Transeo in Latin, which is where we get the prefix "trans" from means a bunch of things. To cross, to pass over, to desert, to treat cursorily, to overstep, to surpass, to go over, to go across, to pass by, to go by, to shift, to pass by, to pass away, to cross over to, to desert to, to change into, to penetrate, and to permeate.

Now, one thing none of us do, I think, is treat gender cursorily. Otherwise, any and all of these may apply to CD's, TV's, and TS's. (Did I leave anyone out?)

This is why I think of transgender as a blanket term that includes cross-dressing, transvestism, and transsexuality. We certainly do shift, change, penetrate, and permeate the very flexible borders that exist between the genders, as they are understood in Western society. That's what we have in common. Of course, the degree to which we do this is why we have the terms that fall under the umbrella of transgender.

I'm grateful for labels, even if they do get confusing and carry the danger of being confining. Without labels, we don't know who we are, or whether there are others like us in the world. The sense of enormous relief I felt upon learning that there are words for the kind of person I am is something I'd find it difficult to put into words.