Transexual Minority

Transsexual Minority

The sexual majority, or mainstream heterosexuals, have been justifying their way of displaying and presenting this small part of sexual minority, transsexuals. Now, as the society gradually develops acceptance toward them, the transgendered individuals try to express themselves in a broader range. The way they view their own gender identity is surely not the same as the way heterosexuals expect them to be.Despite the fact that society nowadays displays a wider range of magnanimity toward the sexual minority groups, transsexuality is still one of the most marginalised topic amongst other sexual minority groups. Heterosexuals’ lack of knowledge about transgenderism is revealed in how “a lack of distinction between homosexuality and transgender presentations was common” in society. Thus, transsexualism can be considered a minority even within the sexual minority groups; due to their lack in number and information about them, a sense of antipathy towards them is also common.

Transsexualism Definition

The definition of a transsexual individual is the one who satisfies the criteria of feeling the following variables.

1. A sense of belonging to the opposite sex, of having been born into the wrong sex, of being one of nature’s extant errors.

2. A sense of estrangement with one’s own body; all indications of sex differentiation are considered as afflictions and repugnant.

3. A strong desire to resemble physically the opposite sex via therapy including surgery

4. A desire to be accepted by the community as belonging to the opposite sex.

A transsexual individual feels and desires to belong in the opposite sex group, and shows inverted gender identity.

A transsexual individual is conceptualized as a post-op transgendered person, that is, a person who has undergone sexual reassignment surgery and/or is on hormone therapy.

In some Canadian provinces, transexuals wishing to "pass" can have the sex/gender on their Canadian-issued ID changed.

Distinction Between Transgender and Transsexual

There are a few transgender-specific terminologies typically used to describe gender non-conformity. It is important to distinguish one definition from another because the discussion of identity is a sensitive and personal topic. Transgender is a broader term referring to people who identify themselves with a gender different to the one they were assigned at birth. For example, a transgender person might be born with female genitalia but self-identify as a man. On the other hand, transsexual is an older expression originated in medical and psychological communities. The distinction between transgender and transsexual is that a transsexual man or woman may desire to change their sexual anatomy permanently through medical interventions. One should not use transsexual as an umbrella term because many transgender people do not identify themselves as transsexual owing to the fact that the term implies some sort of anatomical transformation.

Minority of Sexual Minority

Comparison to Homosexuality in the DSM

In the past, homosexual individuals would be labeled with the diagnosis of mental disorder. It was not until 1973 that the aforementioned classification was removed from the DSM-II (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). Homosexuality no longer belonged to the classification of mental disorders and it was replaced by the category Sexual Orientation Disturbance. Modern attitudes toward homosexuality are generally more positive than before. In comparison, transsexualism was once deemed a Gender Identity Disorder (GID) on the DSM-IV-TR. In the fifth and newest edition of the DSM-5 which was published in 2013, the criteria and diagnostic category of GID was officially revised to "Gender Dysphoria". Nevertheless, labelling still solidifies the belief that transsexuality is invariably a mental disorder, rather than simply a gender-preferential difference.

Mental Illness and the DSM Diagnosis

According to the DSM-IV-TR, the diagnosis of transsexualism goes under the category of Sexual Disorders, more specifically with the subcategory of Gender Identity Disorders. Psychologists believe that transsexualism can be cured if it is treated early in childhood once children start to exhibit cross-gender behaviours. Placement of transgenderism as a mental illness in the DSM might be regarded as a sense of humanity that allows transgender individuals to have access to effective treatment options. In truth, they are often stigmatized by the complicated process of diagnosis they have to go through in order to be granted sex reassignment surgery. Clinicians who make such surgery decisions have the need for DSM’s diagnosis in order to address the seriousness of the condition. There are two core criteria for GID which also remain true for the diagnosis of Gender Dysphoria: the A criterion is a persistent and stated desire for cross-gender identification; the B criterion is a strong sense of discomfort with his or her gender role of the natal sex. An applicant wishing to undergo sex reassignment might be denied if he or she does not fulfill these requirements, for example, the reported levels of distress are not high enough to qualify for a mental disorder. Ongoing debates about the problems with GID diagnostic criteria mainly attribute to their inability “to capture the spectrum of gender variance phenomena”. The revision of DSM-IV’s GID is intended to make important clarifications in the criteria, namely, the change of diagnostic name. Despite the effects of labelling have led to stigmatization of transgender individuals, there are concerns that removal of the diagnosis would actually jeopardize their access to care if the condition cannot be considered as a psychiatric diagnosis. The DSM-5 hopes to deliver transsexualism in a way that protects the rights of individuals experiencing gender dysphoria, providing them with a diagnostic term that is now “more appropriate to the symptoms and behaviours they experience”.

