can any of you direct me to an elementary resource on transsexuality? Is there a trans equivalent of the Feminism 101 blog?

In addition to the other references, you might try

http://www.tsroadmap.com/start/index.html

Grace

You’re right. That’s an awesome definition, and the closest to be right that I’ve seen.

Grace

Wow, I feel kind of unwelcome now. I know that’s not the intention of the blog, but it’s nice to have something to read that doesn’t make me feel like a total outcast all the time. I’m a human being too, with feelings, ideas, desires… why does my gender seem to impede people? It’s not like I don’t get uncomfortable too, you know. Sorry if I’m venting, but reading all of those comments makes me wonder if I even get to have a place without rubbing other people the wrong way somehow.

Meep, I understand completely why you feel that way. It’s frustrating that it always has to be an issue, and that most places I go, people always feel okay about displaying their ignorance and bigotry about trans people.

It’s interesting, because I was feeling just the opposite for much of this thread. Ordinarily, when I visit spaces on the web which are not explicitly trans, cis people feel free to make all sorts of disparaging comments, and ask all sorts of mean-spirited rhetorical questions. If I speak up, I’m the only trans person present, and even when I try to keep it theoretical, people quickly make it personal, and that’s if we ever get past the dismissive “whacko gender theorists” comments.

But here, most of the people defending me and those like me are cis people. Here’s a space where, when someone says something bigoted, I’m not alone, or first, in calling them on it. Cis people have already gotten angry on behalf of trans people, and they don’t even know me.

It feels really good. Frankly, as I type this, I’ve got tears in my eyes.

Thanks, everyone. This kind of safe space shouldn’t be unusual, but it is, and I really can’t adequately express how wonderful it feels.

Grace

“I feel the same way about the decision to get breast implants. However, I find it easier to understand the motivation for that.”

Please examine the assumptions here. Just because you arrive at an understanding by what feels like an easier path doesn’t mean that there is more wisdom there upon arrival.

The comic was all about two people envoking a judment on another person’s gender — like someone else’s gender totally controled their lives. If the people are dating the transperson, then why does it make any difference?

the best definition of “trans” or “transgender” actually reflects this phenomenon, which i found here. it defines trans as “a person who’s gender is not universally considered valid”. i think that comes closest to hiting it on the mark, closer than any other definition i’ve found.

there is a website on successful TS men. see here:
http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TSsuccesses/TransMen.html

As for the rest of it, many of you are now simply being rude. From my own experience, I can say that transition has been the best and most necessary thing I’ve ever done for myself. I am a happy man with a family, successful at my job and contributing to my community. FYI, Kell, nobody generally suspects that I was assigned female at birth, and I consider this private medical information. I would, however, share this information with any potential dating interests if I were not married to the love of my life, a heterosexual woman.

I don’t think you understand just how much of a positive impact the transition process has on the lives of transsexual people. It’s not about one surgery, and I assure you it’s not about “male privilege”– the truth is, most of us know from a very early age that we were meant to be the “opposite” sex, that our bodies are betraying us. We are not out to mess with your politics, we are not out to subvert gender or to set back the women’s movement or to get into the bedsheets of unsuspecting people.

We are simply trying to get the medical treatment we need, so that we can live happy, fulfilling lives in our true (post-transition) sex. is that so much to ask?

I followed those links. All were already familiar to me, except for the IJT article. Rebutting them, in order:
1. The IJT article (written in 1998), in its abstract reports a satisfaction rate of 87-97% among post-op transfolk. The article focuses on a SMALL subset of the overall trans community who are unhappy with their transitions, apparently in the hope of helping screen future surgerical candidates. The first sentence of the introduction: “Sex reassignment surgery (SRS) is an effective method to treat the most extreme form of gender dysphoria, often referred to as transsexualism.” Not exactly a ringing condemnation of the procedure.
2. I rather doubt Kell noticed the root of the Conway link. The page listed is a minor part of a HUGE website, dedicated to successful transwomen (I think it is still only transwomen she documents). It is a very clearly worded cautionary page, advising folks to be cautious about transition. Again, not a condemnation. In my own experience, I can honestly say I know a few transwomen that I MYSELF feel should probably not have transitioned, but they are very much a minority among the many happy reasonably well-adjusted ones I know. Including the one I live with.
3. This one is what I might consider a hit-piece on a particular doctor in Britain who MIGHT have been a little loose with his diagnostic criteria. He’s probably one of the reasons most of us have to get TWO independent professionals to approve us for GRS. This one is the closest thing in these links to an actual legitimate issue.
4. Does not apply. Why would I care what the christian god thinks? Or, more accurately, the thoughts of those who profess to be his followers. Just to play in their sandbox a bit, the link quotes Genesis, where God is said to have created us in his image, both male and female. Apparently God is genderqueer. Further down, it is stated that GRS is a subversion of god’s plan (or something like that). Who is to say that this god didn’t actually intend for me to be trans? Besides, I like being subversive.

FWIW, the comic rocks.

jayinchicago, above: Yeah, my thoughts too — for one, a large part of the FTM physical transition process is hormone therapy. I bet Kell is imagining a woman with a penis pasted on, not remembering the short, muscular, bearded bald guy who serves coffee at the local shop…

The chromosome comment struck me as particularly ludicrous, since there’s actually no way of knowing what someone’s chromosome composition is without expensive tests.

It’s always weird when so-called biological essentialists don’t actually pay attention to biology.

What I find really interesting and actually rather amusing is how sure Kell Brigan is that she’d be able to “tell” a medically transitioned trans man from a non trans man. I bet that Kell has probably been acquainted with transsexual men and women with out even knowing it BECAUSE THEY DIDN’T TELL HER.
In thinking this way, her statement makes no logical sense because some trans man would have to be out about being trans if he lived as a man–thus she’d already know he was trans. Did that make any sense?

And a more general comment: I hate that transsexuality is getting reduced to “the surgery” here. Why are people so obsessed with genitals, anyway?