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Transgender sexuality is the sexuality of transgender people. Transgender people exhibit the full range of possible sexual orientations and interests, including the potential for a lack of interest in sex.

Sexual Orientation Labels
Historically, clinicians labeled transsexual people as heterosexual or homosexual relative to their sex assigned at birth. Most transsexual people find this offensive, and prefer to define their sexual orientation relative to their gender identity. Thus, a trans man attracted to women is likely to identify as a heterosexual man. The discrepancy between how transgender individuals prefer to be labeled and how researchers label them in scientific literature can create confusion.

To avoid this confusion and offense, the terms "gynephilia" and "androphilia" are sometimes used to describe an attraction to women and men, respectively.

The terms "homosexual" and "heterosexual" are problematic for transgender people who do not identify as male or female. More broadly, people attracted to those outside the gender binary often reject terms defining attraction in terms of men and women.

Sexual orientation distribution
One study published in 1977 suggests that transgender people have more heterosexual than homosexual experiences. Another study published in 1976 found an almost equal distribution of transsexuals between three distinct categories: homosexual, asexual, and heterosexual. However, this study only assessed 42 male-to-female transsexual people who had undergone gender reassignment surgery and does not address bisexuality. Furthermore, these categories have been rejected by many transsexual people as pejorative.

Transsexual women
Research, such as that done by Walter Bockting at the University of Minnesota, suggests that the breakdown of sexualities among transsexual women is 38% bisexual, 35% attracted to women, and 27% attracted to men. More Recent research indicates that the majority of trans women are attracted to men, some are attracted to only women or both men and women, a few are asexual, and a small minority are only attracted to other trans individuals. Older research had suggested that the majority of transsexual women seeking sex reassignment were attracted to men. About half of trans women studied have sexual intercourse with women.

British comedian Bethany Black is one of the more well-known trans women attracted to women.

Trans-feminine mixed gender roles
R. Green compares two-spirit people, hijra, mukhannathun, and kathoey, all of which are people assigned male at birth who have adopted a more feminine gender role. They have in common early effeminacy, adulthood femininity, and attraction to masculine males. Green argues that the members of these groups are mentally indistinguishable from modern western transsexual women.

The exact cultural role of two-spirit people varied from tribe to tribe, but in all cases Green writes about they are oriented towards men.

The Hijra of India and Pakistan are typically phenotypic men who occupy a female sexual and/or gender role, sometimes undergoing castration. However, a variety of people (Intersex, transgender, [[transsexualism| transsexual], and other third gender individuals) identify their gender as Hijra. As adults they occupy a female role, but traditionally Hijra describe themselves as neither male or female, preferring Hijra as their gender. They are often express their feminity as boys; as adults they are usually sexually oriented towards masculine men.

Mukhannathun were transsexual or transgender individuals of the Muslim faith and Arab extraction who were present in Medina and Mecca during and after the time of Muhammad. Ibn Abd Al-Barh Al-Tabaeen, a companion of Aisha Umm ul-Mu'min'in who knew the same mukhannath as Mohammed, stated that "If he is like this, he would have no desire for women and he would not notice anything about them. This is one of those who have no interest in women who were permitted to enter upon women." That said, one of the Mukhannath of Medina during Muhammad's time had married a woman.

Travesti are Brazilian trans women who are attracted to men. Travestis' feminine identity includes hormones and/or silicone body alterations, feminine dress, language, and social and sexual roles, but rarely genital surgery. However, in contrast to North American transsexual women, they often don't see themselves as real women, and many describe themselves as gay or homosexual. According to Don Kulick, they will describe themselves instead as "feeling like a woman".

Transsexual men
In the past, clinicians thought that the majority of transsexual men were only attracted to women. However, trans men (as well as transsexual women) exhibit a range of sexual orientations: gay (attracted to men), straight (attracted to women), bisexual (attracted to men and women), asexual, attracted to only other transsexuals, or a number of other sexual orientations. In a recent study on gay and bisexual identities in FtM transsexuals, Bockting found that 60% identified as gay, 32% as bisexual, and 8% identified as queer.

In the 20th century, trans men attracted to women struggled to demonstrate the existence and legitimacy of their identity. Many trans men attracted to women, such as jazz musician Billy Tipton, kept their trans status private until their deaths.

