I would imagine we might be included in Q, but not sure. What are your thoughts.
I would imagine we might be included in Q, but not sure. What are your thoughts.
I always thought we fit under the T.
Jill
i think the T covers us; just as the other letters refer to specific orientations.
My thought would be that we would always fit under the "T" portion
But I have contacted several groups in my area, and they all said that,
I really would nit be a good fit for their group
One even suggested that I start a new group just for us,
and she would help me get it going.
my sister's reply when I told her how I prefer to dress
"Everyone has there thing, all that matters is that you are happy, love what you do and who you do it with"
Gwen,
A similar question has come up before asking if we fit under the LGBTQ umbrella , I have mixed feelings about it but also doubt if the trans communtiy could go it alone when so many prefer to be hidden in the closet .
As for the Q label , it had shown to be an old label to mean odd or unusual , no matter I don't feel being trans is queer , it feels perfectly normal to me .
There's a thread on the go at the moment about where we sit on the spectrum and I would suggest that it's generally accepted that on that spectrum is Transgender.
Now I'm one who, at this present time, has no plan or inkling to ever transition but never say never. That said like many here I feel there's an element within me that leans towards having female traits. And so while male and hetro I have more than a little in common with those who do seek transition.
One of the things that I feel does bind us into the LGBTQ community is that we sit as a minority within society, one that like Gays is shunned and derided by factions with the broader population. Because of that we have an empathetic link to the LGBTQ grouping much in the same way our dressing gives us an insight into the world of women.
I suspect that one of the reasons some in the LGBTQ community shun us is, like the general population and their equating CD = Gay, they see us as people just acting out a fetish and nothing more. Both are as mistaken as the other in making such assumptions.
Who dares wears Get in, get out without being noticed
Many long time CD's often drift toward being trans. Including many I have met. So, I think CD's should be included under the T umbrella.
Even tho I'm definitely NOT a trans now. When I began dressing 25 years ago it was because I wanted breasts and fantasized about becoming female!
But then, I do pretty much everything backwards!
U can't keep doing the same things over and over and expect to enjoy life to the max. When u try new things, even if they r out of your comfort zone, u may experience new excitement and growth that u never expected.
Challenge yourself and pursue your passions! When your life clock runs out, you'll have few or NO REGRETS!
Helen,
As I pointed out to another question on this subject , the LGB sections are based on their sexual aspect and the Trans section is based on gender . They can also remain anonymous whereas our needs can be more visual . At times I wonder if we they think we lampoon their sexual needs with our dressing .
If you ask some trans people about their sexual orientation they may not be able to give you a definite answer .
Not to split hairs, Helen, but it would seem to me that this line of thinking is more along the lines of "The enemy of my enemy is my friend"...a tenuous and forced alliance at best, with the main commonality being that the LGBQ and T camps are both minorities within the hetero/cis worlds and to some degree are threatened by the same kind homo- and transphobia and violence that is often being visited upon all of us for being "different". Kind of like the forced alliance between the Western Allies and the Communist Soviet Union during WWII in order to defeat the Nazis, and look how well that worked out in the long run.Originally Posted by Helen_Highwater
The LGB group is defined by the fact that that theirs is primarily a sexual orientation issue. For us, it is a matter of gender orientation, and as for the transsexuals and the "Q" contingent it is often a mixture of the two. Drag queens are almost exclusively homosexual, claim that theirs is an "art form" and an alternate style of entertainment, and that they derive no particular enjoyment or erotic arousal from their female impersonation activities. We CDer's, on the other hand, feel an innate mental connection with GG's and a deep-seated admiration for the way they look, act, and approach life as a whole. Ours is an act of attempted emulation and homage to the feminine lifestyle (a form of "method acting", if you will), and not one of presenting an over-the-top caricature of women as many drag queens do.
The truth of the matter is that most gays don't "get" us and feel no particular affinity towards us beyond the fact that we are both marginalized societal outliers. Kind of like that pesky little kid brother or sister who always tries to tag along with their older sibling and is usually unwanted, but always underfoot. In both cases, whether we as individual groups thrive or not - or are able to stake out our rightful place within society at large - depends primarily on the good graces of the hetero/cis majority. That is often tenuous at best (opposition to same sex marriage, infamous "Bathroom Bills", anyone?), and often depends on which way the political winds are blowing at any given moment.
Last edited by Leslie Langford; 11-27-2020 at 08:35 PM.
