Originally Posted by
CindyT
Crossdressers: Previously known as "transvestites," this group of individuals is content with their birth gender, but chooses to dress up as and use the mannerisms of the opposite gender. Crossdressers clothe themselves in the clothing of the opposite gender not for the purpose of entertaining others (as drag performers do), but because they feel more comfortable dressed as such. Note that crossdressers are NOT necessarily gay, nor do they necessarily want to undergo sexual reassignment; it is purely a choice they make about how to dress.
Drag performers: Drag performers, the male half of which is sometimes referred to as "drag queens," are individuals who dress up as and use the mannerisms of the opposite sex for the purpose of entertaining an audience. Think RuPaul. Some drag performers identify themselves as transgendered, and some do not.
Transsexuals: This group of individuals was born into one gender but identifies emotionally and psychologically with the other. The medical term often used to describe this situation is "gender dysphoria." The complexities of this state are numerous, and people in different stages of their "coming out as a transsexual" process may refer to themselves in very different ways. Male transsexuals may choose to use hormones, have surgery, or do neither in order to live as women. The point is, these are people who feel that they were born in the wrong body and will often do anything they can to remedy it.
FtM
A transsexual born as female and transitoning to male.
DSM
DSM IV TR
Abbreviation for the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" published by the American Psychiatric Association. It currently lists transsexuality (gender identity disorder), cross-dressing (transvestic fetishism), and BDSM (sado-masochism) as mental illnesses. It removed homosexuality from its list in 1973.
Hormone Replacement Therapy
HRT
A term used for the taking of sex-related hormone s (e.g., estrogen, testosterone). Most often the term is used for post-menapusal women taking estrogen. The term also applies to a transsexual taking hormones of the target sex.
Male to Female
MtF
An abbreviation for "male to female" It refers to a transsexual born as male and transitoning to female.
Transexual
Purposely spelled with only one "s", this term was intended to take the psychological term from the mental health professional sub-culture and re-define it for the transgender sub-culture.
Transgender
An umbrella term referring to anyone who's behavior, thoughts, or traits differ from the societal expectations for their sex. This group includes cross-dressers, transsexuals, intersexuals, gay men, lesbian women, and bisexuals.
Transgenderist
A person who lives as their target sex without the desire to change biological sex.
Transition
The process or switching from one's bioloical sex ro one's target sex.
Transsexual
Transsexuality
Transsexualism
A person born of one biological sex who seeks to become the other sex. This term orginally was amental illness diagnosis but was dropped in favor of "gender identity disorder." The term is still used in psychological research where it only refers to those persons who have undergone SRS.
Transvestitism
Transvestite
A psychopatholigical term that includes cross-dressing but also includes other opposite-sex-related clothing activity. Transvesitism includes behaviors from cross-dressing to masturbating while wearing a single object of the opposite-sexes clothing
Heres what I found...
let me quote this:
Thanks HEAPS
