Movement

While standing, a feminine woman keeps weigh back only on one foot, allowing the free front foot to be pointed so she can tilt and move her toe. Next time you’re out, lift the heel of the pointed toe and allow the knee to rotate in an inward “swaying” movement and see if those new heels will suggest definite interest. This technique also creates a more “shrinking” effect, which is a less threatening profile.

Wrist Forward, Cupped Hands

When speaking, woman use softer, more flowing hand movements. Specifically, take note of whether the palms are facing upward, while gesturing and resting on a table. Practice, using slow, fluid flowing hands with a broken wrist, as if you were moving your hands under water. Keeping your wrist forward, using flowing hands, and cupping your fingers, are all gestures, which are psychologically friendlier.

SSSS- Curve. Everything Starts With S!

S-CURVE – There is a distinctly feminine way to move and hold yourself. Simply put, truly feminine women have learned to stand, sit and move their bodies in curves – mostly S curves, while men generally stand, sit and walk very linear – they stay in a box, such as the letter “I”. A truly feminine woman pulls her weight up by lifting her torso and bust – while twisting at the waist. Lift and twist. Lifting your weight prevents weight from dropping down into your feet, especially when wearing heels!

Slower Steps

Men walk twice as fast as most women, especially in heels. Make an effort to slow your stride down. Regardless of how nervous you are, slow everything down. There is no weight dropping down into your feet, especially when your heels are over two inches!

Shorter Stride

To appear more sensual and feminine, try taking half the size step you generally take.

You will find walking in heels will require balance. By taking shorter steps, you will avoid tripping and you will appear more feminine and poised.

Smaller Space

Men have spaces – open space between their arms and body, and between their knees and feet. Men stand linear on the floor with their weight evenly distributed on both feet. Ideally, a feminine woman (and we know all women today are not always feminine) will generally close up the spaces between their arms and torso, between their knees and their feet. The smaller size capsule you have, the smaller space you will take up. By walking and standing in less space, you appear shorter, smaller, and more feminine.

Swinging Arm

Swinging your arms from your shoulder (as men do) may be a behavior that is giving you away. Let your arms rest gently down the side of your legs allowing for a natural delicate arm swing from your elbows. You should practice keeping your elbows turned inward and slightly bent and touching your torso. Men generally have longer arms than women, so bending your elbows; will give the appearance of shorter and smaller arms.

Now, go put on your favorite pair of heels, and create your own unique, feminine, flirtatious body language

2008, by Denae Doyle @femimage.com

Femininity Can’t Be Bought, Femininity Tips for Transsexuals

I kind of knew it all along. But I never found the right words to say it in a such simple way. It finally dawned on me, after attending Denaë Doyle’s seminar on “Expressing the Woman Within with Dance”. We can spend as much money as we want on surgeries, hair, cosmetics, clothes and accessories, but all that cannot take us all the way to true femininity. These things might make us look and feel feminine, but they are not the whole story as the world sees it.

Because femininity is a lot more than the ‘facade’. It includes who we are and how we express ourselves in everyday situations. It includes how we carry ourselves, how we move, how we communicate, and how we relate to others. Nothing in the world can ‘buy’ this for us. We’ve got to work on it by ourselves, or (better) with the help of a good instructor. Sure, this costs money, too! But not nearly as much as we typically spend on surgeries or hair removal. The downside: we have to do the hardest part of the work – no matter how good or expensive our ‘femininity coach’ might be.

Feminine Movement and voice are neglected too easily in the transition process. We take our pictures, and see a woman. What else do we want?

Well, real life is a little more complicated, Because the photo camera is exchanged for real people’s eyes and ears, along with their perception of what a woman is or should be.

Here is where the difference between being tolerated and being accepted comes to play. Sure, in the San Francisco Bay Area you will find more tolerance than anywhere else – and that’s greatly appreciated. If that’s the only thing important to you, you don’t have much to worry about. But if you are like me, if you like the freedom to travel safely outside of the Bay Area, if you don’t want your gender status to be recognized immediately, then buckle up for a rough ride towards the land of true femininity.

I often hear excuses, like “I am too tall to pass”, “I have too big of a frame size”, “I don’t have a butt”, or “My hands are too large”. Think twice: Genetic females come in all shapes and sizes, and nobody questions their femininity. I have seen countless women with those attributes, but usually they knew how to play them down. It’s something you can learn, too! But it takes some effort. To get started, consider shifting your reading from Glamour magazine to books like “Flatter Your Figure” by Jan Larkey. Then ask a fashion or feminine image consultant for help. The book will help you understand her recommendations.

Now you can focus on the ‘tough stuff’ – moving and speaking like a woman. This is hard work, and it is somewhat difficult to evaluate yourself. Unless you really have a fine eye and ear for detail, you will need some kind of femininity or voice coach sooner or later. You can get your feet wet with books like “Creating a Feminine Carriage” by Elaine Sagant, or the videos like “Develop a Female Voice” by Melanie Ann Phillips (also available as CD or tape).

Learning to speak like a woman is a lot like learning a foreign language (I learned two – English and French – and it helped!). You will need to practice with somebody who is qualified, honest and unbiased. That’s where the consultants come in. They can teach you more systematically and efficiently, and have the experience to monitor your progress in detail. If you are tight on money, consider a combination of consulting and self-learning. Either way, you will have to practice. A lot…

And while we are talking about practicing: Learn to smile – even in difficult situations. It breaks the ice and opens the door to earn the sympathy and trust of others. It can be the magic bullet to get you out of an embarrassing situation. Haven’t we all been there?

It’s never too late to learn. However, you might have an easier transition, if you develop much of your femininity before you start living full time. This also gives you a more realistic outlook on what to expect in that new role. I have done it that way, and was overwhelmed with the acceptance and support I experienced, once I announced the change. I had gone through great lengths before I finally made the change – including two trips to Europe, to test the waters in my native culture. So far these efforts have paid off. I wish everyone a similar experience!

2008, by Natalie – @femimage.com

How to Help Your Trans Children

Transsexualism is a condition where the person’s body is one gender and the mind and soul or essence is the opposite gender of what they are physically born with. Indeed it is a proven to be a birth condition. In studies it has been determined that the size of the hypothalmus in the brain, in Male to female (MTF) Transsexuals (TS) is female in size and in Female to Males FTM’s it is male in size. It is the hypothalmus that govern’s ones sexuality. Many assume that being Ts is a matter of choice. It is not. It has nothing to do with religion or will power. It is a product of our enviornment and even nature itself. There are other species of fish and animals that are transsexual.

Besides who would choose this life on purpose? It is a life where most know what they are as their first conscious thought at the age of four or five that body and mind don’t match up. Interests are very different than others of the same physical gender. The MTF doesn’t want to participate in boy activities and the FTM doesn’t like girl ones. They truely feel they are the opposite gender of what their eyes tell them and you. Few will listen to their pleas to let them be themselves though.

Children instinctively know when one of their peers doesn’t fit in. Ts’s are bullied, taunted and ridiculed. Their lives will be hell at a time they should be happy. Many start to blend in out of self preservation internalizing their true selves. Many may not be whole for many years, if at all. Its like having part of you in a spastic coma, unable to respond. While all appears to be well with the Transsexual child everything is far from ok. The child may become depressed and lonley as he/she has no peers. When possible some may dress as their true gender when opportunity presents itself. This isn’t crossdressing to the Ts, but an expression of ones self.

The years pass until puberty arrives and the Transsexual childs Horror story begins. While most teens embrace their metamorphsis it is a living nightmare for the transsexual. All their body parts are changing into something most feel is monsterous and foreign to them. If they weren’t themselves before, they certainly are further away from that now. They are growing in a very wrong direction. At this age many start “cutting” away at their own changing body parts and limbs. The TS suicide attempt rate is as high as 50% at this age. Some will die without parents knowing why. The transsexual teen is painfully alone in his/her disfigurement. Even normal teenage self-gratifaction becomes extremely confusing instead of reassuring. Some may not be able to at all. They grow abhorent to their own bodies.

Many older transsexuals did not have a happy childhood. They were forced to be something they were not. Most were seen to be going through a phase. Children in a homophobic family are not going to confide in their parents. Mom and Dad are more worried about their children becoming “gay” and may try to reinforce the childs physical gender. It doesn’t work and often drives the child deeper into themselves and into dispair. Ts’s who make it to their 20’s and beyond often regret that their childhoods did not exist in their perceived gender. Some elevate the illusion of their physical bodies gender and sometimes even marry, praying that it all goes away. These marriages rarely work though. They are often left with the aftermath of puberty that will make passing in their true gender almost impossible. Many will need to face expensive body and facial surgeries in order to look somewhat believable. What about the 6’6″ MTF and the 5’1″ FTM? How do they fit in? Many are worried about this. Today many aging Transsexuals have had horriffic lives and are changing as late as the mid 60’s. Lives are shattered and reborn. Careers and relationships in tatters they face rebuilding often alone.

We now know that the earlier the Transsexual is treated the better their chances are for fullfilled and happier lives. Treatment can begin as early as when school age is achieved. The first step is to obtain a Gender Therapist for your child. They can help come up with a plan and goals to achieve. In some schools it is possible for a child to attend school in their true gender, with the therapists backing. As early as the age of eleven hormone blockers can be introduced to delay puberty after Tanner Stage 2. Cross-sex Hormones can now be given at age 16. Your teen wil develop as other teens in their true gender would with the exception that they could not have children. There are guidlines in place that therapists and Surgeons must follow called The HBIGDA Standards of Care.

Children who go through treatment at an early age will be able to remember their childhoods in their true genders. Both the hormone blockers and hormones will make passability much easier as children will appear much like their peers will. Heights will be more normal. Lonliness should be less likely and voices for both MTF’s and FTM’s will develop in more normal ranges. Older Transsexuals will not develop any of these advantages. So the earlier the Transsexual starts treatment the better.

Kids are very resilent. As long as they are provided the basic tools that other children have they can do well and learn and grow. The untreated transsexual wil sorely lack in social skills at a time they need them most to develop fully. This will not serve them well. Delaying treatment is a mistake and will stunt that growth. Your child will likely not grow out of this, it is not a phase. So I urge you to contact a gender professional for your child today. Your childs future depends upon it. We have it in our power to make sure that present and future TS generations do not have older, newly emerging, troubled transsexuals in their 40’s 50’s and 60’s, trying to salvage wrecked lives. The Transsexual suicide rate of 31% can drop dramatically with early childhood intervention. It all begins today.

Laura Amato

2006, @ Laura’s Playground

Real Life Horror Films

Most of us love a good Horror Film. We wait for that moment when we are truly scared as our heart jumps out of our chest. We spasm in our seats and our feet come off of the floor. We love that thrill. What about afterwards will we be scared? Its not likely because it wasn’t real. We tell ourselves over and over “Its only a movie” pass the popcorn.

Imagine though that you were the character and that this was really happening to you. Our minds couldn’t fathom such a cataclysmic disaster of such biblical proportions. Our minds would literally shatter.

Yet everyday Transsexual Teens go through a real life horror story called puberty. Body Parts are turning into something foreign to them. Voices are changing, things are growing. They are becoming their worst nightmare right inside of their own skin, something repulsive to them. Its sheer terror. Meanwhile their peers are going through the same thing but its different for them. They embrace their metamorphosis as the caterpillar becomes a butterfly. Their minds and bodies become one. This is not the case of the Transsexual teen.

In the movies at least the victim at least has other characters to share their terror with. In real life though transsexual teens often go through their horror alone. Most dare not share what’s happening to them. They dare not tell their homophobic parents and most have few if any real friends. Most school counselors are ill trained and overcome with their own prejudices to be helpful. The terror is the same whether its for male to female (MTF) Transsexuals or female to males. Who do they tell? Imagine the terror as a Teen FTM has monthly periods and an MTF Transsexual has nocturnal erections. Who will quiet their nightmares?

Teenage years are difficult enough for everyone. It certainly is no picnic even for a psychologically healthy kid. A transsexual teen though does not have this advantage. Their minds and bodies are not in harmony with each other. Most have know this from their earliest memories at the age of four or five. Growing up knowing you are a different gender than what you appear is the essence of a living nightmare.

Is there a solution? Yes there is. It involves non-judgmental listening. Don’t assume this is just a phase. This has been with them since Kindergarten or earlier. Its only rearing its head now because of the terrifying physical changes they are going through. Their minds didn’t suddenly change. They’ve always felt this way.

Whether you are a parent or a school counselor it is important that you recognize this as a life threatening reality. The only solution is to get Professional help from a competent Gender Dysphoria Specialist.

Bear in mind that the suicide attempt rate for preoperative Transsexuals has been estimated as high as 50%. Many are from their teenage years when they are most vulnerable. Transsexuality is not a moral dilemma, it is a physical one.

Parents are often shocked because they feel they would know if their son or daughter had any opposite sex traits, such as excessive femininity or masculinity. They don’t realize that many transsexuals hide it and don’t really want to be what they are for their own protection. Puberty is often the distress trigger. Transsexuality is not a choice but rather is inborn. It is not a moral choice and there is scientific proof to bear that out (see link below). It is a medical condition.

If steps are taken now to just listen to our transgendered teens and take real action then the odds of them living a normal life as themselves is very good. The sooner their nightmare ends the better for all concerned. One can only hope that the incidence of those that have lived through 50 years of Gender Dysphoria will come to an end. Even one year is too much.

2006, By Laura Amato @ Laura’s Playground

Do Hormones change your mind?

There are many who say that any mind changes for those on MTF (male to female) hormones are mostly psy-chological.They also say that any sexual orientation changes are psychological as well. Does this mean that if this does happen that there was some secret desire there all along? Some say yes. I say No. I believe that at least Female hormones can change the way we think, who we’re attracted to and what our intrests are. I suspect that that is true of male hormones as well.

Let me start by saying that I’ve been in therapy off and on since I was 21 years old. I’m 55 now. The longest stint in therapy is the most recent, 20 years. You would think that in all that time if there were any secret desires or intrests that I would’ve noticed them before i recently restarted hormones again after a long absense. Certainly my shrink of 20 years would’ve found that out.

I’ve got to say that from my own experience that estrogen no matter what the source can have a powerful effect on the mind. Actually most changes were subtle while one a few years ago was quite a shock.

