Frédérique

For myself I was relieved to learn that most who crossdress are not driven to surgically alter their bodies.

In my opinion anyone who suffers from gender dysphoria and would want someone else to have GID is a sociopath that needs others to suffer so they somehow benefit.

Many of the same forces that go into creating genius also go into creating madness and I think there are similar forces at work with crossdressing versus being transsexual

In my opinion CD's and TS's are born from the same soil but each arrived at a fork in the road and a few went left (TS's) while most (CD's) went right and we end up calling the soil transgendered and forgetting about the individual but the soil (conditions) placed everyone on the path without choice because we were born into it.

I see CD's as transgendered (umbrella) as distant consins where we share the same blood but yet are very different and this can be measured in pain. Most who crossdress do not suffer torments imposed internally but externally by others where with GID it is the pain of the internal made external so the pain comes from the opposite direction and so is different but with similarities.

I suspect I enjoy crossdressing for many of the same reasons crossdressers do, I like color on my nails, enjoy the touch of silk and appreciate feminine fashion and have experienced a touch of autogynephilia if admiring my form as a sexual object is what qualifies me for this disgusting label.

Often in the words of someone who identifies as being a crossdresser I see hints of what appears to be "gender longing" that feels eerily similar to what I experience as GID but the motives are different just as fantasy and reality are different.

I personally have never met a transsexual who did not start out crossdressing and I have met a number who at first identified as someone who crossdressed without any of the gender identity problems but the crossdressing in time pealed back deeper truths that had been buried usually from social conditioning intersecting with the survival instincts and desire for love.

The clothes can be used as tools for powerful self exploration or they can be nothing but clothes and I have a bearded friend who does nothing to feminize his appearance but likes to wear a dress now and than because it is pretty and he likes pretty things.

I see the word transgendered to include anyone who bends gender and hope someday that every single person will fall under this umbrella because gender binaries divide and polarize society creating violence.

Those who have attacked you are coming from a place of pain and fear, this does not justify their behavior but may lessen the sting of their actions.

You bring a great sensitivity to the forum but the forum is in many ways a place of pain for those who have been unfairly injured by circumstances of fate and as such can be a volatile place as all war zones are.

I suspect your words heal more than they harm and hope you continue offering up your wisdom, imagination and insights. Those in pain are usually more vocal but it does not make them necessarily more important just more likely to be selfish.