First view about transsexuals.

[LilSissyStevie]

I knew about crossdressers when I was about 12 or so from a CD porn novel I found and read. I had never thought of CDing in a sexual context until then. My first exposure to transsexuals was in my own imagination where I would fantasize about being with women who had penises. I don't mean ********, I mean something like futanari. My first exposure to actual TS people was in the 70's when I was a student at a live-in vocational rehab facility in Baltimore. All of the "male" students in the cosmetology program were either TS or femme gay dudes. I naturally gravitated to that crowd even though I wasn't really one of them. But they were a lot more fun to be around than the rednecks there. That experience cured me of any suspicion that I might be gay or TS. But, for a long time after that I thought that all MTF TS were flamboyantly femme, androphilic and aggressively oversexed. It was a much different crowd that what hangs out on internet forums. It left me with more questions about myself than it answered.

[dawnmarrie1961]

To me, all these labels can be rather confusing. Crossdressers,transvestites,transsexuals and the like. How’s a person supposed to know what is what and who is who since they all, well maybe not everyone, have the ultimate goal of passing as the opposite sex, wither it be for fun, desire, or a lifestyle choice?
Ask your local psychiatrist? I suppose. They are pretty good at categorizing everything and sticking a nice fancy scientific label on it. ](Hence Cro-Magnon Men who had the desire to wear warm fluffy pink bunny fur instead of manly bear skins could be categorized as being Cro-Magnonites.Who knows? We just haven’t dug any of them up yet to prove it. Or perhaps the scientific community doesn’t want us to know. Conspiracy Theorists Unite!! )
Nay! I’ll stick with what I know to be true, for myself. I cross dressed as a child, in secret, because of feelings of inadequacy and powerlessness because I could never measure up to the stature of my father. I knew it was wrong. But it made me feel some amount of control in a world that I had no control over. As I grew up, in order to fit in, I tried to understand and emulate what I believed a “man” was supposed to be like. The more successful I got at it the less I needed to cross-dress.
I married and had children. I did all the things I thought a “man” was supposed to do. Life was good.
How was I supposed to know how fragile the human mind really is? And what an injured mind will do to compensate in order to survive?
It took three very traumatic events happening in my life simultaneously to send my beleaguered brain reeling over the edge towards certain madness. Maybe I was or wasn’t aware of how bad off I was mentally? I knew I didn’t feel right. But instead of seeking out professional mental help I did what any “man” would do……..[SIZE="4"]I put on a dress. [/SIZE] And it worked!! I felt better.
Trouble was I never took the dress off. I let the clothes control me and take over my life. I lost myself in the wardrobe. In other words “I lost myself.”

When that happens it doesn’t take long before you lose everything else that you hold dear.
My wife says I “pushed everyone away” and she’s probably right. I didn’t want to hurt anyone. I saw the pain I was causing.
Then I was alone. No. More than just alone, I didn’t even exist anymore.
It’s taken me years to rebuild myself again, to find out who I am. I’m a work in progress.
What kind of label would you put on a person like me? Does the words “absolute nut case” work?
I prefer [SIZE="4"]“Normal Human Being.” [/SIZE]It makes a good label.
So lets be careful when we start throwing labels around. Somebody just might end up getting hurt.

[CynthiaD]

Back in the 50's and 60's there was a magazine called Sexology that was aimed at physicians and clergymen. They ran a number of informative and accurate articles about all aspects of sexuality. I learned about transsexuals from this magazine, which was available at my local news stand. One month they had an article about transvestites, which I saved for a long time -- until my mother found it and made me burn it in the fireplace. The article was extremely accurate, and would make good reading today. It explained that most transvestites were not homosexuals, nor did they wish to become women. This is where I learned that I was not alone.

Of course, this was the early 60's, so the general attitude of the magazine was that transvestism was an aberration that should be discouraged, but for the most part they addressed sexual issues in an open and non-judgmental way that was almost unheard of at the time.

CK

[BLUE ORCHID]

Being a life long crossdresser (from age 5) now almost 69 all the stories that I saw or herd about were very fascenating to me.

Orchid

[Tess]

Mid fifties when Christine Jorgenson, hit the cover of Life magazine, I was around 13 or so.

Same here. The Christine Jorgenson story was a bombshell and everyone was talking about it. I had already experimented with crossdressing so I was very interested and wondered if what I was doing made me a transsexual, homosexual, or what. I think I decided to ignore those labels and just enjoy what I was doing.

[SarahLynn]

MY first knowledge/contact came when I was already in the service and happened in San Diego, CA. I was attending diving school at the 32nd street Navel Station and when riding the bus back to station after an evenings liberty saw two "ladies" standing in a half lit doorway. Being a true sailor I looked them over and thought, "Hmmph wonder if they are working girls or just looking for a bit of action." It never dawned on me that they might be men dressed as women. I went back later with another student and we survayed them up close. To much makeup but hey they looked ok. He spoke to them and that is when one of them said, "Move on boys we're men." In spite of the thick coat of makeup still you could have tripped me over with a small pebble.

It was much later I came to know a proper name for the behavour I exhibited. Since I didn't follow the "tranny" life style it wasen't until I saw the movie Tootsie many years after it had been a hit did I see a man dressed as a woman who exhibited what I'd call "good appearance."

Of coarse there was the movie, "Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask" by Woody Allen, which I saw bits of, but the "tranny" in that movie acted so stupid I couldn't even watch it. Mind, I hate SitComs and this was the most stupid sit com of the centery. I never did see the end of this movie or much of the beginning either. I really wish I could have missed all of it.

SarahLynn