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This page contains a short
introduction about transsexualism, gender identity disorder (GID). Some of my information I make available here for you to
view and print for free within the following restrictions. Without permission, you are not allowed
to mass-distribute, sell, or in any way profit from these documents, and you are not allowed to change or copy anything for
use in another media. To view and print these documents you need an Adobe Acrobat reader program installed on
your computer. This can be found and downloaded for free at www.adobe.com
Gender Identity
Consider body, mind and soul. What’s sex versus gender role?
Transsexual
gender = sex with a twist. If your gender’s questioned, you don’t exist.
Transsexualism is about identity, and what’s more wrapped up in identity than gender? Transsexualism
is a phenomenon where a biological female person can have a male soul, or vice versa. This is often described as being trapped
in a body of the wrong sex. This condition is by medical and psychological terms called “gender identity disorder”
(GID) and, if you have a problem with it, diagnosed as “gender dysphoria.”
However, transsexualism
is no disease, and people suffering from it are not perverted at all. These people are very much men and women as anybody
else, but with one small and very important detail that turns things upside down for them. In an early stage before birth,
each of these persons has developed sexual body parts that are opposite the gender of his or her soul. I see this as a handicap—a
very serious handicap—and it’s not as uncommon as we may think.
I believe that the soul
is life itself, the persons we really are, and that our bodies by random don’t always develop correspondingly. This
is what I would call “normal variations of life,” and it’s the source that makes us differ as persons. The
soul is everything we are; the soul makes us special, and that includes transsexual people.
But you
can’t live in a body of the wrong gender; you can’t express yourself emotionally and you become ill. It’s
strange (but true) that dressing up in clothes of the opposite sex makes these ill feelings go away; no medicine or psychiatric
talk can do that.
We recognize most handicaps today (I hope so anyway) and we try to help these people
in the best way we are capable of. But for transsexual people it’s different. A girl born with a penis could be said
to have a very serious handicap, but what do we do? We label that girl a boy without any second thoughts. When it becomes
obvious that the child (or adult) has a problem with her gender identity, then we deny it and demand that she adjusts to both
family and societal rules. This is what transsexual people have to face, and their death rate is high due to a lack of understanding
among those around them and a lack of support in efforts to correct their bodies accordingly.
Transsexualism
affects us all in ways that are often difficult to explain. Even when we accept it as normal, uncomfortable feelings can remain
with us and result in serious depression, especially for the spouses and children of transsexual persons. These feelings should
not be dismissed as mere phobias, because they have their own natural and persuasive causes, just as transsexualism does.
I hope to be able to tell you more and to bring some understanding about transsexualism and its many repercussions
through the series of pamphlets that follows. Through this website and series, I also hope to be able to provide some advice
on how to deal with it. You don’t need to fear the subject—it’s a learning process, and in many ways it’s
a process of understanding yourself, your gender, and the person you really are. That of course can be scary enough, but think
of it this way: Independent of all, you are normal, and that allows you to be special. We all are. It’s diversity that
colors life and makes our lives worth living.
Transsexualism
A personal reflection by Li Sam; dated the 22nd of September 2006.
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This information covers the basic issue of transsexualism
in a very general way, serving as an introduction to the subject.
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Partnership
A personal reflection by Li Sam; dated the 11th of March 2007.
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This information is a general introduction to
the subject of being a spouse or partner to a transsexual person. Spouses and partners are often similarly exposed to difficult
feelings and problems, just like transsexuals themselves and are commonly put aside and left alone with their feelings.
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Li Sam: This is what
transsexualism
is really about
RSMH article 4/2011
National
Association for
Social and Mental
Health (in Swedish)
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