Thread by @sejoalzir

"TRANSSEXUAL" AND "TRANSGENDER"

I come from the corner of theorizing and practicing gender identity, and these young woke LGBT activists think I don't know shit about SOGIE and transgenderism. They criticize my use of "transsexual" as clinical and outdated as if it is mindless.

To me, using "transsexual" is my protest against the unwitting drowning of transsexuals to the point of erasure in LGBT. Perhaps those woke activists don't know that because they focus on seminar pamphlets and social idealism, not on the truths and realities of gender identities.

Is "transsexual" clinical? Yes. It should be because transsexuals seek medical help and take doctor-prescribed female hormones. Is it outdated? No. They still seek medical help to this day to transition and fill their hormone prescription. Transsexuality is still a medical issue.

Is transsexuality related to mental health? Yes. Childhood rejection and adult discrimination are the traumas of transsexuals. Add violence, disinheritance, poverty, and misery, of course, you will see a lot of transsexuals who experience PTSD, depression, and suicidal ideation.

Why would you deny or hide transsexual truths and realities? Maybe this is shocking: a lot of transsexuals do drugs to self-medicate their emotional pain, chronic loneliness and yes, PTSD. Drugs give them short relief and illusions that they are okay in the world that hates them.

How does "transgender" drown transsexuals? Transvestites, who are usually femme gay men who use the gender identity of transsexuals for work, fun or sex with straight men, are called transgenders. Books define transvestite differently. They're actually gay men in women's outfits.

Crossdressers, whose occasional kink is the gender identity of transsexuals in the form of clothes, makeup and roleplaying, are also called transgenders. These are usually married men who buy female clothes for one session and throw them away afterwards—scared of being found out.

Then we have drag queens who wear female clothes for performance on stage, film, or social media. They use the gender identity of transsexuals to earn money and to exercise an art form. They're still called transgenders. Yes, there are trans drag queens, but they aren't the norm.

In "transgender", transvestites, crossdressers, and drag queens are placed beside transsexuals whose gender identity is lived, experienced, and realized full-time. That's 24-7. There's no fluidity. There's no going back and forth—male-female-male or masculine-feminine-masculine.

Transition and detransition, the changing of minds or regret among transsexuals, aren't fluidity but reversal. Transsexuals for five years and back to being gay or straight men. Detransition and trans regret are common among gay or straight men who wrongly embrace transsexuality.

Perhaps you will ask why I use "the gender identity of transsexuals, which is separate from the gender identity of cisgender, genetic or biological women. That is so because the gender identity of transsexuals involves permanent transfer or movement from one identity to another.

"Transgender" doesn't benefit transsexuals. It only creates a semantic haven for gay men and bisexual men who are rejected by G and B in LGBT. In LGBT history, G and B didn't really care about transsexuals, so they placed transvestites, crossdressers and drag queens under the T.

Transvestites who are femme gay men and drag queens who are usually gay men should have been placed under G in LGBT. After all, in gay chatrooms, cruising, sex, and desire, you can read, see or hear gay men asking and looking for masculine or feminine gay men to have sex with.

Drag queens should be under the G in LGBT because their gender identity is a mere stage performance. When the lights are out, they are back to their gayness and gay lives. Why can't othering gay men accept that the gay performers they watch and patronize on stage are their own?

Crossdressers are complicated. There are bisexuals and heterosexuals who only embrace a feminine gender identity when they play Paris Hilton--changing clothes over their hairy skin and manly odor. They should be under the B in LGBT since heterosexuality is part of bisexuality.

The only solution to this ontological problem is LGBTQ. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, and Queer. Transvestites, drag queens, crossdressers, and others whose feminine gender identity is not their daily life or lived reality. Sadly, I don't have a magic wand to change the T.

So, yes, I'll continue using "transsexual" as long as I live, my personal protest. Transsexual life is the toughest one. From transitioning to existing. From living to surviving. I can't allow anyone to place me beside this crossdressing man who is a transgender too by definition

Done.

*and Queer--transvestites, drag queens, crossdressers, and others whose feminine gender identity is not their daily life or lived reality.

*on stage, camera or social media.