User:Foxfire Glen/sandbox

Transgender and transsexual are two distinct and separate things. As the article mentions, most transsexuals who transition will include Sex Reassignment Surgery if at all possible (see Dr. Harry Benjamin's Gender Disorientation Scale). All of the types listed in Dr. Benjamin's scale are sometimes mistakenly referred to as "transgender", whereas the actual transsexual medical condition is really only concerned with types V and VI of this scale.

It is a strong matter of contention among those who feel they were born with the debilitating birth defect of transsexualism and who seek to correct this birth defect via surgical intervention to be included under the umbrella term "transgender" and by association deemed no different than crossdressers, drag queens, or those for whom gender variance is some kind of sexual fetish. These transsexuals do not in any way consider themselves transgender for this very reason. Therefore to use the word transgender in referring to all types of gender transition only perpetuates this misconception.

Further, many transsexuals do not feel they change their gender at all, but it is the internally perceived gender which is viewed as incongruent with their physical bodies and which produces the profound sense of gender dysphoria associated with transsexualism. Rather they change their physical sex in order to align their physical bodies with this internally perceived gender. I agree with the above recommendation that the term transgender be removed or replaced from the subject of this article. The word transition used in this context can also refer to transitioning the physical sex of the body, and not gender or transgender transition at all. Foxfire Glen (talk) 07:01, 17 April 2012 (UTC)