How do you know if you are transgendered or just CD?

[Nicki B]

Ones interior experience, identification and REALITY is everything feminine, womanly, sugar and spice and all that is nice

Elise.. :rolleyes:

I am just wondering what is the best term to describe this state of being and unless I am wrong, there is currently no standard or clear-cut universal specific meaning that differentiates between the word transsexual and transgendered.

That's perfectly true. TS is used by those who feel they need the term.

Would you agree with this?

"Transgendered" = A man with the mental gender of a woman; and a woman with the mental gender of a man.

Aren't you oversimplifying, hugely? You appear to be saying there can only be masculine or feminine - with no variation in between? I look around and see many, many shades here - not just black or white.

There is a difference between someone who has the mental gender of a woman and the body of a man who then takes body-changing hormones or undergoes sex-change surgery ~ compared to someone who has the mental gender of a woman and the body of a man who doesn't take these steps, and perhaps never will.

So, as mentioned earlier in the thread, how can some identify as non-op transsexual, then?

Thus a transvestite is NOT Transgendered. Right?

Finally, the word Cross Dresser. Both Transvestite's and Transgendered people Cross Dress. The word Cross Dress is VERY generic. A so called Drag Queen also cross dresses, but he is NOT Transgendered because he has the mental gender of being a male.

TVs, CDs, DQs, GQ and all the other labels are widely regarded as included under transgender - it's intended as an umbrella term. Of importance, I would suggest, is the amount of gender dysphoria felt by an individual?

Is this valid or is it just semantics? Did I wast my evening with meaningless word-play?

Aren't you just trying to put everyone into a little pigeonhole? If you need to feel 'ordered' yourself, then go ahead.. But be prepared that you may cause offence to others.

i think labels are just one groups way of trying to put themselves above others, or as way of getting something..if one group is viewed as better, then people will feel pressure to join that group, or they will "fight" to protect the group they are in and this creates us vs them, this is certainly true in the straight vs queer world, the queer vs tg world (ENDA anyone?), but even in our community of "gender variant" people it can be true and i think thats sad....

That's the problem with all these labels - just look through the thread, at the judgemental implications of the language that have been used.

'Just', 'Only', 'Lower', 'Higher', 'Courage'... How do any of those exclusive terms help us to think and act as a community, in order to improve our lot?