Editor’s note 1: Originally I took herbal phytoestrogen’s because the ad’s said they were safe. What they didn’t say is that for feminization they were recommending mega dose of 8 pills a day when the actual suggestion on the bottle was 1 a day for menopausal syptoms in born women. In March 1996 I had a stroke from bleeding on the brain. My Doctor said it was caused by excessive blood thinning from the high doses. Since I was already on blood thinners this was a disaster. He also said that the pills significantly raise chloresterol which leads to clogged arteries and heart attacks. In three 1/2 years we have had several reports of users here who have had strokes and heart attacks while on Phytoestrogens. All took the megadoses recommended for trans people. To me this is proof that phytoestrogens are not safe at least for trans people. The slight miniscule growth I got was not worth a stroke. All of us reported this to the manufacturers who did not return our calls. This indicates they know full well of the risks though they still insist they are safe.

Editor’s note: In August of 2004 I went to an Endocrinologist who prescribed .4mg Estradol and 2 mg of Premarin. In November of 2004 I had to stop hormones because of a bloodclot in my leg. I am Presently hoping to restart hormones soon after blood levels are satisfactory. When I do restart it will be without the Premarin.

I used to kid my girlfriend about her cleaning habits. No matter where she was she always felt obligated to clean up. I’ve always at least cleaned up after myself but not to the point she does. Even if we’re in a bar she’ll take everything in front of us bring it up to the bar, ask for a rag and wipe up the place we were sitting in front of. She’d even do this kind of thing in other peoples homes. I’d explain that’s what waitresses are paid for. Now after restarting hormones for a couple of months I find myself doing the same thing everywhere I go. Even others have noticed. My bartender recently pointed that out to me. I don’t even think about it.

Another change is I’ve always been into video games. I’d spend hours at it. I even had a web site devoted too it. Suddenly I stopped and lost all intrest and closed the site and stopped playing. While I’ve never been a sports nut I always at least watched the major games especially when the local teams were playing. Now I’m not intrested at all. Out of the blue I developed an intrest in sewing. I used to throw out shirts with missing buttons and now I’m making myself an apron. Wow! Does this mean at the family holiday gatherings I’ll automatically start washing dishes with the girls instead of watching football with the guys? I tend to think so. The wierd thing is my behavior is changing and I’m not even offically out of the closet yet, though that will be soon. Even the words I’ve used have changed all without even thinking about it. It makes me wonder who creates stereo-types. Is it really society or hormones? Fortunatley I don’t mind these changes. In fact I embrace them.

About three years ago I tried the hormones for the second time. I stayed on them for almost six months. Then something happened that scared me and I suddenly stopped them. I’ll tell you why. I always have always been attracted to women. if you check my bio you’ll see that I can’t stand men. I can’t even imagine a friendship with one let alone a relationship even if I become the woman I desire. One day I noticed something. This woman whose derrierre I have admired and lusted after for years suddenly didn’t intrest me. Instead I noticed this one guys ass and it shocked the hell out of me enough to quit the hormones. Why? Was it psychological? I don’t think so.

This time on hormones (2 months) I’ve noticed none of that. if anything, no one intrests me any more. The one thing I did notice was that all three times on hormones I did notice one thing though. I suddenly got intrested in shopping… shopping… Shopping.

Hmmmm.. so my changing estrogen soaked brain is coming to a conclusion here, but is it logical? If you want to stop a woman from shopping give her testosterone and if my girlfriend wants her sons to clean there rooms she should give them estrogen. I wonder if all the worlds problems could be solved this easily?

Sounds logical to me.

Laura, 2006 @ Laura’s Playground

What is Gender Identity?

Gender is a primary category in which individuals both identify themselves and are identified by others. Gender is not a set of binary categpries, but rather a spectrum. The concept of gender can be restrictive in many ways. People are generally expected to identify as a particular gender, the one which has been assigned to them, and act in specific ways deemed accordingly. While gender roles are the expectations a culture has of one’s behavior as appropriate for male or female, gender identity is, the individual’s actual subjective sense of belonging to the female or male category or neither of the two.

Some people discover that their gender identity does not match the gender role they have been assigned, a condition traditionally referred to as gender dysphoria. In other circumstances, children may be born with both sets of genitalia, a condition referred to as being intersexed.

However, bipolar definitions of gender with the assumption of them matching one’s biological sex can create an either/or situation in which people fail to see the existence of an in between. There are severe ramifications. People who do not identify as the gender they have been assigned face the threat of violence, actual physical attacks, verbal assaults, in the worst cases murder, and at the very least mockery and scrutiny.

Interpretations of Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation

Various research and theoretical writing from people such as Kate Bornstein and John Money have examined the notion that gender is a fluid category with room for movement. (Crooks and Baur1998 and Bornstein, 1994) Bipolar definitions, for the most part, require that the gender roles for both men and women involve heterosexuality. This is not always the case. Gay men and lesbian women continue to define themselves as men and women while maintaining primary interest in people of the same gender. There is a conceptual middle ground, almost a crossing between the continuum of gender and sexuality. The existence of people who openly cross this line is certain. Gender identity theories are complex and explanations range from those rooted in psychological, sociological, and biological interpretations, to the personal anecdotes of those whose life experiences have led them to examine the concept of gender. Gender Assignment

Sex is generally referred to as the biological category involving the existence of certain genitalia and reproductive capabilities. Many times people attribute the word “natural” or “normal” to that which exists biologically. Gender is a category which currently maintains two supposed distinct and opposing components. The truth is that many variations in sex exist on a purely biological level. For example, turner’s syndrome involves the existence of female reproductive internal and external structures (Crooks and Baur 1998). Most people with this identify as female however they do not develop breasts nor are they fertile. Klinefelter’s syndrome involves the development of small testes, male reproductive internal structures but also may result in feminization of secondary sex characteristics such as breast development and rounded body contours(Crooks and Baur, 1998). People with Klinefelter’s vary in their gender identity. Androgen insensitivity syndrome involves a lack of set of either male of female internal structures (Crooks and Baur 1998). Puberty may result in breast development but menstruation does not occur. Although they have XY chromosomes, these people mainly identify as female. Several other examples of “natural,” biological contradictions to the binary definitions of sex exist. Suzanne Kessler discussed several problems in choosing the gender of “intersexed infants…babies born with genitals that are neither male nor female.” (Kessler, 1990 ) She notes that the ground on which the determination of a biological male or female is made are socially rooted in “…such cultural factors as the ‘correct’ length of the penis and the capacity of the vagina.” (Kessler, 1990) This sex assignment by persons other than the individual him/herself can cause conflict later in life. If one thing is clear, it is the idea that whatever the root of an individual’s gender identity, it should be a personal decision.

It is important, therefore, to remember that gender identity could have biological roots, but it does not necessarily have to. Many people maintain a gender identity which opposes the gender role they are assigned without having a biologically identifiable root to their gender identity. Gender is a fluid category involving a spectrum of attributes which contribute to gender identity. In the biological respect, there are examples of chromosomal and hormonal combinations in which an individual cannot strictly be deemed a man or woman. In this respect, there are as many sexes as there are humans. On the psychological and social level, several people do not feel that they fit in with other people of the same gender as themselves- they do not feel a part of the gender that they have been assigned without any identifiable biological (hormonal, chromosomal) distinctions between themselves and other people of the same gender. Gender and sex do not necessarily coincide, nor do gender assignment and gender identity. Often times the concepts of gender identity, gender role, and sexual orientation become mixed. But, each is separate and not necessarily a determinant of the next.

Transgender People

The notion of a gender continuum becomes a reality by examining the existence transgender people. The broadest definition of people who identify as transgender includes “anyone who bends or challenges traditional gender roles” (Youth Resource Library). Transgender people contest gender norms “by wearing clothing not generally associated with their own sex and in some cases by modifying their bodies to be more like those of the other sex”(Youth Resource Library). This definition encompasses a large number of people including: intersexed people, transvestites, drag queens/kings, transexuals, and androgynes.

Intersexed people, as mentioned before, are born with genitals “which show characteristics of both sexes” (Youth Resource Library). Transvestites or crossdressers wear clothing traditionally worn by the other gender on occasion, but do not have the desire to change their sex. It is estimated that the percentage of crossdressers in the heterosexual and homosexual communities is about equally at 10% (Crooks & Baur, 1998). This means that 90% of transvestites are heterosexual (Crooks & Baur, 1998). Drag queens/kings present exagerated images of men and women using stereotypes mainly for entertainment. Transexuals feel trapped in the body of the wrong sex. Many transexual people develop a sense of inconformity with their genital anatomy at a young age; some recall identifying strongly with characteristics of the other sex as early as five, six, or seven tears of age (Crooks & Baur 1998). Most transexual people lead heterosexual lifestyles and “…prefer to have sexual relations with a member of the other sex.” – meaning other than the gender they identify as (Crooks and Baur 1998). About 50% of those who have sex changes are female to male transexuals (FTM) (Crooks &Baur;, 1998). The other half are male to female (MTF) (Crooks & Baur, 1998). The number of people living as the gender other than the one they were assigned range from 50,000 to 75,000 and an estimated 25,000 Americans have sex-changing surgery (Brook, 1998). Androgynes or gender blenders “merge the characteristics of both sexes” (Crooks and Baur,1998).

Being transgender has no determinable correlation to being homosexual. Apart from sexuality, transgender people confront gender roles and act in opposition to them. Although they are distinct and unique, each of the above categories challenges gender roles.

The Impact of Gender Identity

The gender identity of an individual can have an incredible impact on his/her life experiences. For example an individual might maintain the gender identity which conflicts with the gender role s/he is assigned. In this case gender, one category generally perceived as simplistic and bipolar, becomes an area of extreme confusion and discontent. Aside from genitalia, which remains generally unexposed, society maintains certain expectation of what each gender should look, sound, and act like. Any deviation from these rigid models opens a person up to at the very least ridicule. Challenging gender roles is often the source of harrassment. Adolescence is a period of growth and development already filled with feelings of awkwardness. Understanding of these concepts open doors to a world of greater understanding and possibly even compassion. Presently, there is little space for those who do not fit within a specific set of gender definitions and regulations. There is a need to look beyond what we see or think we know about other people and start listening to what they know about themselves.

References

Bornstein, K., Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us. Vintage Books, 1994
Brook, J., Sex Change Industry a Boon to Small City. New York Times November 8, 1998
Crooks, R. & Baur, K., Our Sexuality: Seventh Edition. Brooks/ Cole Publishing Company, 1997
Kessler, S., “The Medical Construction of Gender: Case Management of Intersexed Infants” in Signs. Division of Natural Sciences, State University of New York College at Purchase, 1990
Stoltenberg, J., “How Men Have (a) Sex.” in Reconstructing Gender: A Multicultural Anthology. Mayfield Publishing Company, 1997
Youth Resource Library Transgender: What is it? youthresource.com/library/trans.htm

youthresource.com/feat/trans/art_gen.htm – 2004

Transgenderism

Transgenderism is the practice of transgressing gender norms. A Transgender person is someone whose gender display at least sometimes runs contrary to what other people in the same culture would normally expect. Transgender folks come in several flavors:

FTM (female to male) are people who were born female but see themselves as partly to fully masculine.
MTF (male to female) are people who were born male but see themselves as partly to fully feminine.
Intersexed are those born with some combination of male and female physiology [similar to hermaphrodite], who may accept as natural their mixed gender.

Gender variations are more common than most people suspect, because many people hide their true nature out of fear for their safety and security. Many people explore transgender behavior without identifying themselves as transgendered. Women wearing pants may not seem transgender today, but fifty years ago it would have been. Boys wearing “girl’s clothes” might not see themselves as inherently feminine, yet enjoy playing in this way. While crossdressing is enjoyed by both males and females, it appears to be more pronounced in males because of an imbalance in norms of attire and attitude (we see less transgression when a woman wears a suit).

In order to understand the difference between someone who is gay, lesbian, or bisexual, and someone who is transgender, you need to be clear on the distinction between sex and gender. Simplistically, sex is polarity of anatomy, gender is polarity of appearance and behavior. As one becomes more closely involved with transgenderism, these definitions quickly break down, but they serve as a good starting point.

BIPOLARITY

Most people think there are just two sexes, male and female. Such is not the case. People who are intersexed and people who are transsexual constitute sexes which are neither exactly male nor exactly female.

Likewise, gender is not a simple case of “either/or. ” Gender is exhibited by countless signals, from articles of clothing to cosmetics to hairstyles to conversational styles to body language and much more. Though our culture tends to group characteristics into “masculine” and “feminine”, many people find some amount of gender transgression exciting, so there is some fluidity between the two categories. Ultimately, gender is a “mix and match” mode of self-expression, and people within our culture are ever finding new ways to express their gender, with exciting subtleties and intriguing implications.

In general, it works best to think of all effects – sexual orientation, gender identity, sexual identity, and any others – as varying along a continuous spectrum of self-expression, rather than in just one of two or three ways.

SEXUAL ORIENTATION vs. GENDER IDENTITY vs. SEXUAL IDENTITY

Sexual orientation, gender identity, and sexual identity are independent of each other. A person may express any variation of each of these in any combination. To discourage the free expression of identity and orientation by an individual is to impose a damaging burden of conformity.

Sexual Orientation is which sex you find erotically attractive: other (hetero), same (homo), or both (bi). Sexual Identity is how you see yourself physically: male, female, or in between. If someone is born female, but wishes to see their body as male in all respects, their sexual identity is male. It is generally rude to speak of such a person as female, since it denies that person their right to inhabit the social and physical role of their choosing. We refer to such a person as a transsexual, whether or not they have had any surgery. Many FTM transsexuals do not undergo genital surgery, as the results so far are relatively crude and the procedure terribly expensive. As surgical technique improves, such people will be able to achieve more satisfying realizations of their dreams. However, since it is healthier for these people to live in accord with their wishes and heartfelt need, we call them men, though the may have a vagina where one would expect to find a penis.

The situation for MTF transsexuals is equivalent, except that the surgery produces a much more satisfying result, both cosmetically and functionally.

Nonetheless, many transgender people who look like transsexuals in every other regard elect to not have the surgery. Those who retain male sexual functioning tend to refer to themselves as transgenderists, since it is only their gender which is changed. Those that give up (or wish to give up) all male sexual function tend to think of themselves as transsexuals, since they change their sexual function, and therefore their sexual identity. Again, not all transsexuals undergo genital surgery. Some enjoy the atrophy of penis and testicles induced by taking female hormones, and others choose less radical surgical options such as castration (orchiectomy).

