Is the need to crossdress inherited?

[JoanneNY]

I have had the constant desire to dress for many years but with a great wife who knew but did not want to be supportive it was always kept deep in the back of my mental closet. Time has passed as well as my dear wife after 45 years. That was 12 years ago and I've begun to emerge from darkness and enjoy my need to dress. My son came out to me last year and I just blurted out that it's OK, I'm a cross dresser also. When he and his wife heard this they were speechless, then he said "now I know how I got to feel this way". They took me to see Kinky Boots in NYC for my 80th B'day and we had a great time. Has anyone ever had a similar experience?

[Beverley Sims]

No, and I don't think it is an inheritance thing either.

[Rachelakld]

My dad enjoyed "shopping" and checking out clothes "for my mum". He had a manly image to maintain, but sometimes I think had his social situation been different...…….

[JoanneNY]

Thanks Beverly, that was a poor choice of word, I think parental DNA would have been more accurate.

[abbiedrake]

My father crossdressed though to what extent I have no idea.

[alwayshave]

I don't think it is inherited, but there is 2.8% chance that any male child will grow up to crossdress.

[Robbin_Sinclair]

Thanks for the thought. At 80, it is nice to know life is still good. I’m eight years away...our dads grew up in the 40s. In some places crossdressing would put you in jail back then.

Judging from my dad’s very unconventional home lifestyle of never coming home until late and a separate social life from anybody we knew, my dad was probably bi-sexual. Perhaps that is a possibility for my way of thinking.

Growing up, I never gave too much thought about a gender preference in people with whom I was close. It was easier to be with a woman but ... any port in a storm was my attitude then. Judging from my dad’s unmarried, intellectual male friends and sloppy female choices, he never did either. He was my idol and still is.

Oddly, you post will bring me back to this site much more often. Admitting who I am is very refreshing, after a long time playing a male in a male business world. Be blessed honey.

[Crissy 107]

I don't think it is inherited, but there is 2.8% chance that any male child will grow up to crossdress.

Interesting, where did you find this #?

[sara66]

I don't know if crossdressing is genetic, but compulsive behavior can be.
Sara

[Judy-Somthing]

My uncle cross-dressed and two close relatives are gay.

[Kelly DeWinter]

I'm not at liberty to say anything but unequivocally "yes" although I would say being transgender, not "a need to crossdress" although some might argue they are part and parcel the same.

[phili]

I discovered what I thought must be my dad's stash [one outfit] up in the ceiling in a trap door. He is the same person who had threatened me as a 4 year old with shaming for crossdressing, so life must have been hard for him too. My daughter said, very peaceably and comfortably, that she is 'glad to be a woman- so if it is hereditary it may be sex-linked.

[GretchenM]

This is a complex response involving some of the latest findings in the genetic foundations of gender behavior. Fasten your seatbelt.

In the field of behavioral genetics there is a prime principle - all behavior has its roots in genetics. It may be deeply rooted or have only a small toehold, but behaviors are genetically based. However, that does not mean it is necessarily inheritable. Some behaviors have been found to be due to micromutations that are spontaneous and may occur through the interaction of genetics and environment (that is called epigenetics).

Twin studies have shown that gender variance is almost certainly inheritable and studies have shown it does run in families. In short, it is not a choice that we make and such behavior has a far higher probability of occurring in siblings and found in ancestors as well if we show the behavior. Those people just never revealed it. That said, it is not deterministic, that is, for example, your father (or mother) experienced the traits of transgenderism and therefore I will too. Maybe, maybe not. It is, in fact, based on probability which means the probability that you will have those feelings is higher if others in your genetic line had those feelings.

The last I read (a 2017 study out of Geneva) found that there are 3,534 genes involved in some way with creating our gender identity. All these genes interact in a complex network to create the configuration of brain structures and behavioral predispositions that constitute what we call gender. The study included transgender subjects as well as cisgender. They found that micromutations in 45 of those genes were present in the transgender people that were not present in cisgender people. None of these micromutations are of much significance alone, but being involved in a huge network the consequence of these mutations can become magnified as their effects flow through the network. And many of these can be passed on to children once the micromutation is established. Eventually though, most micromutations get "washed out" of the genome with future generations. Thus, what is inheritable now may not be a few generations from now.

The bottom line of all the genetic studies on gender behavior shows that all gender behavior, no matter what type, is inheritable. But exactly how what is provided is expressed is dependent on the actions of the network of genes in combination with in-body and outside-body environmental influences such as occurs when interacting with other people. So, transgender behaviors, although inheritable, are not certain to be expressed unless the environment and the genetic network is able to induce the behavior.

These types of studies which were unable to be done even 4 or 5 years ago involve genome wide studies of hundreds to hundreds of thousands of people. They are possible because deciphering anyone's genome is so easy and inexpensive now, these genome wide studies are discovering vast amounts about how our genes are involved in what we do (or don't do). However, through it all the main message is when it comes to the brain and its particular configuration, how it actually works in any one particular person is based on probability. But the probability that what you find in yourself and now see in other family members is very high that your behavior was inherited and has been expressed in your own particular way because you are a unique person just like everybody else. Others may generally feel the same thing, but the particulars are most certainly different in many ways.

