Hello Nick. A good effort, though you have also fallen into the politically charged "Transgender" trap.

The following thoughts (witten by others as well as me) may better explain the way that those of us most affected by the conflation of terms for political purposes feel about the subject.

Transgender as an adjective to describe a group of heterosexual crossdressers was begun by Virginia Prince as early as the late 1960s for those of her compatriots in the Society for the Second Self (TRI-ESS), as is noted by her biographer, Dr. R.K.Dollar. The term had a very specific meaning, and was adopted to distinguish people who enjoyed dressing up as and portraying women rather than the transvestite action of dressing up in one or two items they found stimulating for quick self pleasuring and then hiding things away. The crossdressers of Tri-ess were active in "Sororities", usually with their wives encouraged participation, with a social life as their Second Selves. Notice that they consider themselves heterosexual, not gay and most do not wish to be included in the GLBT. For the most part, they are men who enjoy dressing up with friends, going out, and enjoying a hobby that seems to reflect a part of them, and they are happy with the biology they were born with.

"In the 1990s, (early 90's before the 1994 version of the DSM- CaroL)the term took on a political dimension[11] [12] as an alliance covering all who have at some point not conformed to gender norms, and the term became used to question the validity of those
norms[13] or pursue equal rights and anti-discrimination legislation, [14][15] leading to its widespread usage in the media, academic world and law.[16] The term continues to evolve." (from WIKIPEDIA)

Now, the term "transgender", has become a "dis" for large groups of people that all too often takes on "political dimensions" within all sorts of political agendas. The vagueness of the term leaves it open to being abused by people who have very diverse agendas who want to appear supportive of people who they are not actually in agreement with. It seems to me it has become a tool that is used very often by people who wish to further their own selfish aims without having to acknowledge the true concerns of people who have a need to undergo transsexual medical treatments.

It is interesting and telling that Dr. Jack Drescher, psychologist, uses the word transsexual as a noun instead of an adjective in his writings (he was one of the formers of the DSM4 revison of 1994). The obvious implication is that Gender Identity Disorder (a term for depression caused by conflict of the individual with non-accepting society and coined to further stigmatize transsexuality)is gradually used to replace and erase the existence of transsexualism in the DSM IV in 1994 which is the time frame quoted above where it says the term "transgender" "took on a political dimension".

I think the word transgender can be just as demeaning as transvestite. If gender is behavioral and cultural, the meaning of the word "transgender" doesn't go beyond that which would indicate that the term transgender lacks any kind of substance. There is also the notion of gender "transgression" which goes along with the word "transgender".

Personally, the notion of being transgressive of gender is something I find disturbing for too many reason to discuss right now. Then like a horse and carriage the word gender seems to need a companion called disorder when it is used in relation to transgender behavior especially when it is used in relation with the idea that transgender behavior is transgressive to "orderly" gender behavior or expression. The orderliness of gender behavior is defined by criteria that are socio/religious bounded. All therapy directed toward "correcting" this transgressive behavior is therefore also culturally bounded and automatically results in marginalization of many people who have the misfortune to express this behavior, and this by the people who claim to want to help them.

On what basis if not discrimination is someone who has transitioned through surgery constantly referred to as a "transgender woman" or "transgender man"?. Why is she or he not simply referred to as a woman or man? If there is a need to explain her current situation, why isn't the fact that she was born with intersex variations or a body/mind mismatch, and underwent feminizing medical treatments sufficient? Those facts are not mentioned as pertaining to her or him in ways that are merely incidental to them being a woman or man. What other women with a medical history, say treatment for breast cancer including a mastectomy or a man with his testicals cut off for testicular cancer, have their medical history splashed next to their name and face in a news article, if the article is not about breast or testicular cancer? You always get that with a woman or man who has a trans medical history, as though it is tittilating to the news reading public and the media, both written and Television, pander to that perceived interest. And always now with the term "transgender", which in effect does nothing except reinforce the notion that she or he doesn't deserve the same rights as other women or men.

I also don't think using the term transsexual would be any better, unless it was used as an adjective used to describe medical treatments, which are similar to medical treatments routinely prescribed by doctors if they wish to reinforce their prejudices about gender choices they forced in infancy or childhood on a person born intersexed.

It seems to most of us that GLBT groups only reinforce the othering that the mainstream media engages in when it issues guidelines for using terminology that dismiss people trying to live productive lives as men or women, instead making a few details of a persons life into that entire person to use for their own political agendas. By marginalizing others they and the media can make people who are only relatively "normal" feel good about themselves, at all our expense.

Oh, and Caroline Cossey (Tula) was born mildly intersexed, but like most of us was treated as a transsexual as we grew older.

CaroL