Gender Identity is how you see yourself socially: man, woman, or a combination of both. One may have a penis but prefer to relate socially as a woman, or one may have a vagina but prefer to relate as a man. One might prefer to be fluid, relating sometimes as a man and sometimes as a woman. Or one might not identify as either one, relating androgynously.

DEFINITIONS/TERMS

People tend to categorize themselves. This identification can be helpful in finding like-minded others with whom to make friends, but it can be hurtful if imposed on an individual by others, well-intentioned or not. In relating to transgender folk, it is best to avoid pushing an individual to choose a category for themselves (tell you what they are). Some folks prefer to explore the fringes of category, and such push for identification work against personal exploration and fulfillment.

Transgender folk have self-identified as:

Drag Queen: Female-emulating male, usually campy, often (not always) gay.
Butch: Masculine-appearing person.
Femme: Feminine-appearing person.
Drag King: Male-emulating woman.
Intersex: Person born with mixed sexual physiology. Often [surgically re-]’assigned’ at birth, such practice is coming under well-founded attack as a hurtful violation of a person’s well-being.
Transvestite: Person who enjoys wearing clothes identified with the opposite gender, often but not always straight.
Crossdresser: Polite term for transvestite.
Transgenderist: Person who lives as gender opposite to anatomical sex, i.e. man living as woman but retaining penis (& sexual functioning). Sexual orientation varies.
Androgyne: Person appearing and identifying as neither man nor woman, presenting a gender either mixed or neutral.
Transsexual: Person whose sexual identity is opposite to their assignment at birth. Not all TS folk undergo ‘sex reassignment surgery’ (SRS), for various reasons, including personal preference. Sexual orientation varies.
Transgender Community: A loose association of people who transgress gender norms in a wide variety of ways. Celebrating a recently born self-awareness, this community is growing fast across all lines, including social, economic, political, and philosophical divisions. The central ethic of this community is unconditional acceptance of individual exercise of freedoms including gender and sexual, identity and orientation.

PREJUDICE and DISCRIMINATION

Unfortunately, the transgender community suffers from severe victimization. Society often reacts to gender transgression by trying to discourage the behavior, punishing the individual. Transgender folk are much more likely than others to commit suicide, to be murdered, to be fired from their job, to be beaten up, and to be hurt in many more ways, some as blatant as open ridicule, some as insidious as non-hiring. There are places where people, simply because their gender expression runs contrary to the norm, are subjected – usually by their families – to the emotional trauma and physical suffering of barbaric “therapeutic” practices such as imprisonment and shock “therapy”. While these are generally done for the “welfare” of the individual, they are too often done to comfort the individual’s family, with little regard for the suffering of the individual. The level of trauma suffered by transgender folk is much higher than the norm, and is reflected in more difficult lives and greater incidence of depression and despair.

All of this is beginning to change, as people learn that there is no harm visited on either the individuals or their families or workplace by gender transgression. In fact, there are and have always been cultures where gender transgression is accepted as a natural part of the life of the culture.

The only harm visited by transgenderism is the same harm that is still too often visited on others by the forces of racism. In the case of transgender folk, the words for the feelings that cause people to oppress us are fear of difference and transphobia. The words for the feelings that bring about an end to the suffering and a healing of this aspect of our society are compassion and tolerance.

altsex.org/transgender/Nangeroni.html – 2004

Telling Parents

This is for everyone who’s planning to tell their parents soon and to everyone whose parents know but just don’t understand (I apologize in advance to FtM readers and non-transsexual readers. This is written in terms of a transsexual woman. I hope you can find useful insight regardless)…

As you may know when I came out to my mum last summer she was very accepting and supportive of me. This was mainly because of how she had come to think of me and our relationship in the time since I had come out to her as gay in January of the previous year. Accepting me as gay had been a terrible struggle for her, she hadn’t rejected me in any way but she was concerned about how I would be treated, if I would have a happy life and so on. She says now that at first it seemed like a terrible thing to come to terms with but now it seems like nothing at all. At that time we began to talk a lot more and a lot more personally and our relationship shifted from parent/child to adult friends. I helped her through stress as much as she helped me. We talked about our feelings and found we had a lot in common. She told me things like how she too couldn’t live a life where she wasn’t doing something that would help people rather than exploit them and that she believed going to university was important not to learn facts but to learn /life/, that it gave you the opportunity to discover and reinvent yourself away from people who’ve known you since you were born or since you were a pre-teen. Our relationship was such that when I told my mum I was transsexual, she believed me and trusted in my judgement. She knew that I knew my mind and tried to understand myself and keep in touch with my feelings (we’re long believers of the “it’s good to cry” philosophy). She didn’t doubt that when I said something I meant and truly believed it. That I would have thought about it and understood it and everything it would lead to. She talked about unconditional love and loving the person not the role. She said the most important thing was our happiness and she trusted in me enough to believe I knew myself enough to know what I /had/ to do to be happy.

I was very lucky to have such an accepting and supportive parent and to have gone through the previous coming out experience which brought us both to that point. However, just because my mum was supportive and accepting from the word go, she wasn’t understanding. She trusted me to know what I needed to do but she didn’t have /any/ idea what that meant. She was as scared and confused as any parent. Since then things have improved greatly and we’ve talked about her feelings during those first few months. I’m sure that all or at least some of this will apply to /all/ parents and I want to share them with you so you can go into coming out to your parents or educating your parents armed with the knowledge of the sorts of feelings, fears and misconceptions they will be holding…

My mum had no concept of what it meant to be transsexual. She didn’t understand it /at all/. Now my mum is a very intelligent woman and I assumed that as such she would be aware of at least the basics. She wasn’t. At all. She told me at Christmas that she had spent the first few months expecting me to ‘become’ a transsexual. That I was going to live the rest of my life as ‘a transsexual’. She had no idea of what that was. She’d been exposed to absolutely no role models of successful adult or youth transsexuals. As far as she knew she didn’t know anyone else who was transsexual. In her mind I was going to become some kind of amalgamation of every half understood stereotype and comment she’d heard for transsexuals, transvestites and drag queens and that I was going to live in some kind of transsexual ghetto with other transsexuals or walk the street in a ball gown and full make-up calling everyone ‘dhaaarling!’. None of it was really that clear. She had no concept, she could only imagine. And parents always imagine the worst when they face the unknown.I first became aware of this when my mum, some months later, asked me questions like “what will you wear when you… er transition?” and “well what will you do?”. Many parents would be too proud to ask questions like this, especially if they’ve decided that you’re doing the wrong thing (it would be like saying “You haven’t thought this through at all! It’s completely the wrong thing for you! …um, what does this involve again?”). The correct response to this question is to say “I’m just going to be like any woman my age, I’ll dress like any of your friends 20 year old daughters would, when this is finished I’ll just be a normal girl.”
Of course the truly correct way to deal with this is to make sure your parents understand from the start that you will just be a normal woman (or man if you’re going in that direction) when this is all over. You really need to make this clear, it’s not a conclusion they’ll come to on their own. Show them pictures and websites of successfully transitioned transsexual women your age, let them see they’re just normal girls getting on with their life and relating to the world as normal girls. You’re not turning into a freak you’re turning into just another person. The only difference is you’ll be the other sex and a lot happier.
She had no concept of what hormones would do, of when surgery happens and when it can’t happen or, perhaps most importantly, of the concept of passing. She didn’t understand what hormones would do and what they wouldn’t do. She realized they would give me breasts but I’ve met people who didn’t know that — don’t assume they know anything no matter how obvious. She didn’t put passing into the equation at all, in her mind hormones would have no effect on me at in other people’s eyes. No logically I’m sure she could have thought that through and realized that I was going to look different but she /wasn’t/ thinking logically.I became aware of this when I noticed that she had all sorts of fears about the rest of my life living in constant danger.
Again, explain from the start how hormones work. Show your parents impressive pictures of perfectly passing transsexual women your age. Tell them that in twelve months time you will look more like a sister or female cousin than the person you look like now. Explain the simple things, fat redistribution, skin texture, breasts and how people judge other people’s sex. She told me once that she’d had a revelation looking at other women in the street and realizing the sheer diversity in size and shape of people that society has no problem calling women. Before this point she’d had the completely illogical belief that I’d have to look like a cheer leader to pass. Your parents might have complete blind spots in their mind about tall people being able to be women if the tall person in question is you…
She believed that I’d live the rest of my life alone without love. That I would never be able to find a loving partner as a transsexual. The thing she was most concerned about was my ability to live a happy and successful life and she didn’t have any concept of transsexuality being compatible with that.She told me this when I came out to her. I was very surprised considering how happy and confident I was that I was going to be loved and liked as a gay man. She didn’t see that as a woman I’d be more likely to find a partner than as a gay man. She didn’t understand that I was becoming more normal not less. Yet again she had a lot of positive gay role models and no positive transsexual women role models.
Explain that you’ll just be like any other woman your age and just as likely to find happiness, love and success as any other woman. Use words like ‘woman’ rather than transsexual, talk in terms of your self and your life being female and normal. You’re not becoming a freak, you /feel/ like a freak now. You are /far/ more likely to be happy and successful in life after transition that you ever were before.
She had a lot of trouble seeing me as female when I looked male. She’s said since that she sees me completely as female now but when she first found out about what I was going through she had never thought about things in that way.Again she told me this on our walk around the Whistable coast line when I came out to her. She said that she didn’t think I /was/ very female, that yes I looked female and my body language was but she didn’t think I acted like a girl. I asked her what she meant and she came out with things like I was assertive and hungry to learn.
Explain the difference between gender and gender roles and stereotypes. Ask your parent if perhaps they might be being extremely sexist, perhaps if you turn it around and said, “if it wasn’t me but instead some other girl, would you seriously tell them they couldn’t be a woman because they want to learn things or because they ask questions and get things done?” ask them are they seriously saying all women are content to be unassertive and ignorant? Parents can be extremely sexist about what makes a woman when attempting to prove to themselves that you’re not. Help them to see that what they’re saying would most probably offend or even disgust them in any other context. I told my mum that gender is the way we think and feel about ourselves as men and women whereas gender roles are all the stereotypes, baggage and ‘rules’ that society piles on top of men and women. There’s nothing biological in women to make them /all/ likeable people who do all the housework and love pink and there’s nothing biological in men to make them /all/ fast car loving, competitive sports fans…
My mum felt terrible and guilt stricken to discover that I had been miserable, uncomfortable and depressed all through my childhood and /she hadn’t noticed/. She found it very difficult to cope with the amount of pain this meant I’d gone through on my own.Months later she told me how much this thought upset her and how she was having difficulty forgiving herself for not noticing. She said she’d noticed I wasn’t happy during some of my teenage but that she’d assumed the door slamming, lack of visible friends and staying in bed all day were down to hormones not depression.
I sent my parents a long email explaining how much they’d done for me as I grew up, how while I was very depressed at school, home was always a haven and happy place for me and the only place I really felt I had any chance of being myself. How although I knew that if I had been a girl from the very start I’d have had a much more happy school and social life and I wouldn’t have chosen to do the same things with my life, I always made the most of the situation I was in, I read, I programmed computer games, I played pretend with my brother, I built an awful lot of lego and I sang in the privacy of my own room. Perhaps I wouldn’t have done the same things if I hadn’t been transsexual, but they were still a good childhood, even if it was a compromise childhood and all the best parts happened when I was at home. With my parents.

OK, that’s all the insight I’m giving today. I hope you can keep this advice in mind when tell your parents and when you’re helping them to understand and accept the situation they’ll feel suddenly thrust into.

Although this didn’t come direct from my mum, I hope this more open ended advice will also be useful:

Remember your parents are most likely, shocked, scared, guilty and confused. They don’t understand what you’ve gone through, what you are going through and what you will be going through. Most likely their first reaction will not be a positive as my mum’s. Depending on personality and situation they may decide to fall into the parent role and, all though they’re in no state to do so, decide what’s right and wrong for you without any of the relevant information needed to make this decision. It’s quite likely they will go into denial, maybe they’ll pretend it’s not happening, maybe they’ll blame something or someone completely irrationally and say that you’ve been corrupted. Only you know how your parents are likely to react to such feelings as shock, fear, guilt, confusion and even loss (your parents may think of you as a son rather than a person in your own right). Your parents may not be able to cope with any kind of shift in how they perceive, treat and think about you, at least at first. There may also be additional guilt if you’ve ever told them this before and they didn’t believe you or told you it would go away. Even more if they shipped you off to a psychologist when you were 12 and then never talked about it again. Any of these reactions will most likely cause you a lot of pain. It’s very likely that you’ve learnt to relate to at least one of your parents with some degree of argument or confrontation as you grew up.

Here’s the important thing. Bear everything I’ve said today in mind. Don’t feel offended, don’t even get upset. Stay rational, stay calm and keep your parents feelings in mind. You owe it to your parents to /help them/ through this. Do not expect any kind of support or understanding from them, don’t expect /anything at all/. Take any comment that you might find offensive or upsetting or rejecting and /give them the benefit of the doubt/. They don’t know what they’re talking about, they don’t know how to react, how to help or how to make this better. They don’t understand and they’re scared. HELP THEM. If you thought they deserved to know then they also deserve to understand, to know exactly what’s going to happen to you and /not/ to lose you because of this. Don’t let this turn into a conflict, do not get angry, don’t take any comment they make personally. When your parents say something that suggests ignorance or fear, don’t get angry, don’t storm off, don’t cry. Use every rejection, ignorant comment and attack as a cry for help. Learn from what they say to you, find out what they don’t understand and /explain/ it to them, slowly and rationally. The most important thing is that you talk. Talk as much as possible. Let them know everything that’s going to happen. Give them /a lot/ of time to get used to the idea and give them /a lot/ of information to read as they do. Show your parents that you think, show your parents you know what you’re doing, show them your confident, show them that /you/ are the rational one here, that /you/ know the facts and that /you/ are going to be there to help them through this. If they argue with you or shout at you or doubt you /do not lower yourself to their level/, you owe that to them. Help them through this, they don’t want to lose you, they don’t understand, they’re afraid. No matter what other concerns they have — what other people think, how this will affect their marriage, if you’re being corrupted or delusional — when it comes down to it your parents want you to be happy and successful and loved in your life. Realize that even the most withit and understanding parents can have trouble understanding that you can be happy /and/ deal with your transsexuality. They may realize that your transsexuality makes you miserable, they may understand that transition will make that better, but most likely they won’t realize that going down the path of transition does not close off the paths to a happy, successful life. Help them to see that if anything transition opens /all/ the paths and makes everything easier in the long term.