Stigmas

Stigmas against sexual minorities have been substantially decreasing as the society learns to embrace their difference. Recent studies show how this stigma against transsexuality causes some extremists to commit hate crimes and economic discrimination to transsexual individuals . Therefore, transsexualism can be considered a minority even within the sexual minorities; due to their lack in number and information about them, a sense of antipathy towards them is also common. The negative description of trans- people from heterosexuals’ viewpoints could also be discovered in some journal articles. In the article "Passing and Stigma Management: The Case of the Transsexual.”, Kando suggests that trans- people tend to hide and compartmentalise their life as transgender from their family and childhood friends. He argues that this complete compartmentalisation comes from their fear and pressure of being revealed of their transsexuality. Then, he ironically suggests that stigma management for the transgender people themselves is necessary, but not for the transphobias that have negative stigmas of transsexualism. Kando’s description of the transgender individuals as “a majority among them now belong to an urban subculture that centers around gay bars, strip joints, and prostitution” also shows the transprejudice and harassment. In “Gender Violence: Transgender Experiences with Violence and Discrimination.”, Lombardi et. al. explains how the transgender people suffer from the economic and social discrimination due to this stigma against them; the studies suggest that the 59.5% of the transgendered people responded that they experienced either harassment or violence, and 37.1% reported some form of economic discrimination. This example shows hardships trans- people experience in a discriminative heterosexual world full of transprejudice against them.

Gender Binary

The concept of gender binary, or gender binarism, refers to the classification of sex and gender into two opposite groups by assigning distinct characteristics for each group, one as masculinity and the "other" as femininity. Today’s society enforces gender binary by determining certain genders roles for female and male sexes. - people whose sex does not fall into the binary of male/female. This social binary discourages behaviours like crossing, or mixing genders. Examples of gender binary are gendered toilet signs, gender roles, and clothing.

Media Portrayal

Media’s lacking or negative portrayal of transgender individuals also demonstrates limited and discriminative choices of the mainstream audiences; how they view the appearance of this marginalised group uncomfortable as this group fails to conform to the gender norms . Media screens certain images of transgenderism specially designed for the heterosexual audiences, who fail to escape their gender expectations and are not yet prepared for the explicit presentation of transsexualism. In the article ""A Different Kind of Man": Mediated Transgendered Subjectivity, Chaz Bono on Dancing With the Stars.”, Mocarski et.al. show the western media portrayal of transgenderism; how it is both lacking and negatively stereotypical of the group. Mocarski et al. address that even though certain transgender individuals appear on major television channels, they often appear in the form of a mainstream audience; White, upper-class, postoperative male . Thus, the author believes that this exclusive portrayal of transgenderism reveals the stereotypes by presenting the transgendered people from a heterosexual perspective. This example of media portrayal of transsexualism shows the effects of gender binary and gender roles that the society enforces on people. It might be an excessive request to the trans- people, whose gender identity is persecuted on a daily basis, to simply feel confident of their sexuality.

Paris Is Burning

In the documentary film Paris Is Burning, transsexuality is expressed from the perspectives of the Latino, Black sexual minority communities in America. It turns out that even the sexual minorities themselves mix up two concepts, “homosexuality” and “transsexuality”, or they mistakenly use the term “homosexuality” as an umbrella term that covers transgenderism . Latino, Black sexual minority groups in Paris Is Burning live in their own separate communities away from the heterosexuals, using their own vocabularies and actions to express their identity. On one hand, they seem to take pride in their transsexuality; however on the other hand, they seem to deny their sexuality shown through certain. For example, some transsexuals show actions like “reading” or “shade”, which are terms invented by them to indicate to the name-calling of each other about the way they express their gender identity, such as through insulting the feminine appearances of “drag queens” . Despite the fact that transsexuality is a unique concept that is not bound to the concept of gender binary, the trans- people tend to enforce social stereotypes such as specific gender roles on each other. For example, in the ball where different sexual minority community groups gather around and express their identities through clothes or dances, one trans- male contestant is disqualified because his coat did not look like “men’s garment” even though he consistently argues that his coat “buttons on the right side” . Furthermore, those who receive sex change are discriminated even amongst the transsexuals, revealed when one trans- female argues that sex reassignment is unnecessary because she believes that the life as a female is harder than life as a transgender .

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