What does transsexual mean?

Answer 1

Transsexualism means someone is born with the body of one sex, and the neurology, soul, essence, and being of the other sex. Such persons often have an intense hatred for their genitals of birth. If you look at the word, "trans+" means "to cross" and "+"sexual" refers to the genitals. So it is a person who needs surgery to cross from having the wrong set of genitals to the correct set of genitals. Implied in the notion of transsexualism is a gender dichotomy (ie., only two genders). If a person can be born with the wrong body, then there has to be a correct body.

It is bad form to think of a transsexual person as a "man who becomes a woman," or a "woman who becomes a man." Think of them as always having been a member of the sex/gender they claim to be. A transsexual woman gets surgery because a woman is supposed to have a vagina, not a penis. She gets the surgery to feel complete and to conform more to what she always knew herself to be. A transsexual woman is not a "man becoming a woman," but a "woman getting corrective surgery to be more like any other woman." A transsexual man is not a "woman becoming a man," but "a man getting corrective surgery to be more like other men." You don't get surgery to become the other sex, but because you believe you already are the other sex. Not every transsexual person can afford corrective surgery, but every truly transsexual person wants a body that matches who they are.

You can also go to Google and type "a primer on transsexuality" and click the first link.
A transsexual is a person whose gender identity does not match their outward biological sex as determined at birth. They usually change their genital organs to align with their gender identity. They live as a member of a different sex than what they were assigned at birth. They prefer to be called the gender label that matches their gender identity. The body has nothing to do with who someone is.
A person born with transsexualism is born with brain neurology does not match the biological sex doctors assigned to them at birth. They correct their sex to match who they really are. People who live as a member of a different sex than they were assigned at birth need to be called man or woman as appropriate for their corrected sex. Gender identity and biological sex do not always match in a person, and genuine transsexuals seek to destroy this difference through hormones and surgery. Sex is determined primarily by secondary sex characteristics, while gender identity is an inborn, hardwired part of the brain.

A person with transsexualism is a male or female born with parts which do not match who they are. So one could be wrongly born with male parts, but their mind says they are female and vice versa. There are doctors who specialize in gender identity issues, even in children and teens. Transsexual persons take hormones so their body can match who they are. Then they can get the corrective surgery to become an official and full member of the sex they truly were all along. The birth condition of transsexualism has little to do with transgenderism, gender variance, nor gayness.