Just remember an ignorant comment is not the cue to a shouting match, it’s a cue to you that your parents don’t understand something and you need to explain it to them with kindness, compassion and understanding. Don’t drop to their level. They’ll thank you later.

Since I talked everything through with my mum things have improved immeasurably. She talked everything through with my Dad and we’ve all become closer. After a few months they became comfortable with calling me Zoe and using female pronouns all the time. They began apologising if they got it wrong. After a while my mum began to truly think of me as female and become quite upset or even confused if others got it wrong. After a lot of pushing by me to talk about it to her friends, my mum told a number of people close to her in her life through which it began to feel even more normal to her. Before christmas my mum told all of my relatives of my situation. She did this by phone and in person, in each case describing it in terms of me being a girl who’d struggled through life trapped by the wrong body until now when I was finally being myself and putting things right. Edited copies of my webpage helped. Since then I’ve received nothing but support and acceptance from all my relatives and I’m certain such a universally positive reaction is down to the way my mum presented the situation to them. At christmas my mum told me that when she tells people who don’t know about what’s happened in my life they all tend to tell her how sorry they feel for her and how terrible it must be. She said that she doesn’t really understand that, how it really doesn’t feel like a bad thing and in a funny way it just seems like a normal and natural part of growing up to her now. With hindsight she’d noticed certain things. She says when we were looking around universities in early 1998 she’d seen me coming out of the men’s toilets at a motorway service station surrounded by business men and lorry drivers and how completely delicate and out of place I’d seemed and how I just don’t look incongruous any more. Things can work out with your family.

By Zone, freeuk.com/zoe.html 2004

My Little Girl’s Trapped in a Boy’s Body

At the age of 3, Simon was playing with tea-sets. At 5 he fell in love with Barbie dolls. And at 7 he told his mum: “I wish I’d been born a girl.”

But Pat wasn’t shocked… she already knew there was something different about her eldest son. He never touched boys’ toys and he only ever wanted girls as his playmates.

“As a teacher, I didn’t take too much notice at first, because children will play with whatever’s to hand,” says Pat. ” But it gradually dawned on me that he always went for the girls’ toys. The cars and garages we bought him were left untouched – he preferred to potter around the kitchen with a tea-towel tied around him like a skirt. One day, after I’d dropped him off at nursery school, I peered through the window and saw him playing with a pretty little tea-set.”

By the time Simon was 4, he’d made it clear he only wanted to play with the girls. “He couldn’t play with the boys,”” says Pat. “He had nothing in common with them. He was a very gentle child, so he was always being pushed around… They didn’t understand him.”

Pat and her husband Michael, a solictor, decided to send Simon to a boys-only school in the hope it would toughen him up and make him ‘normal’.

Pat admits: “It was a terrible mistake. Simon was very unhappy – the school was formal and competetive. He was often buliied – and once he was thrown on a rubbish heap. But above all, he missed girls’ company.”

They moved him to a smaller mixed school where he spent two happy years. Then he started secondary school, which was fine at first, especially when he got a part in the school play.

“He loved dressing up especially in girls’ clothes,” says Pat. “He’d raid my cupboards for things to wear. Then he took up dancing classes and won a competition dressed up in frills and feathers. His father sat squirming with embarrassment, although he hid it well from his son.”

But Simon’s happy schooldays didn’t last long. His drama teacher made a comment about his sexuality to a group of older boys… and the bullying started.

“I went up to the school and had it out with the teachers. Simon might be different, but it isn’t up to them to ridicule him. By then I was at my wits’ end.”

And birthday parties were a nightmare – Simon didn’t have any friends. Pat would invite her friends’ children around, but Simon was never invited back to their homes.

“We did our best to protect him. When other kids came round we’d suggest he put away his collection of Barbie Dolls so they wouldn’t tease him. He’d refuse, but he never complained when they took the mickey… He seemed to think it was his lot in life.”

When he was 7, Pat took him for assessment by child psychologists at a London Hospital. But they couldn’t help with the question of Simon’s true gender. “I never had anyone to talk to,” says Pat. “People just didn’t want to know… And there didn’t seem to be any experts I could turn to.”

Pat was at the end of her tether when she heard of a clinic at St. George’s Hospital in Tooting, South London, where an Italian doctor, Domenico Di Ceglie specialises in helping children with gender identification problems. “I was desperate to speak to someone who could help. They were wonderful,” says Pat.

“Boys and girls can sometimes grow up confused about what gender they really are,” says Dr Di Ceglie. “But it’s more noticeable in boys because a tomboyish girl is much more easily accepted than a feminine boy.”

“Research has shown gender problems can be caused by biological, psychological or family factors,” he continues. “It’s difficult to predict early on whether a child will become a transsexual, homosexual, or revert to heterosexual development. But by the early teens, we have a good idea, and by the late teenage years we know for certain.”

“If a boy consitently behaves like a girl, or a girl like a boy, then a professional should be consulted. But the child must be treated sensitively.”

Simon was 11 when he started going to sessions at St George’s. Now 13, he goes to a performing arts school where floaty shirts and jewellry fit in easily. Pat, who lives in Surrey, admits she’s embarrassed about what people must think. “One night, a friend of my other son’s was at the house. His father – who’d never met Simon – came to pick him up. When Simon waltzed in wearing a long velvet cloak and earrings, he asked if it was my daughter. ‘No’ I replied. ‘It’s Simon.’ I don’t know who was more embarrassed!”

But what really haunts Pat is what will happen to Simon eventually. “He doesn’t hate his male body like some boys at the clinic do… And he doesn’t buy girls’ panties. But I look at his make-up, dyed hair and clothes and I’m terrified he’ll be lynched one night.”

Simon’s still too young for anyone to know what his sexuality will be, but his mother knows he’ll have to face many difficult decisions as he gets older.

“It’s sad. People don’t understand,” she says. “But it helps to know he’s not alone – there are hundreds of children like him all over the country.”

“I just don’t know he’d be happier if he’d been born a girl. I only wish I could have been more help to him… by giving birth to him as a girl rather than as a boy.”

by Alix Palmer
From Woman’s Own
mermaids.freeuk.com/woman.html – 2004

Trans Youth at Risk of Depression

A new study conducted by La Trobe University has discovered members of the transgender community face higher than average levels of anxiety, depression and suicide ideation.

The report, From Blues to Rainbows, conducted by Dr Elizabeth Smith at La Trobe University, in association with beyondblue, suggested familial support was integral in maintaining the mental health and well being of young people transitioning – with majority of young trans people facing discrimination and bullying.

Smith said a supportive school environment where teachers used the correct pronouns and appropriate language, assisted in ensuring trans students were less likely to be bullied, but much still needed to be done.

“Where participants had support from their parents, they were half as likely to be diagnosed with depression and more likely to seek professional help if needed,” Dr Smith said. “Mental health was also significantly better if peer, teacher and school relationships were posit.”

beyondblue CEO Georgie Harman said it was deeply troubling that gender diverse and transgender young people experienced such high rates of abuse at an age and stage when many young people were exploring and coming to understand their identity and sexuality.

“Teachers, parents and kids themselves should learn from this research and support gender diverse and transgender young people, before they reach a point where they experience depression, anxiety or suicidal thoughts. beyondblue will be drawing upon this research to shape and expand our future work with transgender and gender diverse communities,” she said.

The findings came from a study of 190 young trans people, The results suggested 66 per cent had seem a health professional for their mental health in the past twelve months. 38 per cent had suicidal thoughts and had seen a professional regarding this. 33 per cent suffered from stress and depression and 45 per cent had been diagnosed with anxiety (well above the national average of 25 per cent).

Two thirds of trans people also reported some form of abuse or discrimination because of their gender identity.

Defining Sex and Gender

The following definitions form a helpful guide to understanding issues around gender dysphoria.

Physical Sex: To what sex do the organs of the body match, i.e. male, female or hermaphrodite.

Gender: is expressed in terms of masculinity and femininity. It is largely culturally determined and effects how people perceive themselves and how they expect others to behave.

Gender Identity: The gender to which one feels one belongs.

Attributed Gender: The gender and sex that one is taken to be by others. This is usually an immediate, unconscious categorisation of a person as being a man or a woman, irrespective of their mode of dress

Transsexual: A person who feels a consistent and overwhelming desire to transition and fulfil their life as a member of the opposite gender. Most transsexual people actively desire and complete Sex Reassignment Surgery.

Transvestite: The clinical name for a crossdresser. A person who dresses in the clothing of the opposite sex. Generally, these persons do not wish to alter their body.

Transgender: A term used to include transsexuals, transvestites and crossdressers. A transgenderist can also be a person who, like a transsexual, transitions – sometimes with the help of hormone therapy and / or cosmetic surgery – to live in the gender role of choice, but has not undergone, and generally does not intend to undergo, surgery.

Hermaphroditism or Intersexuality: The physiological sex is ambiguous and may or may not be accompanied by various degrees of gender dysphoria. The condition may arise due to certain congenital disorders or hormone imbalances in the foetus or placenta.

Homosexuality: Sexual attraction is felt for people of the same, rather than the opposite, sex. Bisexuality is where sexual preference is for either or both sexes. Gay men and lesbians are usually content with their gender, including some of those who crossdress and perform “drag” acts.

Gender Trust, 2003, This information sheet is distributed by the Gender Trust and is intended as a basis for information only. The Gender Trust does not accept responsibility for the accuracy of any information contained in this sheet.

Transgender Voice Therapy and Treatment

For the male to female transsexual acquiring a female voice which is convincing, even over the telephone, can be one of the most difficult aspects of changing gender role. Speech therapy is a very important part of the gender reassignment package and may or may not be available through medical referral. This information sheet does not make any recommendations or comments on the relative benefits of different ways of changing the voice such as surgery and re-education through speech therapy. The following three articles report on different approaches to the subject.

1) Voice Surgery for Male to Female Transsexuals by Selina of Newcastle upon Tyne (575). First Published in GEMSNEWS No. 24

This is an area of treatment which is sadly neglected and lacking in the UK and about which there is very little reliable information even amongst professional advisers. I am very surprised that so little priority and importance is placed on having a really acceptable female voice. I have found that whilst I can be accepted as female in personal contact (people generally accept what they see) the telephone is the big problem. As I use the phone a great deal for my business, it is a thorough nuisance having to correct wrong gender assumption umpteen times every day.

After much research I discovered two places where the procedure known as “cricothyroid approximation” is undertaken. One is in Beverly Hills, California, USA and the other is Amsterdam, Holland. I know people who have been to both places. The biggest problem with California is the expense both of the treatment and of travel, hotels, etc. Dr Toby Mayer who does this work has been doing it for a considerable number of years and is thus very experienced. I was quoted $7,000 (approx £4,600) for the surgery which included a reduction of the thyroid cartilage (Adam’s Apple). In Amsterdam a consultation with Prof. H.F. Mahieu to see if surgery was feasible cost approx 200 Guilders (£180) and surgery about 3,000 guilders (£1,200). Having decided on this route and having undergone surgery there, I am in a position to describe what happened to me.

”The initial consultation took most of one day and included meeting with Prof. Mahieu to find out about the procedure and for him to find out about me. He told me that it was an inexact science and that everyone responded differently. Very much in my favour was that I have never smoked and I drink very little. On the deficit side was my age but Prof Mahieu said that I seemed very good for my years and so this was hopefully not a problem. In laymen’s terms what is done is that the hard sections of cartilage, which are separated by soft tissue, are pulled together with stitches thereby putting extra tension on the vocal chords and producing a higher pitch than before.

This causes the thyroid cartilage (Adam’s Apple) to become more prominent and therefore necessitates its reduction, known as a tracheal shave. This is still done at the same time as the pitch raising surgery. Physical examination of ears and throat was followed by photographs of throat, X-ray of throat, blood tests (both for blood group and to check for HIV). Also a phonetogram was taken to record my vocal pitch prior to treatment. It was explained to me that patients must have completed their gender re-assignment before voice surgery can be considered. I was then given an appointment for surgery some months ahead of the consultation date. This interval is usually about six months. The surgery is done on an out-patient basis with return for check-up two days later and again at three months and one year later to monitor results. If at check up it is found that insufficient pitch rise has been maintained, apparently a11 is not lost.

There is a second stage procedure and even a third stage which can be applied should it be deemed necessary. The second stage consists of an endoscopical laryngeal procedure creating a web in the anterior or front part of the glottis. This procedure results in a reduction of the length over which the vocal folds can vibrate so the vocal folds form the web. Negative side effects such as hoarseness and breathiness are said to be possible in patients with a laryngeal web. The stage three procedure which is regarded as only to be undertaken as an absolute last resort consists of scarification and mass reduction of the vocal fold mucosa by CO2 laser vaporisation. This can result in a deterioration of the voice quality which is why it is a last resort.

Before describing the actual treatment I received, let me say that there is nothing to be afraid of. Dr Mahieu and his staff were extremely efficient and kind using most impressive up-to-date facilities. I really suffered nothing that I would describe as pain – only discomfort and no hint of sickness. At this point, I should say perhape that I seem to have a fairly high pain threshold; my GRS surgery was not a problem to me and I never have injections at the dentist. Half an hour before surgery I was given a jab of morphine and atropine in my thigh to dull the senses and give a dry mouth so that I would not want to keep swallowing. Immediately prior to surgery I was given a local anaesthetic to the anterior side of my neck with xylocaine and adrenaline.

My view of what took place was most effectively hidden by a blue plastic sheet which was draped over a bar running horizontally 12″ above my face and the plastic was securely taped around my jawline. From then on I had to lie very still and could hear (but not feel) various sounds from the tools used. From time to time there were scratching, clipping and sizzling sounds and a slight smell of hot flesh as, I assume, various things were cauterised.

After about half an hour Dr Mahieu told me that my cartilage had calcified to a certain extent and that he could not push a needle through (not unexpected) and he would have to drill holes for the thread to pass through. This was done with a dentist’s type drill. The nylon thread was then inserted and initially tightened. I was asked to make an extended ee… sound whicb to my amazement was really high pitched. As Dr Mahieu released the tension my pitch dropped back down to its former level. He said that he was very satisfied and would now pull it up again and tie it off permanently. When he had finished his work he inspected it internally by pushing an endoscope up my nose and down my throat to see that no stitches were visible and that the vocal folds were as they shou1d be. Again he said that it looked fine and he would now reduce what he called “the notch” (Adam’s Apple) with a rotary burr. He then handed over to his aasistant to stitch up the incision in my throat.