Author Henry Rubin, wrote, "It took the substantial efforts of Lou Sullivan, a gay FTM activist who insisted that female-to-male transsexuals could be attracted to men." Matt Kailey, author of Just Add Hormones: An Insider’s Guide to the Transsexual Experience, recounts his transition "from 40-something straight woman to the gay man he’d always known himself to be." Researchers eventually acknowledged the existence of this phenomenon, and by the end of the 20th century, psychiatrist Ira Pauly wrote, "The statement that all female-to-male transsexuals are homosexuals [Pauly means attracted to women] in their sexual preference can no longer be made." Gay trans men have varying levels of acceptance within other communities.

Writing about Two-Spirit people, Green describes "women who passed for men, dressed like men, and married women."

Sexual orientation and transitioning
Some transsexual people maintain a consistent orientation throughout their lives, in some cases even remaining with the same partner through transition. In other cases, their choices in sexual partners may change after transition.

Pre-transitioning
Before transitioning, around half of MtF transsexuals report being attracted to women, the rest report being attracted to men, both, or being asexual. While there is not much currently known about sexual orientation changes from pre- to post-transition in FtM transsexual it appears some also experience changes in sexual orientation.

Post-transitioning
After sex reassignment surgery (SRS) MtF transsexuals report more attraction towards men. However, in one study 75% of MtF transsexuals did not experience any change in their sexual orientation after sex reassignment surgery. Some FtM transsexuals report fearing their attraction (pre-transition) to men made because it made them less of a man (because of heteronormative societal expectations –they felt like men and men ‘shouldn’t’ be attracted to other men). Most only felt comfortable accepting and acting on this attraction once their body was ‘more male.’

Classifying transsexual people by sexual orientation
Sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld first suggested a distinction based on sexual orientation in 1923. A number of two-type taxonomies based on sexuality have subsequently been proposed by clinicians, though some clinicians believe that other factors are more clinically useful categories, or that two types are insufficient. Some researchers have distinguished trans men attracted to women and trans men attracted to men.

The Benjamin Scale proposed by endocrinologist Harry Benjamin in 1966 uses sexual orientation as one of several factors to distinguish between transvestites, "non-surgical" transsexuals, and "true transsexuals".

In 1974, Person and Ovesey proposed dividing transsexual women into "primary" and "secondary" transsexuals. They defined primary transsexuals as asexual persons with little or no interest in partnered sexual activity and with no history of sexual arousal to cross-dressing or cross-gender fantasy. They defined both homosexual and transvestic transsexuals to be secondary transsexuals. Later uses of this terminology often defined primary transsexualism as attracted to males, and secondary transsexualism as attracted to females.

In the DSM-III-R, released in 1987, "transsexualism" was divided into "homosexual" and "heterosexual" subtypes.

Sexual practices
In a 1977 study, a large majority of transsexual women reported allowing a male partner to touch their penis, and a minority reported receiving fellatio and performing anal sex. In a 1990 study of transsexual women attracted to men, those patients who derived erotic pleasure from their penis were more likely to be emotionally unstable, and less likely to have switched to full-time living as women, suggesting that clinicians may be dealing with different disorders that require separate explanations. More recent research on transsexual women indicates that of those who opt to not have phalloplasty, many incorporate their vaginas and other female sex characteristics into erotic activities with their gay male partners. In fact, Chivers and Bailey reported that some gay FtM transsexuals seek out partners who will eroticize them as men in ways that involve their remaining female sex characteristics. These individuals do not report that these activities interfere with their male gender identities.

Pre-transition
There is not much research on sexual functioning pre-transition in transsexual males or females. Hopefully future research will fill in this gap soon.

Post-transition
Studies have only recently started examining the sexual functioning of transsexual individuals post sex reassignment surgery, However, the result so far seem positive. While early studies found a decrease in orgasmic capacity in MtF transsexuals and an increase in FtM transsexuals, recent studies on MtF transsexuals typically report that 60-90% of them are capable of orgasm. And in one study 55% ejaculated with their orgasm. The subjective reports of orgasms indicate that MtF transsexuals find their post-operative orgasms more pleasurable than orgasms experience pre-op. FtM transsexuals report it is easier for them to reach orgasm and that their orgasms are shorter and more powerful. Whereas MtF transsexual report their orgasms are more intense, smoother, and longer. One study found that sexual functioning in transsexual women was lower than that of natal women (especially sexual arousal, lubrication, and pain). However, anorgasmia (inability to orgasm) seems, at least, to occur in transwomen at a rate similar to that experienced by natal women.