I'm not fond of the whole "gatekeeper" aspect in the first place. Transwomen fight against being kept out of the definition of "women", then turn around and keep us out of the definition of "trans".
Then I become guilty of it myself by thinking of crossdressers as those of us making an effort to present as women, as opposed to "guys just wearing panties and lipstick with a hairy body and beard".
The central argument against us is that if we are doing it for sexual purposes then we don't count. I am sure all of our drives are more nuanced than that.
Bottom line, labels suck.
Depends on who you talk to but I say yes.
T (transgender) fits the bill as a crossdresser navigates between two genders, at least in presentation, and sometimes in more profound ways.
I sometimes get asked for clarification about who/what I am when meeting new people. I tell them technically I fall under the T but then add that I consider myself just a regular Jane with no further requirements than the person asking the question. Regular folk are much better with this than the few TS I have met who consider us pretenders to the throne.
I believe the LQBT+, the + allows for variations
LGBTQA+: The acronym for “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Asexual, & Allies.” The acronym is often expanded to variations of LGBTQIA to inclusively represent identities which include intersex and questioning people. Queer:An umbrella term used to refer to all LGBTQA+
I would say that CD's certainly fall under the "T", but it must be said that we are (generally) poorly understood by the LGB community. Never mind the fact that all to many in the straight community can't tell the difference.
Calling bigotry an "opinion" is like calling arsenic a "flavor".
I will point out that for the closeted,they are never going to take a stand and "grasp a letter"... Nothing wrong with that BUT they never take the stand ! Those of us in the daily mainstream face far different challenges.
It SURE is my hair ! I have the receipt and the box it came in !
This question (or something similar to this) comes up a couple of times a year. There is lots of discussion but it appears there is no right or wrong answer. Some people like labels and others don't want to be labeled. The debate will probably continue.
If you feel like part of it, I suppose you are. I am not gay, nor trans, so I don't regard myself as part of it. I have fun wearing the clothes and trying to look like a woman, that's all. Someday I might feel that it's no longer so enjoyable and I might put it behind me, or not.
I do not have to be defined by a letter. The only definition I need is one word....ME!!!! I am who I am and that is that. X
I like your comparison to riding a bicycle Kim. It is not an either/or kind of thing. Sticking labels on things and defining them narrowly is a synthetic way to catalog things, but it rips out individuality. And Aunt Kelly you comments are also right on.
I agree Char. This is a subject that comes up often and I agree the discussion of this subject may be never ending because, perhaps, there is no clear answer. On the other hand, sometimes the questioning and learning other people's views on the subject is much more important than finding a precise answer. You can paddle a canoe to get to a particular place or you can paddle a canoe just for the sake of paddling a canoe and seeing what ever you can see in your journey to nowhere in particular.
I totally agree. I have learned so much from asking what I thought a simple question.
Gretchen,
Interesting analogy and I agree at one point I paddled my canoe round in circles now I have a definite destination .
I agree with Geena75 here, and have the same lack of feeling of integration into most of the "letters". I am not Lesbian (unless you count my attraction to women when I am crossdressed), I am not Gay, I am not Bi nor do I want to transition fully or permanently as it seems the Trans letter implies for those that identify there. Queer seems to be a holdover long term identification that really doesn't fir for the heterosexual crossdresser either to me. The reality is that for many of us, Crossdresser is the most appropriate designation. But is seems to still come with some stigma in the "communities" and even seems to be considered somehow "less" somehow by the other communities. I can't help but think that the key here is not to try to "fit into" one o the letters, but to be whoever you are and be OK with that. I just know I enjoy crossdressing and presenting my female self for any number of reasons (of which so many of us have described in these forums over the years). Perhaps, the best place we all fit is exactly the title of this forum site, crossdressers!
The whole 'labelling' thing has alwaysleft me cold. So what should we do? Add a C into the mix?
LGBTQAI+C?
I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
Additionally ... if this website is for crossdressers (only), what are all the other people who are not, stictly speaking, crossdressers doing here?
Another can of worms opens. For what reason? To what end?
Get real, folks! This website is for the provision of mutual support, not division. We are all somewhere on the spectrum and it does not really matter where, as long as we can honour each other.
Last edited by GaleWarning; 11-27-2020 at 04:19 PM.
I agree with Geena. I am not gay nor do I consider myself as transgender. Even all dressed up wearing a dress, I am still a male who simply enjoys wearing women?s clothing. I guess that there is probably an argument to fit some of us in under the LGBTQ+ umbrella but I personally don’t feel part of it either
Posting Permissions