The endoscopy was probably the worst part as it made me feel I was choking but it was only quite brief. I was actually on the operating table for one and three quarter hours in total and was then put to bed far a couple of hours to recover. I was brought some light lunch (somewhat late in the day at 2.30pm} and then allowed to leave by taxi for my nearby hotel.

1 was told that I must not try to speak or even whisper for two days and then return to hospital far a check-up. If all was well, which fortunately it was, I could then go home to the UK. On the day of surgery I had great difficulty in swallowing but, nevertheless, managed some soup, a hot cross bun with jam and a dish of ice cream. I slept well and next morning was able to eat a good breakfast with swallowing much improved. I kept my neck covered with a chiffon scarf to avoid frightening Joe Public with the initially rather angry looking bruising and swelling: the bruising faded quite quickly although I still have some swelling.

The stitches came out after eight days at the hands of my own GP’s nurse. It was actually one continuous thread and I was told that it had to be mobilised by pulling at alternate ends and then withdrawn in one piece. The suture came out quite easily and painlessly and the scar is neat and unobtrusive. At this time it gives every indication that it will fade very quickly and hopefully be virtually invisible.

The average male frequency range is quoted by Dr Mahieu as being approx 98 to 131 Hz and the average female range 196 to 262 Hz. Prior to surgery my rnean pitch was measured at 133 Hz which is at the top of the male range. I am writing this article only ten days after surgery while it is still fresh in my mind. It is early days yet for me to know how my voice will be at the three months checkup. For two days following surgery I communicated with masses of little notes and on the third day I tried out my new voice. That is actually too exotic a description for the croaky frog noises that I could make. It sounded like the worst case of laryngitis ever recorded. However, I had fortunately been forewarned what to expect so it came as no real shock, (at least to me!)

In the intervening few days the voice has gradually grown stronger but at this time of writing is still a miserable monotone. I was told that anything from three to twelve months is usually needed for full recovery. I am under no illusions about the surgery being a magic wand and I know that patience and further speech therapy will be needed.

2) Voice Therapy in the Case of a Transsexual

By Meryle Kalra. First published in GEMSNEWS Number 8

This paper was designed to present and evaluate a therapeutic approach to the vocal rehabilitation of a transsexual. It was presented at the International Congress on Sexology, University of Quebec, Montreal, Canada, October 27-31, 1976. The goal was to raise the voice pitch of a 27 year old morphological male who became a female.

The male voice is about one octave lower than that of the female. The average normal range of the male voice lies between 100 Hz and 132 while the habitual pitch levels in normal females reported from study samples range between 142-256 Hz.

No specific data on the incidence of transsexualism have been compiled in Canada or the USA. However, the Erickson Foundation of New York estimates that 2000 people in the US have had sexual conversion up until 1975. Gender alteration male to female is four times more frequent than female to male. Hoenig and Kenna, (1973) found the incidence in England and Wales to be 1.51 transsexuals per 100,000 population. Approximately 1 male per 40,000 population and 1 female per 154,000 population, the male to female ratio being 3.41:1

Materials and methods

The subject, BL was a normally developed physiological male whose sexual identity at age 32 was altered to become that of a female. BL, the second son of 11 children, described herself as being close to her mother, having a strict, controlling father, she remembers feeling sensitive and expressing continuously the wish and desire to become a girl. After successive experiences as a homosexual, a female impersonator and transvestite, BL decided at 29 years to seek sexual identity change and become a female. In 1969 hormone therapy was commenced while several months later sexual reassignment surgery was performed. At the time of her referral for voice therapy BL appeared feminine; however, the distinct male quality to the voice was the most likely characteristic to betray her masculinity. BL complained of being mistaken for a male over the telephone. At the time of her referral her vocal characteristics were judged subjectively to be: 1) male vocal quality; 2) poorly controlled pitch levels; 3) clavicular and shallow breathing patterns; 4) laryngeal tension; 5) absence of vocal resonance; 6) poorly controlled loudness which was associated with irregular pitch use. Without professional guidance the client had obvious difficulty in adjusting the male larynx to the functioning requirements of female larynx. At present no precise histological date describe the effects of oestrogen on the intrinsic muscle mass of the human larynx.

Therapeutic procedures

Voice therapy was administered over a three month period, once a week for approximately 45 minutes each session. Optimum pitch at this time was in the area of D sharp well below middle C at approximately 150Hz. Treatment was directed toward controlling intercostal and diaphragmatic muscle activity to reduce clavicular breathing patterns and lessening pharyngeal tension. Elevation of the optimum pitch to more appropriate and desirable pitch levels was achieved through exercises which reinforced resonance and maintained a balance between the vocal generator and supraglottal resonators. As new pitch levels were acquired, Foeschels’ chewing method was used to increase anterior oral resonance. The first pitch level above optimum pitch was F below middle C at approximately 170Hz. Gradually the fundamental frequency of the voice was moved up the musical scale to G below middle C or approximately 220Hz and the therapeutic procedures were repeated. Analysis of data collected throughout the therapeutic process consisted of both subjective and objective measures.

Results

Subjective data contained a condensed therapy log as well as laryngological examinations during and after therapy to determine whether any structural changes had occurred to the client’s vocal mechanism as a result of therapeutic procedures. Laryngological examination during the course of therapy described the normal configuration of the male larynx in size and appearance and indicated improved function of the crico-thyroid muscle two years post-therapy. No vocal strain or pathology had been induced by raising the client’s original male pitch level to within a low average female pitch range. Optimum pitch had been obtained with maximum comfort for the client’s laryngeal mechanism and integrated into the client’s spontaneous speech patterns. Objective data was demonstrated using a KAY sonograph to determine the fundamental frequency through spectrographic print-outs of voice samples using narrow band widths (45Hz) and wide band widths analysis (300HZ).

Discussion and conclusion

The goal of this study was a) to prescribe a therapeutic model for altering the vocal pitch of a male transsexual, thereby creating a vocal quality more appropriate for a female, and b) to assess the efficacy of this model. Results indicate that in the initial period of therapy the subject exceeded the provided model on imitative speech tasks. At this time excessive laryngeal tension was evident and repeatedly the clinician had to re-establish correct breathing patterns and improve supraglottal resonance through chewing practice.

In the second recording, although laryngeal tension had been reduced, the client ‘was unable to achieve a model of 193Hz introduced on imitative speech tasks. Although an increase in the habitual pitch between the first two recordings could be demonstrated, spontaneous speech deviated from the model by minus 25Hz. Carry over into imitative tasks or transfer to spontaneous speech was not occurring.

For a period of four weeks therapy concentrated on improving carryover from imitative speech work at 193Hz to spontaneous speech. Spectrographic measures for spontaneous speech in the third recording showed the client had increased her habitual pitch to a level close to the stated mode. Her speech had become more functional and stabilized in everyday use. Laryngeal tension was less apparent during spontaneous speech, demonstrating an overall increase in the complementary use of the vocal generator and oral resonator. Improvement in vocal resonance appeared to be directly connected to accentuated anterior oral resonance which best accommodated this higher vocal pitch. The therapeutic success in this case appeared to be an important and significant factor contributing greatly to the improvement of the self-image of the patient. She now perceives herself more completely as a woman, and is perceived by others as a woman, which serves to enhance her self-image and reinforce her new gender identity.

3) Feminine Voice Techniques

A collection of practical suggestions and ideas for self help in the feminisation of the voice, developed by a group of male-to-female transsexuals within the Looking Glass Society. First published in 1997 and reproduced here with thanks to the Looking Glass Society.

Neither hormones nor genital surgery will ‘un-break’ a male voice, and voice-changing surgery is widely regarded as inadvisable, in addition to being at best only a partial solution. Thus, speech training is necessary in order to produce a satisfactory ‘female’’ voice. At first, it may seem hard to concentrate on all the different facets of producing a feminine voice, and lapses will happen. The only solution is to practice and practice again until it gradually becomes second nature.

The Methods

1. Sing! To loosen-up the voice box, extend your pitch range, and help develop good control, it can be very helpful to choose a female vocalist who you like, preferably one with a relatively deep voice, and sing along. The musically-minded may also wish to perform singing exercises, such as singing scales.

2. Raise the position of the laryngeal cartilage. This raises your voice pitch and decreases the characteristic male resonance. (The laryngeal cartilage is the ‘movable’ piece of cartilage that you can feel rising if you place a hand on your throat and sing a rising scale ( doh, re, mi, fa, sol, lah, ti, doh ). The point of this is to try to gain a higher ‘baseline’ pitch than you have previously used, and then increase the pitch further when placing emphasis. For example you might decide that if you pitch the “doh” as your baseline male pitch raising your basic pitch to about “fa” or “so” would be sufficient. But do not overdo the pitch-raising: a squeaky, falsetto voice sounds very inappropriate on an adult woman. The pitch adjustment is a compromise – for the technically-minded you should aim for above 16OHz; if you have access to a musical instrument that’s about the G below middle C. Of course, everyone starts out with a different original voice and some will be able to raise it more than others without sounding squeaky. You might find it slightly tiring on your voice-box at first, as you are unused to speaking in that register, but it should become comfortable with a little practice. If it does not, then you are probably trying to force your pitch up too high.

3. Partially open the glottis when speaking. The position of the glottis controls how much air passes over the vocal cords. When breathing rather than speaking, when whispering , or when producing an ‘unvoiced’ sound where the vocal cords do not vibrate, like ‘hhh’ or ‘sss’ ), the glottis is full open and all the air bypasses the vocal cords. With the glottis firmly closed, all the air is forced over the vocal cords, producing a fully-voiced and typically male voiced sound. You need to try to find a ‘semi-whispering’ position that eliminates the fully-voiced sound with heavy resonance in the chest, and imparts a breathy quality to the voice. You can hear the difference between voiced and unvoiced sounds by comparing S and Z sounds (say ‘sss’ and ‘zzz’ , and feel how your vocal cords vibrate on the Z but not the S). You’re trying to find a midpoint between an unvoiced (whispered) sound, and a fully-voiced ‘male’ sound. Try saying the word ‘hay’, and pay attention to how you change between the unvoiced H sound and the voiced A sound: say it very slowly ( ‘hhhhhaaaay’ and feel the change in the vocal cords as your voice slides from the unvoiced hhh sound to the voiced ‘aaa’ vowel sound. Then try to stop before you reach the full voiced point, and you should be producing a soft, breathy feminine) ‘aaa’ sound. Then try to learn to always use that half-open position for all voiced sounds. This is simply a matter of practice.

4. Place emphasis with pitch not volume : Upward intonation places emphasis. Men place emphasis in their speech by varying the loudness, but keep their pitch within a very narrow range; on the other hand women tend to keep their loudness much more constant but vary their pitch a great deal to express emphasis.

5. Speak slowly, enunciate clearly especially consonants at the beginning and end of words. Don’t mumble; clear voice requires fat big lip movements. On the whole, women enunciate much more clearly and precisely than men.

6. Pace your speech carefully. Start and end sentences slowly and gently; do not sound clipped. Do not swallow pronouns, articles or other little words at the beginning or end of sentences. Male speech tends to be characterised by what speech therapists call ‘hard attack’ – the first syllable is pronounced very hard, and quickly. Women usually start a sentence more softly.

7. Use appropriate content. Men and women tend to talk about the same things in different ways; what you say contains gender cues, just as much as how you say it. Women tend to concentrate more on thoughts and feelings, while men concentrate on objects and actions. Men generally use more ‘short cuts’, colloquialisms and bad language, too. A simple illustration is to imagine someone asking a friend if they are going to go for a drink after work. A male might say something like ‘Coming down the pub?’ rather abrupt, using the minimum of words and concentrating on the desired action in a rather impersonal way. A woman might say ‘Do you feel like going for a drink tonight?’ : concentrating on her friend’s feelings and desires, personal, and not abbreviated.

8. Pay attention to tongue position. The tongue is higher and flatter for female than for male. This gives ‘dental’ sounds (ones that involve the teeth, like T and D) a softer, breathier, almost sibilant quality in the female. Say ‘tttt’ in male mode then ‘ssss’; find the halfway position, that is the female position for the letters T and D; likewise for a TH sound, etc. Use plenty of air to get a breathy sound.

9. Hold your mouth in the right shape. A slight smile helps, and is the ‘resting’ facial expression for a woman anyway. Rounder lips (a slight pout), and good lip movement, help produce a clearly enunciated voice.

10. Develop head resonance . One of the biggest problems facing TS women is, after learning to produce a soft, feminine voice, to then learn how to speak loudly when necessary without the voice returning to a masculine sound. Women gain loudness by using the cavities inside the head as a ‘sounding box’ whereas men use the chest. To gain a louder feminine voice, develop head resonance rather than chest resonance – open your mouth a little more, use more air, and ‘push’ your voice up into your head.

11. Use Feedback. Record samples of your voice and listen to yourself. Read a passage of text, listen to yourself and keep practising. It can be helpful to actually read these notes aloud, practising each point as you read it. Then listen to yourself and successfully refine your voice.This information sheet is distributed by the Gender Trust and is intended as a basis for information only. The Gender Trust does not accept responsibility for the accuracy of any information contained in this sheet.

Gender Trust – 2003, This information sheet is distributed by the Gender Trust and is intended as a basis for information only. The Gender Trust does not accept responsibility for the accuracy of any information contained in this sheet.

Transgender Theory

To understand the history of transgender people, one must also understand how both transgendered people themselves, and non-transgendered people explained the presence of such apparent misfits in the otherwise neat binary sex/gender social fabric. One can understand how law, medicine, and society in general treated transgendered people only within the context in which the transgendered person fit into a theoretic framework. If transsexuals were a medical entity, one still needs to know if it is a psychiatrically pathological entity, or a developmentally intersexed entity. If the former, one would expect that “cures” would be attempted, if the latter, then compassionate, though not always welcome, medical treatments might be applied. The law could see the transgendered person as a civil indentity question, a criminal pervert, or as a medical entity. The law’s treatment very much depends on the explanitory world view surrounding the transgendered in society.