Overall, both FtM and MtF transsexuals appear to have higher sexual satisfaction after their sex reassignment surgery. But FtM individuals experience more sexual excitement, higher levels of sexual arousal, and an increase in masturbation (post-transition) than MtF individuals do.

STIs and HIV/AIDS
There has been speculation about whether or not transgendered individuals are at higher risk for contracting HIV/AIDS and STIs than other sexual minority groups. Bockting and colleagues recently conducted a study comparing HIV risk in transgendered individuals (MtF and FtM), gay men, and women whom have sex with both women and men. They found that the transgendered group were less likely to have multiple partners, more likely to be in monogamous relationships, and as consistent in their condom use as the other two groups. Overall, transgendered individuals were found to be at equal risk of contracting HIV as the other sexual minority groups studied. However, they were also less likely to be tested for HIV.

The risk for developing HIV of STIs seems to vary by culture and ethnicity. A study of male-to-female transsexuals screened participants for STIs (syphilis, hepatitis B and C) and HIV. Hispanic and African American participants had higher rates of HIV and all three STIs tested for than Caucasian participants did. This finding was related to the higher rates of transgender identity expression among the Hispanic and African American participants. It is possible that the increased marginalization they experienced from being ‘out’ put them at increased risk. A recent study in India found that compared to heterosexual and homosexual men, Hijras (third-gendered persons whom may be intersex, transgendered, transsexual or otherwise identified) had higher rates of HIV and genital warts. The Hijra participants were more likely to work in the sex trade, and traditionally Hijra are paid less than non-gender variant sex workers are. They may have to work more than non-gender variant sex workers, and therefore have a higher risk of being exposed to HIV or STIs.

Transvestic fetishism
The DSM has a diagnosis of transvestic fetishism. Many activists seek to de-pathologize this category in future revisions.

Following the example of the Benjamin Scale, in 1979 Buhrich and McConaghy proposed three clinically discrete categories of fetishistic transvestism: "nuclear" transvestites who were satisfied with cross-dressing, "marginal" transvestites who also desired feminization by hormones or surgical intervention, and "fetishistic transsexuals," who had shown fetishistic arousal but who identified as transsexuals and sought sex reassignment surgery.

Cultural status
Sexual behavior and gender roles vary by culture, which has an effect on the place of gender variant people in that culture. In most cultures, transsexual people are stigmatized, and sexual activity involving transgender people is considered shameful, especially in cultures with rigid sex roles or strictures against non-heterosexual sex.

Asian countries, notably Thailand and Nepal, have a more socially tolerant view of transgender sexuality. Nepal recently became the first South Asian country to recognize third gender rights.

Sex work
In many cultures, transgender people (especially trans women) are frequently involved in sex work. They often face discrimination and have to work for lower pay than other sex workers.

Some trans men in the sex work industry are gay for pay. Porn actor Buck Angel frequently does scenes with males, but he is married to a woman (Elayne Angel).

Sexuality in Older Age
Very little is currently known about sexuality in older transgender adults and how it resembles and differs from sexuality in older non-transgender adults. However, the research field is currently trying to fill this gap. A group of researchers recently conducted a study on transgender individuals who were 50 years or older to examine sexual activities and sexual orientation. The distribution of sexual orientation was as follows: 23% bisexual, 15% lesbian, 17% heterosexual, 12% queer, 9% pansexual/omnisexual, 9% celibate/asexual, 8% gay males, and 7% questioning. Of course, this is a wider range of sexual orientation categories than typically provided in sex survey. As well, these were self-reported, so they are in relation to the participants’ gender identity, not their natal sex. Participants were asked how much influence they thought their 'transsness' had shaped their sexuality. The majority said it had 'somewhat shaped' or 'completely' shaped their sexuality. However, other participants disagreed; one such individual was quoted as responding:

"Transgender is an umbrella term that goes, and goes, and goes . . . on for ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever. Who I am is not a medical condition. Does your root canal affect your sexuality and identity?”

Sexual Practices
Several key points on the sexual practices of older transgender individuals was found in a recent study: Overall, many transgender adults over the age of 50 years are still sexually active and typically report sexual satisfaction.
 * Most participants said their libido had increased post-transition and attributed this to hormone therapy and increased comfort with their own body.
 * Over half of the transgender participants received oral sex from sexual partners and 37% reported receiving anal penetration from their partners.
 * When asked about BDSM 29% engaged in at least some BDSM activity
 * 72% of participants used sex toys with their sexual partners or on their own (including: dildos, strap-ons, BDSM toys, and buttplugs).