CD vs TG

[Rianna Humble]

The difference between CD and TS [mtf] is that the CD wishes to APPEAR female, while the TS feels that they should BE female?

There are many different flavours of CD, but I think that part of your statement would probably hold true for the identity CDs that I know - that is people who tell me that they cross-dress to express a female aspect to their character. When those CD's dress, they do indeed wish to appear as females.

I think others have already said it, but MtF transsexuals do not "wish to be female", neither do we "feel that we should be female". We are female but have the wrong bits between our legs.

It is interesting (to me) that whilst I was recently conversing with a GG friend who had known me in my past life, she told me that she doesn't understand men who want to wear women's clothes - and then added "that doesn't include you, Rianna because you were never a man!". If the occasion arises, I will try to help her to understand about why some people cross-dress.

those CD's who wish they were female would really fit into the TS mode!!

I'm sorry, Stephanie, you are way off base with this idea! I have met and discussed with many cross-dressers who occasionally wish that they were female, but not one of them is transsexual. A transsexual does not "wish that they were female" (or male in the case of our FtM brethren). In fact many of us would give our right arms not to know that we are female but with the wrong body parts. Neither Hormone Therapy nor Gender Confirmation Surgery can make someone a woman, we already are women and the medical procedures are needed to align our body with our gender.

I have been a CD for longer than many of you have been alive! And as a lifetime dedicated scholar, I have studied crossdressing and all its varieties for many years. Granted there are many different thoughts on what certain varieties of crossdressers are, but in general the medical definitions are the same worldwide. Those are what I have given on this thread!!

Medical science continuously advances on many fronts. When that happens, the definitions evolve. Your definition of Transvestite is not currently generally accepted in those countries of Western Europe where I can understand the medical texts (i.e. those countries who publish either in French or in English).

Whilst your definition of TS might have been held by some in the medical community back in the days when they wrongly classed it as a mental disease or defect, those practitioners who still stick to the mental defect idea are now generally regarded as cranks.