Judeo-Christian-Moslem culture, drawing on a single verse in one old testament book, Deuteronomy 22-5, held that cross-dressing was an “abomination in the sight of the Lord”. Some biblical scholars hold that this line refers to a prohibition of the Hebrew people from participating in religious practices of the neighboring cultures, which included the followers of Cybele whose priestesses were post-operative male to female transsexuals. This single edict, surrounded by edicts that are seldom if ever followed today, save for the Ultra-Orthodox Jews, is sometimes quoted as sanctioning the worst transphobic treatment of transgendered people. Other old testament laws detail the status of “eunuchs”, males whose genitals have been surgically removed. Primarily these laws prescribe a second class status to the eunuch, since they are no longer “men”, they do not have male privileges, including the right to “testify” in court… since they no longer have the required equipment, testicles. (This is not a pun, but literally the origin of the words… one needed testicles to testify… and the old testament really does refer to the story, or testimony, of patriarchy.) Thus, built into Judeo-Christian-Moslem is the assumption that MTF transgendered people are untrustworthy abominations. This explains why Judeo-Christian-Moslem cultures have mistreated transgendered people while other cultures have either tolerated, or sometimes, venerated transgendered people, why Joan d’Arc was burned at the stake for wearing men’s vestments as well as armor, while the hijra of India have houses that have been in existence for hundreds of years.

Early in this century, as the United States population moved to the cities, transgender people, though extremely rare, started finding each other, just as they had in other city cultures in more populated countries as China and India. These gatherings of transgendered people were noted by their neighbors. These good people, educated in Christian values, complained to the civil authorities, who duly passed ordinances outlawing transgender expression, society, and existence. It was the cities who passed the laws against transgendered people. It must be noted that these laws were passed in the same climate and time that produced laws prohibiting citizens of African descent from owning property in the city limits, or of Catholics to operate schools. It should be noted that while the cities passed ordinances against transgendered people, the States were concerned with criminalizing homosexual conduct. City police, when they wanted to harrass homosexuals, used the ordinances against the transgendered as more visible targets. Thus, the Stonewall riots of 1969, naturally began with the standard sweeping arrests of transgendered people. The ordinances began to be repealed in the 1970s. It is perhaps fitting that the first governmental bodies to atone for past discrimination by passing anti-discrimination measures in the 1990s should be the very cities that once had laws designed to expose them to criminal sanction.

Laws criminalizing homosexuality were also used to incarcerate or force medical treatment on the transgendered. In the name of eugenics, homosexual and transgendered people were sterilized against their wills. Later, when hormones became available, various medical treatments were devised. Some sought to reduce the libido by suppressing natural hormones, others sought to replace putatively low hormones. These actions were done under the theory of enlightened criminologists that many lawbreakers were rehabilitable using modern medicine. It was rarely questioned in law enforcement that the law itself was in need of rehabilitation. But there were movements to do just that, lead by social reforming physicians such as Magnus Hirschfeld in Germany.

There were times, when the transgendered person came to the attention of the courts through the medical establishment, rather than the police, when compassionate justice prevailed. Until the mid to late century, the prevailing mechanism for transgendered people to gain protective legal status was to seek a change of sex status through correction of birth certificates or registry in the same manner as was done in cases of intersex, where physicians provide for a ‘second opinion’ as to a person’s sex later in life. The law literally saw transsexuals as a form of intersex and helpfully corrected sex designations when asked. It was not until the popular press created the myth of “sex change” that the law began to see transsexuals as separate from intersexed people. Only after this change in perception was it neccessary for specific statutes needed to secure a mechanism for transsexuls to change birth certificates and indentification cards. Even then it was done as an extension of the intersex theory, a reaffirmation, to counter the “sex change” paradigm.

At the turn of the century, the concepts of sexual orientation and gender identity were conflated. One was either a normal man or woman, or one was an abnormal psychosexual invert. In some respects this concept is closer to the modern concept of the classic transsexual in that it was conceptualized as a person who both identified with and shared the same sexual object as a normal member of the opposite sex. Only through education by the homophile community and open minded sexologists such as Evelyn Hooker and Alfred Kinsey was the homosexual person viewed as having a congruent gender identity, merely finding one’s own sex to be the chief object of amorous affections. This left the concept of gender identity separable from sexual attraction, opening the door to conceptualizing the catagories of the lesbian identified male to female and the gay male identified female to male transsexual. Still, it took the work of FTM transman Lou Sullivan in the late ‘70s, early ‘80s, to get the medical establishment to recognize the distinction.

There are three main currents of thought on the origin of gender identity in humans, Essentialism, Social Constructionism, and PsychoSocialism. In academic circles these differing theories are hotly debated. But in the lives of ordinary people, especially transgendered people, the model that is applied by the medical, educational, legal, and even parental authorities that transgendered people interact, as individuals and as a class, deeply influence the interaction and the outcomes.

PsychoSocial Theories

Though Sigmond Freud was from Austria originally, his work influenced North American thought to a greater degree than European. His thoughts on the developing sexual identity and sexuality of infants and children profoundly influenced how transgendered people would be viewed in North America. Freud felt that gender identity was mediated by the existance or absence of a penis, directly. In the case of the owner of a penis the discovery that not all humans have one occasions deep anxiety lest that delightful organ of pleasure might be removed. This “Castration Anxiety” led to a distancing of the owner of the penis from the caretaker who did not own one… presumably because that person might want to steal it. While simultaneously, the owner of the penis wishes to emulate the other caretaker who by good fortune still owns a penis. Thus the owner of a penis learns to be a boy. Meanwhile, the infant who does not own a penis discovers that there are individuals who do own one. This occasions extreme jealousy. This “Penis Envy” leads one to court, and compete for, the affections of the caretaker who owns this marvelous appendage, while simultaneously emulating the caretaker who does not own a penis, who demonstrates ways of successfully courting the affections of the owner of a penis. Thus the one who lacks a penis learns to be a girl.

The existance of transgendered people brought the theory a serious challenge. How to explain people who end up having the exact opposite reaction to the presence or absence of a penis? The first answer of any theorist to such a challenge is denial, “transgendered people are psychotic”, likening the transsexual to a delusional man who believes himself to be Napolean. This glib answer sufficed for those who had never actually spoken at length with transgendered people. But the diagnosis of psychosis failed to hold up apon examination. The challenge remained.

For FTM transgendered people the failure to resolve “Penis Envy” was enough explaination. But MTF trangendered people were still a mystery. The psychoanalytic theorists response was to posit a family constellation involving an overly close mother, who kept her son wrapped up in her emotional world, and a distant or absent father. The son could not make the emotional and subsequent identity break with his mother. Perhaps we can call this theory “Castration Envy”? This seemed at first glance to hold up well, since such family histories were indeed present in MTF transgendered people. Except it didn’t explain all of the cases since many profoundly transsexual MTF individuals had extremely good relationships with their fathers. The theory further broke down when comparing the statistics with non transgendered people. The were many families with an absent or emotionally distant father, the vast majority of single mothers, whose sons did not show signs of being transgendered. Though it remained popular to blame mothers, especially single mothers for all sorts of society’s woes, transgenderism was not able to hold up as being caused by family dynamics when tested statistically.

Still the psychoanalytic model held for most of the 20th Century, inspite of repeated failures of psychoanalytic therapy to dissuade transgendered people to abandon their gender identity. It is probably responsible for the prevailing attitude that Gender Identity Disorder is a psychiatric illness as defined by the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistic Manual.

Toward the middle of the 20th Century, as the psychoanalytic model for all mental illness began to be cast into doubt, a new model of gender identity came into vogue, “Imprinting”. One the chief proponents of the theory was John Money, Ph.D. Observing that intersex infants with the same physical features at birth who had been assigned to different sexes both seemed to adjust equally well, Money theorized that there was a critical period in the infant’s early life when the parents’ sexually dimorphic treatment imprinted apon the child a congruent gender identity. The notion of imprinting comes from observation that some animals imprint the image of a caretaker in infancy. The popular image is that of gosslings first sight of a farmer’s child, who subsequently is followed around as “mother”. This lead to the standard procedure of early genital surgery for intersexed infants to unambiguously assign a sex, any sex, to child so that an unambiguous gender identity will be imprinted by parents and family who “know” the childs sex. It lead to a medical ethic of misinforming even the parents as to the intersexed nature of the child. It also resulted in sterilization of thousands of male children, who born with a phallus too small to be comfortably described as a penis were reassigned as female.

Transgender people were explained by the imprinting theory simularly to the psychoanalytic model, blaming the mother. Again, an overly emotionally close mother, and sometimes the father as well, coset and pamper a male child in a manner that the hapless male child gets the message that it is female. Sometimes it was noted that the feminine male child was “physically beautiful”, that is, like a pretty girl child, illiciting a response from adults in a manner that reinforces the mistaken identity as a female child. Similarly, a physically adventurous female child might illicit masculinizing responces.

Money’s hypothesis and recommendations lead directly to the tragedy and “experiment of opportunity” of John Theissen, a man who’s penis was accidentally destroyed during circumcision. Mr. Thessien was later surgically reassigned as female. His parents then proceeded to raise him as their daughter, while his identical twin brother served as “control”. When the children we several years old the clinics declared that the reassigned child was accepting “her” gender as a girl. The case became known as that of John/Joan. Money published this case as proof of his hypothesis. Unfortunately, John Theissen as a teen refused to continue the program, insisting that he was a boy… he grew to be a man, obtained phalloplasty, married, and is raising three children from his wife’s prior relationships. It can be said that his is a case of surgically created transsexuality, as his personal gender identity was at odds with his sex assignment as an infant. Mr. Theissen’s story was published in Rolling Stone magazine in the mid ‘90s after a scientic paper was published by Milton Diamond, a proponent of pre- and neonatal hormonal brain sex differentiation.

Social Constructionism:

As the Second Wave of Feminism grew in strength, critism of discrimination against women led to a reaction to prescribed restrictive societal roles for the sexes. “Biology is not destiny” became a rallying cry. What started out as a critism of socially constructed roles developed into a theory of gender which denied Essentialism in every form, stating instead that society took the biological differences of procreation, and instilled in them an artificial behavioral difference. The theory, thus expanded, denies that there is any natural basis for gender identity. Thus it denies to transgender people any rational cause… while at the same time, presenting no reason why not.

To some authors this meant that transgender people were free to express themselves in any manner they chose since all gender expression is as valid as any other. Only societal convention stands in the way of such freedom. Such conventions can be modified by the society as is deemed desirable. To some, all such restrictions are to be avoided, in a live and let live ethos.

Other authors, Janice Ramond and Germain Greer being notable examples, saw MTF transgender people as exploitive of women, aping the forms of femininity, supporting the artificial sexist forms that oppress women. It is interesting that in this regard they exhibit a hidden Essentialism, one that focusses on the genitalia as defining classes of human beings. They decried the restrictions on one class, while dispising those of the other class when they break those very restrictions.

Still the existence of transgender people poses a challenge to the social constructionist theory. One must explain both why gender identity exists, how it is perpetuated, enforced, and why some rare individuals “chose” to express a gender identity at odds with societally prescibed gender expression norms.

Performance Theory has it that we are taught to Perform Gender, to act it out, in the same way that we learn to act out social roles like teacher, student, friendly store clerk, police officer, etc. One is said to “do gender” rather than “have a gender”. This is very similar in basics to the psychosocial theory of imprinting, save that there is no instinctual basis for having the ability to absorb a particular gender identity. We are taught a set of gender behaviors that become so ingrained as habit that we forget that we are merely acting them out.

Transgender people are explained by this as having been improperly instructed. Even among those inclined toward psychosocial models as one would expect physicians to be, one finds this theory in currency. It is the model used in justifying Behavioral Modification Therapy to treat Gender Identity Disorder in children. Under the assumption that even though gender identity is arbitrarily socially constucted and taught to children, one should not allow children to express gender behavior different than the norm. Some rationize it on the basis of wanting the children to fit in, experience less rejection and bullying, a ‘blame the victim’ mentality. Others are simply moralists that insist that God has ordained that we should all behave in a certain prescribed manner.

One Post-Modern philosophical theory, one that has a striking resemblance to the psychosocial theory that transgendered people are simply crazy, has it that transgendered people are suffering under a “false consiousness”. That they are not really experiencing a gender at all… but an alienation from their social and biological reality. This theory is perhap the most transphobic of all theories in that it denies what is called in Post-Modern cant, “agency”, the characteristic of experiencing and expressing their existence and very real psychic pain.

Oppression Theory starts from the assumption that transgendered people are very much in command of their faculties and have made a rational decision to avoid societal restrictions on desires they experience. The usual script is that an ambitious woman noting that she is unable to succeed “in a man’s world”, dons mens clothes, assumes a fictious identity as a man, in order to achieve career success. These “passing women” are the darlings of the feminist historian because they are reveared as daring pioneers for women’s liberation, or they are held as examples, proof, of how horrible conditions were in some past epoch. To the feminist historian, modern FTM transsexuals are an embarrassing disproof of the theory. Similarly, Oppression theory is used to explain modern MTF transgendered people as being examples of internalized homophobia in gay men, too ashamed to live openly, and so have to “pretend” to be women in order to express their desire for same sex relations. To such gay male chauvenists, the fact that half of transgendered people identify as lesbian or gay male after transition, are an equally ebarrassing disproof of the theory.

Social Constructionist theories fail to note that ethnobiological studies of sexually dimorphic behavior in animals is not socially constructed for non-humans. Nor does it explain the cross cultural similarity and temporal stability of core gender identity throughout history around the world.

Essentialism:

Essentialism posits that men and woman are “made that way”. It is a deceptively self-evident fact that most everyone accepts since for over 99% of the population there is a clear cut correlation between genital morphology and gender identity. It is easy to for the average person to ignore the disquieting cases of intersex that cast doubt on the simplistic assumption of binary sex assignment. The question of which sex an intersex person “really is” demonstrates the esentiallist bias through much of Western Society for the past two centuries. Historically, Essentialism divided on which of two somatic characteristics was indicative of the “real sex” of an individual, genitalia or gonads. For most people the genitalia, the presence or absence of a penis was the overriding feature. As medical science grew more sophisticated in the 19th century, the gonads came to be the indicative feature. But early in the 20th Century the newly discovered chromosomes, specifically the presence or absence of the “Y” chromosome, became the newly crowned final arbiter of “real” sex. The faith in microscopic examination to “scientifically” determine one’s sex was unquestioned.

