The trans community has, traditionally, considered there to be a distinction between cross dressers and transsexuals. We might now think that the distinction is blurry and it’s not always obvious which category a particular person belongs to. For example someone might meet most of the expected characteristic of the transsexul type but not have actually had surgery—due to considerations of risk, expense, being on a years long NHS waiting list, etc. etc.
Russell Reid (used to be a psychiatrist in the UK, now retired) used to regard response to hormones as diagnostic. Like, if you’re sexually driven estrogen will typically reduce sex drive and you won’t like it, but transsexuals will actually feel better. (Some people report increased sex drive on estrogen—that there is sometimes an atypical response is interestinot). Still, there’s an idea here that transition is suitable for some people and not others, and this is one of the points where you get to find out which type you are.
(Theres a joke that goes “Q: whats the different between a cross dresser and a transsexual? A: About six months” which may have some truth to it, but is not the official answer to that question).
The trans community has, traditionally, considered there to be a distinction between cross dressers and transsexuals. We might now think that the distinction is blurry and it’s not always obvious which category a particular person belongs to. For example someone might meet most of the expected characteristic of the transsexul type but not have actually had surgery—due to considerations of risk, expense, being on a years long NHS waiting list, etc. etc.
There are lots of real distinctions among trans-spectrum people on trans-related topics. One cannot really boil it down to a single binary of transsexual vs crossdresser. That said, these distinctions often correlate along an axis of “more trans vs less trans”, but the exact weights that matter in any given context vary a lot, so one cannot really consider there as being One Single Axis To Rule Them All.
Russell Reid (used to be a psychiatrist in the UK, now retired) used to regard response to hormones as diagnostic. Like, if you’re sexually driven estrogen will typically reduce sex drive and you won’t like it, but transsexuals will actually feel better. (Some people report increased sex drive on estrogen—that there is sometimes an atypical response is interestinot). Still, there’s an idea here that transition is suitable for some people and not others, and this is one of the points where you get to find out which type you are.
Since there are lots of distinctions, there are lots of things one could decide to use for diagnostics. Things like response to hormones are important and legible, so they are good to talk about, but one also needs situational nuances.
The trans community has, traditionally, considered there to be a distinction between cross dressers and transsexuals. We might now think that the distinction is blurry and it’s not always obvious which category a particular person belongs to. For example someone might meet most of the expected characteristic of the transsexul type but not have actually had surgery—due to considerations of risk, expense, being on a years long NHS waiting list, etc. etc.
Russell Reid (used to be a psychiatrist in the UK, now retired) used to regard response to hormones as diagnostic. Like, if you’re sexually driven estrogen will typically reduce sex drive and you won’t like it, but transsexuals will actually feel better. (Some people report increased sex drive on estrogen—that there is sometimes an atypical response is interestinot). Still, there’s an idea here that transition is suitable for some people and not others, and this is one of the points where you get to find out which type you are.
(Theres a joke that goes “Q: whats the different between a cross dresser and a transsexual? A: About six months” which may have some truth to it, but is not the official answer to that question).
There are lots of real distinctions among trans-spectrum people on trans-related topics. One cannot really boil it down to a single binary of transsexual vs crossdresser. That said, these distinctions often correlate along an axis of “more trans vs less trans”, but the exact weights that matter in any given context vary a lot, so one cannot really consider there as being One Single Axis To Rule Them All.
Since there are lots of distinctions, there are lots of things one could decide to use for diagnostics. Things like response to hormones are important and legible, so they are good to talk about, but one also needs situational nuances.