General Transgender Info - Recently Updated Pages

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Anonymous — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 12:54:43 CDT

Hello everyone, our names are Jordan and Ashley and we are 4th year students at University of New Brunswick Saint John. We have created this page as a class project to help to better educate and inform individuals on the subject of anti-Transgender violence as well as some general information about the topic of transgender (theories, beliefs, stories,etc) .
Anyway we hope everyone enjoys our site and please feel free to post any comments or stories you wish to share with others.

Links

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 11:09:19 CST

Here are the sites we used to get the information we posted on this Wiki if you have any concerns about the validity of any of these sites please let us know also we have edited the content of these sites so if you are interested in learning more please check them out.

http://www.teenwire.com/infocus/2002/if-20020903p152-transgender.php

For more information on the Transgender Day of Remembrance, visit http://www.rememberingourdead.org/day/index.html.

http://my.execpc.com/~dmmunson/Nov99_7.htm

http://www.annelawrence.com/prosandcons.html

"The Gendered Society" Second Edition. Michael S. Kimmel

Sexual Bodily Transformation

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 11:06:58 CST

Many individuals feel constrained by the gender role expectations that society puts on them and the individuals who try to expand these behaviours by changing them can often face penalties. These penalties are more aimed towards boys then they are girls however. When girls are seen as nonconforming to their gender expectations, they are referred to as tomboys whereas boys are referred to as wimps; acting in a feminine way; stemming from the norm.
However, these boys and girls begin to realize as they grow and mature that their biological sex does not match their internal sense of gender identity. They can feel trapped in their body and will dress the way they feel. Some individuals take it a step further and change their biological sex to match their gender identity. These individuals go through a surgery called Sex Reassignment Surgery. This surgery consists of surgically removing the original genitalia and new realistic medical constructions of the opposite genitalia are created. Before this surgery, however, the individual has to undergo two years of therapy and radical hormone therapies to mute or reverse the secondary sex characteristics.
With this surgery, there are positive and negative aspects to it. Some of the positive aspects are subjective satisfaction; mental stability; socioeconomic functioning; and partnership and sexual experience. These individuals experience better contact with people in general like their neighbors, co-workers, etc. The negative aspects are surgical complications; suicide; and regrets.

General Info

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 12:21:00 CST

The term transgender (or trans, TG, or genderqueer) is used to include many different people. For some, being transgender means their sexual anatomy conflicts with their gender identity. As an example, someone being born with a penis might be declared a boy at birth, but grow up thinking, feeling, and wanting to be a girl. Some trans people take hormones and/or have surgery to alter their physical bodies to match their gender identity.

Transgender can also:

Cross Dressers these are people who dress and act like the opposite sex. Drag kings and drag queens are cross-dressers who generally exaggerate stereotypical gender roles for entertainment and performance purposes.
Transvestites are people who cross-dress for sexual arousal.
Transsexuals are people who live as their preferred gender full-time and may take hormones to alter their secondary sex characteristics — like voice, body hair, and muscular development. Some transsexuals have surgery to change their genitals to match their preferred gender. Transsexuals can be female-to-male (FTM, or transmen) or male-to-female (MTF, or transwomen).
Intersex people may have sex organs that appear to be somewhat female or male or both. Or they may have sex chromosomes that are different from the usual XX (female) or XY (male). Many intersex people do not identify as trans.

There are many trans people out there. Some people know from a very early age that their feelings about their gender are not what society expects of them. For others, it takes years or decades to understand their gender identity. While it is still not easy to be trans, there are now more resources for information and support available to trans people and their friends and families. Finding information and other people who know what it is like to be transgender are first steps for trans people to gain understanding and acceptance.
http://www.teenwire.com/infocus/2002/if-20020903p152-transgender.php

Some disturbing Truths

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 12:08:51 CST

· One transsexual/transgender person is murdered every month on average.

· Sixty per cent of all transsexual/transgender people have been victimized by hate violence according to estimates.

· Fifty-three per cent of transsexual/transgender people in one survey had attempted suicide because they had suffered lifelong discrimination, harassment and violence.
·
The US National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs found that over a four-year period, anti-transsexual/transgender violence accounted for approximately 20 per cent of all reported anti-LGBT murders, and approximately 40 per cent of the total incidents of police-initiated violence.

Information on Violence

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 12:04:09 CST

Violence and abuse within lesbian, gay , trans-sexual and transgender relationships occurs at the same frequency as heterosexual relationships. It is estimated that 1 in 4 have been a victim of domestic violence or abuse.
It is important to acknowledge that the types of abuse endured may not differ from heterosexual relationships, but that resources and support networks do. The fear of being 'outed' is a significant barrier to the reporting of domestic violence within the LGBT community. If local enquiries are made by people or agencies trying to help, it should not be assumed that family or friends know about the individuals' sexuality.
Transgendered people are the targets of the most vicious and blatant forms of violence today. They find themselves routinely abused by the police and medical professionals, in addition to being subjected to random street violence and domestic partner abuse.Many intimate partners, often become appalled to discover the gender transgression, they can then beome verbally, psychologically, physically and sexually abusive the person.

Statistcal data about transgender violence is still relatively new so finding hard numbers on the subject is extremel difficult we did however find the following:
The preliminary data of transgendered and intersexed individuals gathered by the Gender, Violence and Resource Access Survey found that 50% of respondents had been raped or assaulted by a romantic partner (Courvant and Cook-Daniels, 1998)

For some more info and to read a few stories check out this site it has a lot of helpful information on it as well as some other literature the link is:
http://my.execpc.com/~dmmunson/Nov99_7.htm

Day of Remembrance

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 11:39:59 CST

The week is designed to increase awareness and remember those who have died as a result of antitransgender violence.
WHY IT WAS STARTED:
In November of 1998, Rita Hester, a transgender woman in Boston, Massachusetts, answered a knock at her door. Instead of a friend, however, the person at the door was an assailant who forced entry into her apartment and stabbed her over twenty times. Rita's death that night proved to be the event that focused the attention of transgender people everywhere on the terrible violence often inflicted on trans people.
Since then, the Transgender Day of Remembrance has taken place each November, making this the nineth year the event has been held nationwide.
It began in San Francisco as a candlelight vigil, the Transgender Day of Remembrance has evolved into a nationwide event across the United States.

The murder of Rita Hester has yet to be solved.