[Robertacd]

I believe transgender could be inherited.

BTW: I also believe crossdressers are all transgender to some extent. You may not "want to be a woman" but you still could be trans.

I called my self a crossdresser all my life and I was in my 50's before I really accepted myself as trans.

So, crossdressing is inherited too.

Also environment can play a big part, children are more observant than we give them credit. You could say your son may have noticed your dressings when he was very young and it sort of stuck in his head.

[Connie D50]

I'm not sure, I do however have a cousin who transitioned it always made me wonder if we could pass it on. (I have two daughters) I would think the % would have to be low, or I would believe that science would have already documented it by know.

[rhonda]

I don't think it's inherited ,but something you got to learn , once you try it , it gets into to your mind and once it goes in it'll always there and no mater how hard you try to get it out , it'll be there waiting to come out again , and again , and again until you submit

[Robbin_Sinclair]

I don't know if crossdressing is genetic, but compulsive behavior can be.
Sara

. ...

I look at my life, if done correctly, as one compulsive behavior after another. Some are loved by regular people such as poetry, reading, musical instrument, etc. Some are not accepted by regular people such as drug use, crossdresssing and porn.

If I go to Walgreens, have a good movement or I am sitting in church the right way, this too can be a compulsive behavior.

Did I get this attitude of permissiveness from my dad and mom? I think so. Ma played the piano and drank beer and probably had sex with men at Jim’s bar. Dad was always gone and none of the people he was with came to our house.

I still think it has a lot to do with genetics.

Thank you for starting this thread.

[Alice Torn]

Men are in very tough binds these days, and it is very frustrating for so many of us, in these mental and emotional and sexual strait jackets. I know women have different frustrations and binds but nowadays it is very difficult for boys and men. At least for me, it is. A world where women no longer need, nor respect American men. No wonder so many dress in secret.

[Stephanie47]

A counselor I see for issues related to combat believes each man or woman has some dna from the opposite sex. In some it is greater than others. If that is true, then it would follow all the issues of sexual identity may be inherited. I do not believe my father or brother are/were cross dressers. I follow my father's gene pool more than my mother's. My brother follows the maternal pool.

My father was a child in the 1920's. When he was becoming a man in the 1930's the social stigma of being anything but straight would have been overwhelming. He also spent eight years in the army; three years before WW2 and WW2 for the duration. Would those experiences be sufficient to suppress any cross dressing motivations?

Perhaps having a smidgen of the appropriate DNA would make a man more apt to dabble in women's clothing than those who do not.

[Sherri_Christopher]

I started crossdressing when I was 4 years old. At that age, it isn't sexual fetish thing. I have no idea if any of my relatives were crossdressers as this predilection was hidden from public view, except for the drag queen scene. My dad once told me when he was in the Navy during WWII and his ship was berthed in San Francisco, that he went to a drag show, so that sort of thing was going on. I don't see this behavior in my sons either and kept my crossdressing a secret from them and my daughter. Although I accept and am comfortable with who I am now, it wasn't always that way and it gave me a sense of shame and I wished I wasn't this way and I wouldn't wish it on my sons. For my whole life, since I was 4 years old and first crossdressed (and got caught by my sister and she shamed me!), I've wondered what caused me to be this way. I still do, but I don't get all torn up about it anymore, I am the way I am!

[NancySue]

I think cding is generic. I, too started very early..4 or 5. It was not a sexual thing. After I slipped on my first pair of nylon stockings, I knew and felt different. All our genes go back many generations and skip generations. Our pasts probably had royalty and pirates...we’ll never know. Until fairly recently, most all cding took place behind closed doors...who knew? It was hardly dinner talk. Lol.

[Teresa]

Gretchen,
Many thanks for that piece of information , it does make a great deal of sense and also gives a clearer reason why we are all different . It's understandable now why we struggle to know oursleves at times let alone give other people the full answer . The lesson to learn is we are born with a trait, our wiring is as different as our fingerprints, we just have to learn how to come to terms with it and hope others will understand and accept us .

[Angie G]

It just maybe inherited my dad dresses. We never talked about his dressing but I do way more dressing then he did.
Angie

[Robertacd]

I know for a fact that my son at least dabbled in dressing when he was a teenager.

Now where could he have gotten that idea?

[JoanneNY]

I am pleased that I started this thread, the responses have given me a better understanding of how others have dealt with this. I can comment to Stephanie and her tale about her father in the service in the 40's. I served in the 50's and saw several shipmates taken away by NCID for a Dishonorable Discharge if they showed any signs of anything other than straight. That was when 30 or so guys lived in an open barracks. I hear they have private rooms now and DADT is the rule. My, how times have changed.
WW