In 1968 the International Olympic Committee instituted chromosomal karyotyping for all female athletes. Any that did not have the required 46,XX chromosome karyotype were disqualified from competition, informed that, scientifically speaking, they were not women. The demonstrable fact that they had female genitalia, had lived as female all of their lives not knowing that they did not have the officially approved karyotype for women, did not enter into the unfeeling officials minds. Reductionist Essentialism had no room for intersexed people. They were counselled to fake an injury, slink away into silence to keep their shame of being “not female” from becoming known.

In 1970, the Corbet vs Corbet decision to nullify the marriage of a MTF transsexual to a non-transsexual man used karyotyping as the “scientific” marker for sex and gender that the law was henseforth to follow in the United Kingdom, throwing the legal status of transsexual and many intersexed people into limbo, neither male nor female.

Although essentialism has often been used as a philosophy to ‘prove’ that transsexuals and transgendered people do not have a valid claim to their identity, Essentialism still has explanitory power. If the locus of gender is found, not in the genitals or chromosomes, but elsewhere, transsexuals could be rationally described as “men trapped in women’s’ bodies” or “women trapped in mens’ bodies”. There are several loci that are, or have been proposed as the Essential Seat of Gender, but they come down to two main catagories, “Brain Sex”, and “The Soul”.

Many religions have a concept of an essential self, separable from the body. In Judeo-Christian-Moslem belief systems one’s soul separates from the body after death. This soul retains the sense of self, including gender indentity. Some religious thought includes the concept of the soul entering the body at some point in becoming a living being… and therefor must become, or always have been a gendered self. For religions that included the concept of reincarnation, the notion that a being always returns to the same sex body suggested an explanation for transgendered identity. Once in a while, a soul finds itself in the wrong sexed body. This idea was openly discussed in newsletters published in the ‘60s and ‘70s by the Erickson Education Foundation, as this was the personal belief of Reed Erickson, the Foundations benefactor. The Church of Latterday Saints (Mormon) debated the issue of pre-born souls finding themselves in the wrong body with Kristi Independence Kelly in 1980 at her excommunication. The Church held that, though the pre-born souls did have a gender before birth, God did not make mistakes: “There is no such thing as a man in a woman’s body or a woman in a man’s body” was declared, ex-cathedra by the leader fo the Mormon faith. Apparently, intersexed people must have also intersexed souls?

Some non-Judeo-Christian-Moslem cultures held that transgendered people were indeed gendered souls in the wrong body. Some believed that this juxtaposition have the transgendered person a special status with the spirits of nature or the powers. In ancient times in the mediteranean culture, MTF transsexual women became priestesses, Galla, of the goddess, Cebele. The Hopi Nation held that a transgendered spirit, or katchina, sent visions to transgendered people. In India, the hijra, transgendered and intersexed people are both reviled and revered, given varying circumstances. Mystical Essentialism has played an important role in various cultures, including our own.

The early 20th Century european researchers and medical practitioners believed that gender and sexual behavior in general are the result of a sexually dimorphic brain. That is to say that the brain itself has a sex. This sex usually conforms with the chromosomal and the genital sex. However, just as there can be chromosomal and genital >intersex conditions, the brain might also exhibit intersex morphology leading to behavior and that elusive personal experience, gender identity, at odds with either somatic or chromosomal sex. Magnus Hirschfeld, a leading early researcher described the entire spectrum of what today we would call Queer expression, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, as forms of “Sexual Intermediates”, or intersex. This was not a metaphor or a rationalization. Instead it was an earnest theory, based on careful observation and scientific generalization, understanding the then current lack of neurological science. Hirschfeld and his colleague, Harry Benjamin believed that as our understanding of the brain grew we would discover just where and how the brain was organized to produce sexual orientation and gender identity. For Hirschfeld, there was no major divide between non-conforming sexual orientation and gender identity, they were simply different forms that intersex could take. Thus for Hirschfeld, the late 20th century division between the concepts of gender identity and sexual orientation, the great political divide between the gay & lesbians and the transgender community would be meaningless. To Hirschfeld, we are all transgendered, gay and transsexual alike.

In the first decades of the century, experiments with cross sex gonadal implants in animals suggested that there was a connection between hormones and gender specific behavior. This lead to horrific experiments in humans during the NAZI era and beyond as hormones became available as a common pharmaceutical. Testosterone was administered to gay men and MTF transgendered people in an attempt to ‘cure’ them. The hormone treatments had no effect on the sexuality or gender identity of the experiments. No lasting harm was done to the gay men. But the supermasculinizing effects on the transgendered victims was severely traumatizing.

In the later decades of the century, neuroscientists found significant sexual dimorphism in microstructures in the brains of animals and humans. Experiments on rats indicated that hormone levels during a period in late gestation and early post-natal development to be critical to the development of these structures and subsequent behavior. Gorby was able to create what he described as a laboratory model of transsexuality in rats. He demonstrated this in both MTF and FTM cases. When he introduced them to each other, the FTM rats mounted the receptive MTF rats.

Using human children to explore gender identity and sexual orientation would be extremely unethical in the laboratory, but science often uses “experiments of opportunity”. Simon La Vey used autopsy material from straight and gay men who had died from aids to find that a small microstructure of the brain differed in the two populations, suggestive of a sexual orientation controlling microstructure. The same technique of using autopsy was performed by Swaab to discover a different structure associated with gender identity. Shaffer, in an as yet unpublished study, used MRI data from a large pool of controls, MTF and FTM transsexuals to demonstrate that the corpus collosum showed sexually dimorphic structures that, on a statistical basis, correlated with gender identity. Both Swaab’s and Shaffer’s work ruled out effects of hormones in adulthood.

The early data is tantalizing, and agrees with laboritory findings using animals. However, it is also known that experience can shape the brain. Lack of sensory stimulus and a chance to work out problems leads to dramaticly less brain development in infantile rats. In humans there is a suggestion that early musical training affects the shape of the corpus collosum, building greater connectivity between the two hemispheres of the brain. These early experiences suggest that early gender experiences could also lead to sexual dimorphism in the human brain by a similar mechanism. This would agree with Dr. Money’s imprinting hypothesis… But would be at odds with Gorby’s work with rats, and the results of the case of “John/Joan”.

Science could very well demonstrate that the seat of sexual orientation and gender identity is located in the brain. How that arises developmentally is still open for further research.

transhistory.org/history/TH_Theory.html – 2003

Transgender History: Timeline of Significant Events

1907	Harry Benjamin Meets Magnus Hirschfeld
1910	Magnus Hirschfeld coins the term “transvestite”
1919	Magnus Hirschfeld founds the Institute for Sexology in Berlin, Germany, which becomes the first clinic to serve transgendered people on a regular basis.
1920	Jonathan Gilbert publishes “Homosexuality and Its Treatment” the story of “H”, Dr. Alan Hart’s 1917 FTM transition
1923	Magnus Hirschfeld coins the term “transsexual”
1931	“Genital Reassignment of Two Male Transvestites”, is published by Felix Abraham, M.D.
1932	Harry Benjamin arranges a speaking tour for Magnus Hirschfeld in the United States.
1932	Man Into Woman, the story of Lili Elbe’s life, MTF transition, and Sex Reassignment Surgery is published.
1933	The Institute for Sexology is raided, shut down, and its records destroyed by the Nazis. Physicians and researchers involved in the clinic flee Germany. Some, unable to escape, commit suicide in the coming years. Magnus Hirschfeld dies in 1935, an exile in Paris.
1938	Di-Ethyl Stilbesterol (DES) is introduced into chicken feed as a means of increasing meat production. Later the drug is marketed to pregnant women to prevent miscarriage, a claim that was never substantiated. The drug causes serious heath problems in the children whose mother’s took the drug while pregnant; endometrioses, cancer, infertility, intersex and possibly transsexuality. (The drug is still available but no longer recommended for pregnant women.)
1941	Premarin®, conjugated estrogens collected from pregnant mares is first marketed in Canada. Two years later it is marketed in the United States.
1949	Harry Benjamin begins to treat transsexuals in San Francisco and New York with hormones.
1952	Christine Jorgensen is “outed” in the American press. She begins a life long effort to educate the public about transsexual people.
1966	Harry Benjamin publishes The Transsexual Phenomenon..
1968	Olympic Commmittee begins chromosome testing of female athletes, effectively banning transsexuals and some intersexed individuals (some of whom were fertile as female, with children) from competition.
1968	Universities begin opening clinics for treating transsexuals; First surgeries performed on non-intersexed transsexuals.
1969	Sylvia Rivera throws a bottle at cops harrassing queers at a local bar… The Stonewall Riots in New York galvanize the Gay & Lesbian community… Transgender people are in the heart of the riot and the organizing that followed.
1970	April Corbet’s (neé Ashley) marriage is annulled and declared to be legally still a man inspite of a legal sex reassignment, leaving United Kingdom post-operative transsexuals in legal limbo, unable to marry as either sex.
1973	Beth Elliott, aka: “Mustang Sally,” becomes vice-president of the Daughters of Bilitis. Soon after, she is ‘outed’ as transsexual and hounded out of the organization by transphobic lesbian separatists.
1973	New York TransActivist Silvia Rivera is followed at a Gay Pride Rally by Jean O’Leary who denounces transgendered people as female impersonators profiting from derision and oppression of women.
1974	Jan Morris publishes Conundrum
1976	Reneé Richards is ‘outed’ and barred from competition when she attempts to enter a womens’ tennis tournement. Her subsequent legal battle establishes that transsexuals are fully, legally, recognized in their new identity after sex reassignment, in the United States.
1976	Jonathan Ned Katz publishes the connection between Gilbert’s “H” and Alan Hart. He also incorrectly characterizes Dr. Hart as a “lesbian,” effectively stealing transgender history.
1977	Sandy Stone is ‘outed’ while working for Olivia Records as a recording engineer. Lesbian separatists threaten a boycott of Olivia products and concerts, forcing the record company to ask for Stone’s resignation. Angela Douglas writes a satirical letter to Sister as a protest of the transphobia in the lesbian community in general and the virulent attacks on Sandy Stone in particular.
1979	Janice Raymond publishes The Transsexual Empire, a semi-scholarly transphobic attack. In the book she cites Douglas’ Sister letter out of context as an example of transsexual misogyny and casts Sandy Stone’s involvment in Olivia Records as “devisive” and “patriarchal.”
1980	Joanna Clark organizes the ACLU Transsexual Rights Committee.
1980	Paul Walker organizes the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association to promote standards of care of transsexual and transgendered clients.
1989	Billy Tipton, a minor, but well respected, jazz musician, dies and is discovered to be female… after presenting as a man since 1933.
1992	Jean Burkholter is ejected from the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival by transphobic festival organizers.
1993	Cheryl Chase founds Intersex Society of North America (ISNA)
1993	“March On Washington” organizers include bisexuals but refuse to include TransGender in the name of the march, angering TG activists that had worked for months to get inclusion
1993	“Camp Trans” is pitched outside of the entrance gate to the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival to protest the Festival’s newly publicized “Womyn-Born-Womyn Only” anti-transsexual policy. “Camp Trans” is pitched for three years running.
1993	TransActivists working for many years with Gay and Lesbian activists, successfully pass an anti-discrimination law in the State of Minnesota protecting transsexual and transgendered people along with Gays and Lesbians.
1994	TranGender activists protest exclusion from Stonewall 25 celebrations and the Gay Games in New York City. The Gay Games recinds rules that require “documented completion of sex change” before allowing transgendered individuals to compete.
1994	Several cities on the west coast of the U.S. pass anti-discrimination statutes protecting transsexual and transgendered people.
1995	Transsexual activists protest the stealing of TS/TG History by the Gay & Lesbian community. Efforts by the Ad Hoc Committee to Recognize Alan Hart successfully pressure Oregon’s Right to Privacy (RTP, now known as “Right to Pride”) political action committee to cease using Alan Hart’s old name as an award given out to Gay & Lesbian rights activists.
1996	JoAnna McNamara of It’s Time Oregon successfully convinces Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industry (BOLI) that transsexuals are protected under existing Oregon labor law dealing with discrimination of people with disabilities and medical conditions. This made Oregon the third state to extend employment protection to transgendered people, following Minnesota and Nebraska.
1998	TranGender activists protest exclusion from the Gay Games in Amsterdam. The Gay Games reinstates rules that require “documented completion of sex change or two years of hormones” before allowing transgendered individuals to compete. Loren Cameron, FTM transman, expected to compete, drops out of competion in protest. However, European singer and transsexual, Dana International performs at the Games’ festivities.
1998	Japan allows first legal Sex Reassignment Surgery to be performed on a FTM.
1999	“Camp Trans” is revived to protest at the the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival. Post-op MTF transsexuals are allowed to attend the festival, but confrontations with transphobic lesbian separatists occur.
1999	In a Texas court, In Littleton vs. Prang, Christine Littleton, a post-op MTF transexual loses her case against the doctor who she contended neglegently allowed her husband to die, when the doctors’ defence lawyers argue that she was never married to her late husband since her Texas birth certificate, though now amended to read female, originally read male, and thus could not be the widow as the law does not allow “same sex marriage.” Her appeal to a higher court fell on bigoted ears, she was declared to be still male inspite of having taken all of the proper medical and legal steps. Thus, transsexual citizens of the United States joined those of the United Kindom in finding that their legal status is in legal limbo.

transhistory.org/history/TH_Timeline.html – 2003

The Gay, Lesbian, and Feminist Backlash

The modern era of the gay & lesbian rights movement is usually marked as starting on a hot July evening at the Stonewall Inn in New York City’s Greenwich Village. The New York police, as many city police departments across the United States did, made period raids on sexual minority bars to harass and arrest the patrons. On this particular night, transgendered woman, Sylvia Rivera, resisted arrest, touching off a riot that continued for three nights running.

In the next year, three transgendered people, Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, and Angela Keyes Douglas would play pivotal roles in organizing the emergent Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance. The goal of the Gay Liberation Front was complete acceptance of sexual diversity and expression. But by 1971 the gay men’s community had returned to the assimilationist strategy as the lesbians, in 1973, turned to separatism and radical feminism. There seemed to be no room for transgendered people in either camp.

In 1971, the GAA wrote and introduced a bill to the New York City Council that was the first omnibus anti-discrimination bill to protect homosexual people. However, inspite of early and avid support of the GAA by transgendered people the bill completely ignored transgendered people. Silvia Rivera, disgusted by the batrayal, said to the leaders of the GAA, “It’s not us that they are afraid of — its you! Get rid of us. Sell us out. Make us expendable. Then you’re at the front lines. Don’t you understand that?” This marked the first serious batrayal, but certainly not the last.

