What is the difference between transsexual and transgender politics?

Answer 1

It is quite complicated and takes a lot of explaining.

Prior to 2000, there were two recognized groups of people. There were people who felt "trapped in the wrong body," who wanted surgery, and simply wanted to eliminate a "physical condition" and get on life as if they never had the condition. They were called transsexuals (TS). The other group were men who kept the identities of men and dressed or lived as women. They were called crossdressers (CD) and transvestites (TV). Transvestite was not preferred since that was a mental health term back then. The TS persons simply wanted to be whole and accepted as Mainstream, but the CD crowd were the activists of the day and fought alongside the emerging gay community.

But then a third group of people emerged. Some called themselves transgenderists, and others claimed they were non-op transsexuals, despite that being a contradiction in terms. The term transsexual implies there are only two physical sexes and that a person crosses from one to the other. To only way to cross the body over is to take hormones and have surgery. Keep in mind that "sex" and "gender" did not mean the same thing in those days. Your physical "sex" was your body, and your "gender" was who you are, how your brain was configured, and what nature of the two you have. The transgenderists were not accepted well when they began to emerge.

Now, you have to understand that people born with transexualism have a vastly different nature than members of the transgender community. Transsexual persons are mostly just like everyone else. They only have what they see as a physical condition, they fix it, they often distance themselves from the wrong life they were forced to live, and simply try to blend in. They don't try to change the laws, but get the existing laws adapted to them. Transgender persons take more of their cues from the LGBT community and shun a lot of the values that persons born with transsexualism thrive upon.

Now, you can probably see how activism can become lopsided and how transgender values may get forced onto transsexual persons with mainstream values. TS persons try to fit into existing culture and work from inside that framework to get acceptance, and mostly on a personal, per person level. So they are typically not that outspoken unless of course they get pushed into that. Nobody knows the true number of TS people who simply get surgery and go on with their lives as Mainstream, cisgendered folks. Now, what the TG community wants isn't exactly what most of society wants, and not compatible with what many TS persons want. They do want recognition and a community, and nothing is wrong with that. However, they sometimes do it in ways that harm what TS folks want - acceptance among the general public, not forced membership into a gender "ghetto."

So there is a vacuum of leadership, since TS folks really don't want an organized group taking care of them. They typically want the freedom to struggle in the real world among their true peers (minus the "deformity). So the TG and LGBT crowd are free to move in and take over, and since TSs as a whole are not active in the TG community, there is nobody to dissent. The TG need to be out and about is what drives them to look for leadership positions. They see themselves as a minority while many TS persons don't. People with cancer don't start a separate Cancer Community and see themselves as a minority group. So there is no need to start a separate community from the general public if you were born with the wrong parts.

How Beliefs About Gender Affect Other Deeply Held ViewsThe difference in background and living situation between the TS crowd and the TG crowd yields to different beliefs about life, religion, politics, and so on.

Consider this. If you think your body is the problem, then you would be more likely to change yourself to fit into existing society. You would not be out to change laws nor rebel, but to work within the existing framework. You would want to make friends with the in-group, not antagonize them, and work to earn some of their power. If your body is the only thing wrong, but your nature has always been like that of a member of your corrected (or soon to be corrected) physical gender, then that is where your alliances will be. You would take for granted that you are a woman (or man if FtM) and not worry about who accepts you. You would simply do all the same things of others of your corrected gender, for the same reasons, effortlessly, and without thinking about it. It would be second-nature. You would likely be more likely to oppose abortion since you feel robbed of the correct body and the chance to mother a child (if MtF). You might feel more traditional in terms of gender roles since you feel they were unfairly held from you based on what body you were born with.

Now, consider if you consider the discrepancy between your body and nature or at least social gender role to be natural. So then it is not your body holding you back, but society. So that means you need to stand up, be counted, and be an activist. You would feel compelled to try to change society. You would likely believe that most people are good but that society and living situations make them "bad."

Now lets look at the differing dynamics of transsexualism and transgenderism in regards to religious preference. The TS model would be closer to Christianity, while the TG model would be closer to Eastern religion or maybe Wicca. Christians believe they were born with a sinful nature and that Jesus came to save them from that and give them a new nature. TS persons believe they were born with the wrong body and that surgeons exist to give them the correct body. Christians pray and often read Scripture daily for spiritual growth. TS persons take hormones for breast growth.

Eastern religion believes in a balance of forces, a Yin and a Yang. TG folks may see themselves of having both in them. They may believe in multiple deities like they may believe in multiple genders in the same person. Witchcraft values diversity like the TG crowd.