California gender classifications

[kimera]

@Johanna

That’s it, I’m moving to Cali. I’ve heard that a university—was it UC Davis?—actually pays for the SRS of employees.

University of California, Irvine covers it in their insurance plan, although I don’t know how much coverage they give. I know of a librarian there that had it covered. Azadeh is working to get it covered for students as well.

[Johanna]

@kimera

A transvestite is a person who dresses up in the clothing of the opposite sex to either identify as that gender

No, I’m afraid that is just not so. If it’s a question of having the other gender identity, that’s a transgendered/transsexual person. If it’s a cisgender identity, that’s CD.

As I have recently come to understand it, the word “transvestite” is considered obsolete nowadays, having been replaced by “cross-dresser” to sound less pejorative. You know a lot of that terminology shifting comes up whenever people try to talk about a stigmatized group.

or because of a sexual fetish.

That’s what I’ve heard. A male-identified heterosexual thing.

Transgender did not come as a sexual fetish to me. In fact, it even put my libido up on blocks for about 11 months. It was the most unsexy thing that ever hit me. I’d been conscious of female identity in me for a very long time before I started the women’s wear, and when I did it was because I realized I’d already crossed the boundary and needed to bring my expression into consonance with my sense of self. Instead of sexual pleasure, I got existential pleasure from it. That’s why au fond I don’t find any commonality with CD as it’s been explained to me. I admit I may be mistaken, since I don’t understand it well. I’m here hoping to give my ignorance the old Straight Dope treatment.

Some cross-dressers and Drag Queens prefer to be referred to as “she” which in feminine garb. I know some cross-dressers who engage in sexual relationships while cross-dressed and they prefer to be called “she” and treated like a girl, even though they identify as male.

What is it, some sort of high concept? (I call “high concept” whatever doesn’t make intuitive sense to me, as the author seems to have gotten ideas by smoking pot. Just kidding.) Method Acting? Camp?

There are other cross-dresses who are completely male identified and don’t like being called “she” so your best bet is to always ask.

At a party, I had a conversation with a friendly bisexual woman. She kept telling me how much she likes “transgender and cross dressers.” She always said the two things together, which sounded odd to me because I don’t think they have much in common really. Then I realized from her point of view, she can’t tell the difference at a glance when she’d only just met me. She was careful to include both terms to make sure she didn’t leave out the right one by mistake. However, I do not want to be confused with something that I have no part of. It’s a bummer always having to tell people I’m a “she” instead of them figuring it out for themselves. I think as my transition progresses the problem should start to get better. I’m still new at it.

[kimera]

@Johanna

No, I’m afraid that is just not so. If it’s a question of having the other gender identity, that’s a transgendered/transsexual person. If it’s a cisgender identity, that’s CD.

Wikipedia told me the definition that I always heard. Here’s what they say:

When people dress in clothes normally worn by the opposite gender in order to identify with that gender in some manner.
When people dress in clothes normally worn by the opposite gender for purposes involving sexual arousal (transvestic fetishism).

I suppose my use of “as” makes it sound like I am saying that transvestites identify as the opposite sex which isn’t true and wasn’t what I was trying to say. I will stick with official definitions now on to avoid any confusion.

As I have recently come to understand it, the word “transvestite” is considered obsolete nowadays, having been replaced by “cross-dresser” to sound less pejorative.

It depends on who you talk to. I’ve always heard what wikipedia states about cross-dressers:

The term cross-dressing denotes an action or a behavior without attributing or proposing causes for that behavior. Some people automatically connect cross-dressing behavior to transgender identity or sexual, fetishist, and homosexual behavior, but the term cross-dressing itself does not imply any motives.

People cross-dress for different reasons.

As wikipedia notes in the transvestite section

Magnus Hirschfeld coined the term transvestism …He used it to describe a group of people who habitually and voluntarily wore clothes of the opposite sex. (The distinction between sex and gender had not been made at this time.) …In fact, Hirschfeld helped people to achieve the very first name changes and to get the very first sexual reassignment surgery. Hirschfeld’s transvestites therefore were, in today’s terms, not only transvestites, but people from all over the transgender spectrum…Hirschfeld also noticed that sexual arousal was often, but by no means always associated with transvestite behaviour, and he also clearly distinguished between transvestism as an expression of a person’s “contra-sexual” (transgender) feelings and fetishist behaviour, even if the latter involved wearing clothes of the opposite sex.

Today Hirschfeld’s use of transvestism is extinct. Today’s meaning of transgender is very much equivalent.

We are hijacking this thread, so if you wish to discuss it more, I suggest we start up a new thread.