Disillusioned by the GAA’s betrayal of transgendered people, Angela Douglas formed the Transsexual Activist Organization along the same lines as the GAA, with some of the loftier ideals of the GLF. She began publishing MoonShadow, a quirky newsletter for and about transgendered people and the struggle for legal rights.

In early 1970’s, Beth Elliott was active in a number of organizations including the Alice B. Toklas Gay Democratic Club, which she co-founded, the Board of Directors of the California Committee for Sexual Law Reform working to repeal California’s anti-sodomy laws, and the Daughters of Bilitus. The Daughters of Bilitus had been a pioneering lesbian organization during the 1950s and ‘60s, but was losing membership in the ‘70s as the lesbian community turned to more radical organizing. In ‘73 Ms. Elliott was asked to stand for election as the Vice-President of the San Francisco chapter of the Daughters of Bilitus. Late in her term of office her transgender status became a point of contention at the West Coast Lesbian Conference, where she was outed and vilified for being a MTF transsexual. The complaint was that Beth Elliott had insinuated herself into a position of power over women as a patriarchal man, a propagandist ploy that was to become common when attacking other transgendered people . At the conference she was forced to stop her music concert due to the catcalls from the audience by women that knew nothing more about her than that she was transsexual. She was required to sit through a popular vote of the attendees to determine whether they would let her finish her set. In the weeks and months to follow she was further vilified and even betrayed by women who had once called her friend. The treatment she received led her to become “stealth” for many years after.

In July of 1973, during a “Gay is Good” rally, Sylvia Rivera was followed on the stage by lesbian separatist Jean O’Leary. She denounced transgender people as men who, by “impersonating women”, were exploiting women for profit. It was the beginning of a series of such high profile transphobic attacts from the lesbian community.

In 1977, at the height of the Right Wing / Anita Bryant anti-gay rights backlash, the lesbian feminist separatist movement was busy attacking an even smaller community that only wanted to work within the lesbian community, lesbian identified transsexual women. Central to the conflict in ‘77 was transsexual recording engineer, Sandy Stone, working at Olivia Records.

Sandy Stone was a recording engineer for A&M Records before her transition. Olivia Records needed a recording engineer with skills and experience to help their fledgling all women’s recording studio. They found it in Sandy Stone. She recorded a number of their early albums, training other women on proper recording and mixing technique. When word got around that Olivia had a transsexual in the company, lesbian separatists threatened a boycott of Olivia products and concerts. Olivia Records was on the edge of profitability. A boycott would destroy them. Olivia supported Stone at first but eventually crumpled beneath the separatists demands, asking for Sandy’s resignation.

Angela Douglas became upset at the vitriolic, absurd, and transphobic comments broadcast on listener sponsored station KPFA in Berkeley, California and letters published in the feminist journal Sister. She wrote a very tongue-in-cheek satirical letter to the editor of Sister, the night before the 1977 San Francisco Gay Pride Parade.

The next day, at the Parade, a “gender bending” MTF individual handed out fliers that was written in protest of the Parade Committee’s policy of exclusion of “Drag Queens, Transvestites, and Transsexuals” . The policy was formulated in the hope of heading off the media which tended to focus on the flamboyant, instead of the very serious issues of Gay & Lesbian community pride and efforts to fight homophobia in society. However, transphobia had operated in the Parade Committee to equate transgendered people with “flamboyant” social unacceptability and political liability.

After the parade, Angela Douglas wrote a short essay with photos for the Berkeley Barb, in which she decried the efforts to exclude transgendered people. She asked if there shouldn’t be a counter parade by transgendered people, to be held on Halloween, a day that one is supposed to be flamboyant!

Two years later Janice Raymond in The Transsexual Empire, wrote of the events of 1977, casting Ms. Stone as an agent of the “Patriarchy” and “divisive”. The letter that Angela Douglas wrote as satire was quoted out of context, as an example of transsexual hatred of women, by Raymond. Her quoting out of context a letter written by Douglas was tantamount to intellectual dishonesty, with scholarly repercussions.

Janice Raymond was a professor at the University of Massachusetts. She is infamous for having written her doctoral thesis attacking transsexuality, denying its medical reality, and for viciously attacking individual transsexuals, notably Sandy Stone and Angela Keyes Douglas in her book, based on her dissertation. The book uses insensitive and transphobic language throughout, while vilifying feminine MTF transsexuals as tools of patriarchy for upholding stereotypes of women, and vilifying androgynous lesbian identified MTF transsexuals for being tools of patriarchy, fifth columnists infiltrating womens’ space and “raping womens’ bodies”, a typical ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ trap. She dismisses FTM transsexuals as deluded and misguided lesbians, afraid of the label “homosexual”. Her thesis rests entirely on arguments that sex/gender identity are fixed within the genitals at birth, an essentialist theory that excludes the possibility of transsexuals being a form of intersex, a topic which Raymond never addresses.

The book, while it did not create the transphobic attitude in the lesbian community, did tap into and ‘validated’, at least for the transphobes themselves, the discrimination they practiced. Thus, what began in the ‘70s, occasional attacks on individual transsexual women, became institutionalized discrimination against all transsexuals in the ‘80s.

The Transsexual Empire, was not the most damaging writing that Raymond penned. Far worse was a United States federal government commissioned study in the early 1980’s on the topic of federal aid for transsexual people seeking rehabilitation and health services. This paper, not well publicized, effectively eliminated federal and some states aid for indigent and imprisoned transsexuals. It had a further impact on private health insurance which followed the federal government’s lead in disallowing services to transsexual patients for any treatment remotely related to being transsexual, including breast cancer or genital cancer, as that was deemed to be a consequence of treatment for transsexuality.

Ms. Raymond is closely associated with another noted transphobic writer, Mary Daly, who described transsexuals as “Frankenstien’s Monsters” in her book GynEcology.

Transgender participation continued to be controversial in the Gay & Lesbian Community. Transsexuals taking leadership positions in the community were especially subject to attack.

Ms. Carol Katz was on the Christopher Street West Gay Pride Parade and Festival Committee, serving as Security Coordinator from ‘79 through ‘81. However her position on the board was a controversial one as many gays and especially lesbians objected to the presence of a transsexual. She recruited a number of transgendered people, both FTM and FTM to work as volunteer parade monitors and festival security each year . Her background in law enforcement facilitated greater cooperation between the Committee and local law enforcement organizations, LAPD and the LA County Sheriff’s Department.

In 1980 Ms. Katz was asked to serve as Security Co-ordinator for the “Women Take Back The Night March” in Hollywood. She agreed to help. However… lesbian feminist separatists threatened to boycott the march. Carol offered to step down in the interests of the larger community, with some private bitterness. The Committee accepted her resignation. But at the very last minute, due to overwhelming details in doing the job without her… and perhaps a realization that it was wrong to push her out of her participation… the committee asked her to take back the job the very day of the march. The controversy over Ms. Katz’es leadership role lead to the effective banning of broad transgender community participation in event planning and execution, though transgendered people did march that night .

It should be noted that the memory of the gay & lesbian community is short, as demonstrated by the efforts of the transgender community in Los Angeles to win inclusion in the Parade and Festival in 1995; Transman, Jacob Hale faced a Festival committee that believed transgendered people had never been participants before. The work of the transgendered community in ‘79-’81 had been completely forgotten, erased by the silence of the 1980’s.

In 1991 Nancy Burkholter was ejected from the Michigan Wymyns’ Music Festival at 1:00am by security staff suspicious that she was transsexual. She had done nothing to warrant eviction. She was forced to find transportation back to town to fly home, a holiday trip ruined by transphobia.

Unknown to the transsexuals who had been quietly attending the festival for years was an unpublished policy of the festival organizers that transsexuals were not welcome “on the land”. The policy was written out in the material for the next year that only “Wymyn Born Wymyn” may attend. The language was clearly designed to exclude transsexuals while avoiding debates regarding whether MTF transsexuals were “Wymyn”.

The next year, in 1992 TransActivist Anne Ogborn began organizing a protest to be held at the Festival, unable to go herself, she enlisted Davina Anne Gabrielle to attend. Davina and non-transsexual woman, Janis Hollingsworth handed-out buttons to women reading “I might be transsexual” at a table to enlist festival attendees in a dialog over the transsexual inclusion. Davina was ejected from “the land” in accordance with the written policy.

In 1993, the transgender community pitched CampTrans outside the main entrance. Jessica Xavier, Leslie Feinberg, among others attended to protest the Festivals’ “Wymyn Born Wymyn Only” policy. “Woman Born Transsexual” read a new button worn by CampTrans inmates. At the camp, workshops and concerts were presented as an alternative to the Festival. A number of women came out of the festival to participate in discussions. Notable was the participation of younger lesbians, especially members of The Lesbian Avengers. TransActivist volunteers stood outside the gate taking a poll of the festival attendees attitudes toward transsexual inclusion at the festival. The poll revealed division on the issue, but the majority of the women attending indicated that they would welcome transsexual women.

Participation in CampTrans energized the transgender community to become active once again, after the community’s silent withdrawal from the larger gay & lesbian community the previous decade.

National and local transgender activist worked for months to gain inclusion in the 1993 March On Washington. Transgender volunteers aiding in organizing the March, notably Jessica Xavier, worked with March organizers for months trying to gain inclusion in the name of the March. There was a ‘divide and conquer’ politicking by transphobic gays & lesbians that pitted bisexuals against transgenders. They told the bisexual community members who were also working toward official inclusion that it was either transgender or bisexual, but not both. To their credit the bisexual members did not buy into the ploy. However, the issue of inclusion was still couched in such terms by the foes of transgender inclusion. When the issue was put to a vote by the organizing committee the bisexuals won inclusion easily. The vote for inclusion of transgender was divided. There were actual cheers from the gay and lesbian community when the committee announced their decision to exclude transgender which deeply dismayed the transgender community volunteers.

A new pattern emerged in the mid 1990’s. The generation that had grown up since Stonewall welcomed transgender people without reservation, perhaps even with a tinge of adulation for their contribution to the struggle for Queer Rights. The older generation, those who had struggled just after stonewall, those who had read The Transsexual Empire when it was new, had not changed their minds significantly. Those that had been accepting during the 1970s remained so, those that had been sitting on the fence now came down on transgender inclusion. But those who had adamantly opposed trans-inclusion in the ‘70s still fought against it in the ‘90s. In 1994 The Transsexual Empire was reprinted and used as a textbook in feminist classes once again.

In 1994 CampTrans was pitched again with Riki Anne Wilchins taking a leading role. The turn out was smaller than expected. It was not due to a feeling of failure, but rather a feeling that the issue of transgender inclusion in “wymyn only space” was being by-passed by larger and more important issues.

Also occurring in 1994 was the Gay Games. When transgendered people wished to participate they discovered similar transphobic attitudes that the International Olympic Committee held . The Games organizers refused to allow transgendered people to participate except under very restrictive rules, namely that had to prove that they had had surgery or at least lived two years full time, with hormones, in their gender of identity. Bi-gendered individuals were completely excluded. This reliance on rules that on the surface seem to come direct from the HBIGDA Standards of Care, offended the transgendered community.

Transsexual Menace of New York organized to protest the restrictive and discriminatory rules. In street protests the group held up a banner that read, “Gay Games to transgendered: DROP DEAD!!” The uproar and embarrassment forced the organizers to drop the rules and allow unrestricted participation.

Some gay columnists were calling the events the “transgender Stonewall”, comparing 1994’s protests to ‘the gay riots of 1969’, totally ignoring the historic irony that Stonewall itself was started and fought by transgendered people. This lack of historic recognition sparked another protest in New York, demanding inclusion in planned events to mark 25 years since Stonewall.

In 1994 the issue of discrimination against sexual minorities became the biggest issue. The gay & lesbian community was working towards passing a bill in Congress, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA);. Transgender activists worked with the gay & lesbian community and the bill’s sponsors in Congress on inclusive language for the bill, only to discover that the language was removed before the bill was introduced. When the issue was researched by Phyllis Frye, she discovered that the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) had objected to the language. Once again transphobia in the gay community had resurfaced as betrayal.

The betrayal of the HRC was echoed at the local level. In 1995, transactivists in Oregon worked with gay & lesbian activist with the Right To Privacy Political Action Committee (RTP) for a state version of ENDA. Once again language was changed at the last minute, behind the back of the transgender community. Later, RTP board members denied this fact when charged by transactivists. However, transsexual law student and legislative intern, JoAnna McNamara was in the meetings that were held with RTP and the bill’s sponcors. RTP representitives did not know that Ms. McNamara was transsexual, who later provided information to the local gay press regarding the betrayal.

The transgender community lobbied the HRC and other organizations to amend the language to include transgender and gender variant gay & lesbian protection. Each year saw organizations that had previously supported the bill, drop its support. Each year of the second half of the ‘90s saw organizations officially add transgender to their mission statement. Each year saw what started as inclusive lip service become real support.

In 1998. the Gay Games was held in the Nederlands. Ironically, while transsexual pop singing star Dana International performed at the opening festivities, the transgender community protested the re-instatement of the same restrictive rules that had excluded some transgendered people in New York four years earlier. However, European officials of the Games were unmoved.

In 1999, five years after the disagreement between the HRC and the transgender community over inclusion in ENDA surfaced the controversy continued, one of the bill’s Congressional sponsors, openly gay Representative, Barney Frank, played the “Bathroom Card”, saying that employers will not accept transgender people as employees since they won’t be able to convince their other employees to tolerate transgender people in the restrooms. This was quickly denounced by transgender activists as truly expressing transphobia, though Frank had earlier voiced his concern regarding violence and discrimination against transgender people in the wake of the death of Tyra Hunter, pointing out the irony as the “Shower Card” was used against the gay & lesbian community in its fight to gain the right to serve in the armed forces earlier in the decade .

In 1999, at the close of the 20th Century, the gay & lesbian community was still divided over transgender inclusion. Camp Trans was once again pitched in front of the gate of the Michigan Wimmins’ Music Festival. This time post operative male to female transsexuals were allowed ‘on the land’, but pre-operative MTF women and post-operative FTM men were not. The issue had now come down to possession of a penis. Although they were now allowed on the land, vocal transphobic lesbian separatists menaced transsexual women, while members of The Lesbian Avengers supported them.

At the end of the 20th Century, the Transgender Question in the gay and lesbian community was still unsettled, and unsettling for the majority.

transhistory.org/history/TH_Backlash.html – 2003