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.
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About transsexualism
Consider body, mind and soul.
What’s gender 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.
This
two-page pamphlet covers the basic issue of transsexualism in a very general way, serving as an introduction to the subject.
Partnership
A personal reflection by Li Sam; dated
the 11th of March 2007.
This two-page pamphlet 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.
