This website covers various aspects of male-to-female transsexualism,
now usually referred to as Gender Identity Dysphoria (GID). It was
developed in the years around my own transition in 2000 and there have
been no major changes since 2004, although I occasionally make small
updates, corrections or additions when these seem important or are of
particular interest to me (e.g. medical developments). The site is thus
largely historical in nature, it represents a snapshot of an
extraordinary period around the turn of the millennia which was truly
transformational for transsexual women.
Terminology A significant development since c.2014 is the use of the prefix cis, e.g. in words such as ciswomen, cisgendered and cissexual. Cis is actually another Latin term, meaning 'on this side', and is increasingly used in the context of women (usually but not always genetically XX) who were assigned a female gender at birth, and whose bodies and their personal identity have always agreed with this. It does make sense as an alternative to awkward phrases such as "genetically XY women" that I have resorted to in some articles. I strongly support the recent substitution of the term Gender Confirmation Surgery (GRS) for the very inaccurate term Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS) that dates back to the 1950's.
The March
of Time Most people now personally know someone who is transgender - a family member, class mate, friend, work colleague, etc. Transwomen are no longer rare freaks, and this is changing attitudes to the extent that going deep stealth after transition is no longer the goal of many passable transwoman. Other key developments include:
Gender vs
Physical Sex A GRC permits an individual to be considered female for all legal purposes, whilst still physically a fertile male with a fully functional penis. One example of the consequences of this is the case of David Thompson. Whilst on remand for grievous bodily harm, burglary, multiple rapes and other sexual offences against women - David applied for and obtained a female GRC as Karen White. When subsequently convicted as a male paedophile, her GRC meant that 'she' was sent to a women-only prison despite still having had no hormone treatment or genital surgery. Within a few weeks Karen had raped or sexually assaulted four fellow prisoners. Leeds Crown Court later described Karen as a "predator who was a danger to women and children".
The
Near Future Secondly, school records in the UK show that nearly 1% of all pupils are now registered as having have GID, an extraordinarily high number. We seem to be getting close to a once Science Fiction like scenario where every child can decide if they want to be male or female, both legally and in their secondary sexual characteristics (i.e. external physical appearance). As a society, we need to consider the implications of giving children that choice.
Being Controversial Pre-gender reassignment surgery transwomen (sometimes even pre-hormone therapy) are a particular focus of complaints, including:
In recent years I've met at meetings and rally's some very scary (both physically and behaviourally) individuals who I struggled to consider as being transwomen, and doubt if they had had any medical treatment for GID. I'm too old to face them on a sports field, but the prospect of being legally forced to share women's toilets, women's changing rooms, women's hospital wards, etc., with a physically complete and sexually fully functional man is very uncomfortable. I'm thus going to be controversial in my belief that some of the complaints are valid - and may worsen if proposals to allow people to self-certify their gender (without any medical treatment) start to become law in the UK and beyond. Some countries such as Japan (since 2002) and Sweden (until 2013) require an applicant requesting a legal change of sex to have been sterilized (e.g. orchiectomy) or have completed sex-assignment surgery before this is granted. There is a lot of opposition to such rules, but I have personally swung to view that these are the least worst hurdle (excluding intersex sufferers) to set for a very serious matter. Extreme and polarised views are dominating now dominating the transgender agenda in the UK and in other western countries, for example lesbian women who refuse to engage intimately with self-labelled 'lesbian' transwomen who have not had "bottom surgery" (i.e. still have a penis) are being called "transphobic'. Supposed transphobic behaviour (e.g. posting a comment on Twitter that a post-SRS neovagina "goes nowhere" - which is physically true) has become so unacceptable in the UK that it can lead to an unannounced police visit, with a formal warning that "whilst a criminal offence has not been committed, you now have civil offence record for a hate incident". I find it impossible to defend this situation - it's a modern incarnation of the Thought Police in George Orwell's novel 1984. I also believe that a lot more thought needs to given to the treatment of children diagnosed with Gender Identify Disorder (GID). The root cause of the annual almost doubling of cases in the UK (the NHS accepted 77 children for treatment in 2009, 2,590 in 2019) and other Western countries has not been identified, but I suspect that it has become trendy (and attention gathering) among teenage children to come out as transgender, gender neutral, non-binary, etc. In my own (medically unqualified) experience there's a small proportion of transgender children who should undoubtedly be given pro-active medical assistance (including blockers, hormones and surgery) at the earliest appropriate age, but there's also a far greater number where it would be best not to medically intervene too early. Unfortunately there are also some children in the middle that require the "Wisdom of Solomon" to assess correctly.
Women / Woman More expectedly, in early 2021 I received several quite strongly worded emails complaining the content of this site. Some points I can accept - the world has moved on immensely in the last 20-25 years. But I refuse to accept that my use of the word "Woman" is offensive. The vast majority (99% ?) of the world's human population still undisputedly identify themselves as 'male' (a man) or 'female' (a woman). Trying to enforce the use of gender neutral terms such as 'them' (rather than 'he' or 'she'), 'person' (rather than 'man or 'woman') and 'parent and co-parent' (rather than 'mother and father') seems to me to be an oppressive rather than liberating action. The words 'women' and 'woman' have social connotations for the majority of people who describe themselves as such that don't deserve to be destroyed by a very small minority with a differing opinion. As for deleting the word 'mother', that is simply putting wishful thinking above biology.
Finally ... I hope that some of the information presented here might still be helpful. I'm always delighted to hear from readers, contrast experiences, and perhaps attempt to answer any questions. My email address is annie.richards@hotmail.com. Important
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