LGBT, TV, CD … It’s All an Acronym to Me!
I have recently written a book entitled Men Can Wear Dresses which chronicles my life as a heterosexual transvestite. Don’t panic the subject of this article is not promoting my book! I didn’t want to write just another crossdressing autobiography, but importantly I wanted to incorporate the results of some of the most important surveys relating to crossdressing, carried out over the last century, to dispel some of the negative mythology that surrounds crossdressing. However, as I said that’s not really the point of this article.
In the course of researching the book I was invited to consult with a very influential committee of transgender individuals who advise one of the largest transgender venues in the UK, so you would assume they would be supportive of any work which presents scientific data to challenge the common misconceptions.
I attended the pre-arranged meeting and began my presentation, naturally, introducing myself as a heterosexual transvestite. One of the group, also a transvestite immediately jumped in, vociferously questioning if in fact I was actually a transvestite or perhaps I could be a crossdresser. A transitioning transexual, was keen to correct me, further, stating that perhaps I shouldn’t be using the term, transvestite or crossdresser at all, instead referring to myself as transgendered. The whole two hour presentation became bogged down with argument, not discussing the merits of the book or how we can begin to educate society to remove the prejudices but in what we call ourselves, the ‘labeling.
So here’s my point.
I am a transvestite. I am, by the fact I wear the clothes of the opposite gender, a crossdresser. In the world, today, these two terms effectively represent the same thing or are so close as to be the same. I have heard the argument from some quarters about the attachment of fetish behavior to one or other group but as noted in the recent excellent TGF article Why the Rejection of DSM-5 is a Reason for Crossdressers to (Quietly) Celebrate by Graham Holmes, both transvestism and crossdressing must, by their nature contain an element of fetishist behavior.
Why are we, the transgendered community, and it seems crossdressers specifically, so hung up on labeling, often,masking the true message and to our own detriment? If, we, cannot agree who we are how can we expect to be able to educate the rest of society and gain understanding and acceptance? What is more important to us as crossdressers what we call ourselves or the freedom to be ourselves!
However if we must attach labels to who we are, then why according to the acronym, LGBT which seems to be the accepted way of describing everybody who is not heterosexual, do I, as a transvestite, have to be grouped into the ‘catch all’ section of the transgendered. Surely the very term transgendered must refer to the general collective group of people who suffer from any form of gender dysphoria. Transsexualism, transvestism and, if you must separate crossdressing are all uniquely complex emotional states, deserving and requiring their own recognition.
Until we, as crossdressers get recognition we will always be seen as an under class to the lesbian and gay communities, and society in general. Why does crossdressing still remain so misunderstood, so taboo in the 21st Century when homosexuality is now pretty much widely accepted? Is it, I suggest, that the homosexual and bisexual communities have, for many years, openly fought for recognition and are therefore better understood, accepted? Or is it that transvestism and transsexualism are still, considered so socially misunderstood and unaccepted that it is simpler to sweep these conditions, away, under the general heading of transgendered.
If we, the crossdressing community want recognition, understanding and acceptance we must come out of the proverbial closet, stop bickering amongst ourselves, learn how to work as a group and openly fight for the right to wear what we want, and be labelled, if we must, uniquely who we are.
LGBT, as the acronym covering those who are gender dysphoric seems to individually identify those who are recognized already, lesbian, gay and bisexual communities but actually disguises, perhaps those groups who actually need to have a more open profile; transvestites, transsexuals, crossdressers, etc.
I do not have all the answers, and I’m sure that there are many who read this who are quite happy to be hidden in the transgender grouping but me, personally, I am proud to be a transvestite, a crossdresser and want to be recognised as such.
Category: Transgender Opinion
About the Author (Author Profile)
I am Catie Maye, an heterosexual cross dresser of over forty years, since the age of 9 years. Two years ago I began to write a book that destroys the myths surrounding cross dressing and through that book Men Can Wear Dresses and my company Transgender Doodle Limited intend to raise awareness and dispel the negative mythology surrounding cross dressing. I have been out publicly for two years and active with local transgender clubs and committees. I am a transvestite, and proud of who I am.Subscribe
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