[Angela]

Why would an individual classified as a transgender not be considered a gay or lesbian or am I misunderstanding the term?

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Name : Angela, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Baptist, Age : 44, City : Lexington, State : KY Country : United States, Occupation : instructor, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Ann]

Sexual orientation is a matter of who you want to take out on Saturday night. Some gay folks may think that traditional ways of being masculine or feminine or male or female need revision, but they have a solid idea of which they are and no desire to change. Sexual identity is a matter of who you see yourself as being. For most of us, mercifully, that identity matches the outside anatomy and there is no conflict. For a few poor souls, their outsides do not match their inside self-perception and they have a serious disconnect and experience a lot of emotional and psychological stress. Imagine how you would feel if you awoke one morning in a male body. In some cases it is not possible to bring the brain into line with the body so that the only way to bring them any peace is to use hormones and surgery to bring the body into line with the brain. Some of these folks like guys, some like women, some like both, some aren't interested in sex with anybody. This is independent of whatever their starting or finishing anatomy is. The only real commonality between gay folks and transgender folks is that they upset some other people's ideas about the gender binary and about male vs. female conduct and tend to be feared, resented or hated by such folks.

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Name : Ann, Gender : Female, Sexual Orientation : Bisexual, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Unitarian, Age : 50, City : Akron, State : OH Country : United States, Occupation : College teacher, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 

[Ann L. Lowenstein]

A transgender is a male or female mind trapped in the opposite-gender body. They are not 'gay' or 'lesbian' if they are attracted to the opposite gender, irrespective of what the physical shell their mind is in looks like.

User Detail :  

Name : Ann L. Lowenstein, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Animist, Age : 37, City : K.C., State : MO Country : United States, Occupation : Administrative Assistant, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[ShellyStrauss Rollison]

An individual who is transgendered is born the "wrong" gender. Let's say that someone is born in a male body but identifies as female. Let's say that they are also attracted only to men. Whether or not they ever have gender reassignment surgery to physically become a female, they are heterosexual because they've always been female on the inside and have always been attracted to men, which is what a heterosexual is. Conversely, let's say there's someone who is born a male but identifies as a female and is attracted only to women. Whether or not that invididual ever has surgery to physically becomes a female, she is a lesbian because she identifies as a female and is attracted only to women.

User Detail :  

Name : ShellyStrauss Rollison, Gender : Female, Sexual Orientation : Bisexual, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : New Age/Metaphysical, Age : 49, City : New Alexandria, State : PA Country : United States, Occupation : Minister, writer, activist, CNA, draftsman, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class, 

[GordonR]

A person who is transgender is happier behaving, dressing and acting as a person of the opposite gender. A transgender man is happier as a woman, and vice-versa. He or she may be sexually attracted to either men or women, or both--it just has to do with the transgendered person's own gender identity, not his or her spouse. A gay or lesbian person is happier behaving, dressing and acting as a person of his or her own gender. A gay man likes being a man, and a gay woman likes being a woman. They are attracted to people of the same gender. In this case, it has nothing to do with the gay person's gender identity; it is all about the gender of his or her spouse. To sum up: To transgender people, it's about who they want to spend the rest of their life AS. To gay people, it's about who they want to spend the rest of their life WITH.

User Detail :  

Name : GordonR, City : Salt Lake City, State : UT Country : United States, 

[Dina M.]

transgenered people have the brain of one gender and the body of another. its an issue of physical appearance, identity, and sex(gender). nothing about sexual orientation. some male-tofemale (m2f) trasnpeople go on to date emn and others date women. many question what to call someone like that? are they gay because they have a Y-chromosome and are dating men or straight because they have a (new) female body and are dating men? either way, being trasn doesn't mean you like any one gender. it just means you feel your body isn't the right gender

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Name : Dina M., Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Bisexual, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : unsure, City : Chicago, State : IL Country : United States, Occupation : Poet, Education level : Less than High School Diploma, Social class : Middle class, 

[DinaS]

one who is trandgenered has the mind of one sex and the body of another. a man who becomes a physical woman after dating men, went from being a gay man to a straight woman by some views. yet, if we ackowledge the mind not the body, she was a straight woman her whole life. and if a man dates a woman and then gets a sex change, we'd call him straight and later change it to lesbian. but she was always a lesbian. just born in the wrong body. hope that helps

User Detail :  

Name : DinaS, Gender : Female, Sexual Orientation : Bisexual, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 19, City : Chicago, State : IL Country : United States, Occupation : student, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class, 

[RobinW]

There are four components to gender; 1. Anatomy, which includes X or Y genes and primary and secondary sexual characteristics. 2. Identification, which is the gender we "know" we are, inside. 3. Orientation, which is who we find ourselves attracted to. 4. Presentation, which is the way we feel most comfortable dressing and acting. For the majority of us, all of them line up to provide what society thinks of as "male" or "female." But for a sizable minority of us, they don't come in the "matching set," in one or more areas. People who were assigned to one gender at birth, but who identify as the opposite, are called "Transgendered." This has nothing at all to do with orientation. So, a transgendered person might be gay, straight, bisexual, or anything in between. That is, they might have been assigned to the male gender at birth, know inside that they are female, and be attracted primarily to other females. In such a case, they are both transgender and lesbian. Or, they might have been assigned to the male gender, identify as female, and be attracted primarily to men, in which case they are straight. Personally, I think that we'd be happier if we didn't stick labels on people, because none of this is a simple binary "male or female" thing. All four facets contain a range between male and female, with plenty of individuals who are in the middle somewhere. Even in anatomy, which most people think of as the most obvious and easy, about one person in 200 is somewhere in the middle. There are lots and lots of people who aren't either XX or XY. They might be XXY or XYY, or something else, or both at once! There are people who have some XX genes, and some XY genes (mosaicism.) And there are loads of people who have genitals that aren't clearly male or female, or who are obviously female, but have XY genes and androgyne insensitivity, or any one of dozens and dozens of other combinations that have been recognized and named. And that's not counting the ones that haven't been named yet! There's even one case in the medical records of a woman who had the 46,XY karyotype who seemed to be a perfectly normal woman, and gave birth in the normal fashion to a daughter who also had the 46,XY karyotype. It's not the simple thing that most people think it is; and the sooner we all realize this, the less ostracism there'll be for those of us who aren't exactly what others think we should be.

User Detail :  

Name : RobinW, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Gay, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 46, City : Detroit, State : MI Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, 

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