One thing that does bother me a bit is that the article gives a bit of a fatalism feel in the sense that it feels that trans people will always just be a “boy in a dress” or a “girl in pants” or something, especially in the last part. The way you come across kind of rules that out, and I tend to pick up rather weird things so it’s probably nothing. But I just thought I’d mention it.

Anyways, I thought it was a lovely article, there should be _way_ more humans like you.

Charlotte.

You must think of your characters a lot to have a dream about them. One of
my stories was inspired by a dream I had called Dinner with
Shakespeare.
But I think Sex with
Fairieswould
be more your cup of tea –fantasy mixed with some sexual perversity
and a pinch of schizophrenia. It’s in my archives.

Thanks for being so patient. Work has been a DRAG. We’ve got so many demands
this week that I’m tearing my head in frustration at not being able to
write. Don’t worry. It’ll come.

I’ve gotten into their heads so far, I feel like they are real people I know. I actually had a dream about some of my characters where I had dinner with them…LOL! This article is useful even though it is about something a little different–still useful.

Anyway, I am pilfering through your archives as I await your next installment

Hmm…. I do see your point that transsexuals usually see themselves as a woman and thus would equate men as ‘different species’. I remember reading about Virginia Prince (couldn’t remember before or after this post) but it left a huge impression on me. I also forgot that they stuck to using the pronoun ’she’ all throughout her bio.

Thanks for the suggestions. I’m going to implement them now. “of your own species” will stay as for me, the narrator is still at the stage of confusion as most teenagers are, caught between the two doors of male and female sexuality, yet increasingly getting deeper into the latter while still keeping up appearances in the former.

Constructive criticism is always welcome. I’ve found mistakes lead to further growth. Here’s to greater awareness!

A few more things, since we’re doing well: you’ve changed the first definitive word from gay to transsexual – but the full post keeps a few implications originating in the thought of a gay man (you wrote:”your eyes stealing appreciative furtive glances at the tan magnificent bulk of your own species.”). Which doesn’t really fit. Though the reader has now only been told that the person is transsexual (with clear implication that it’s a male-to-female transsexual we’re talking about), and it starts and ends with a person wanting to be allowed to be a woman, and that is clearly the theme that stands out most strongly, there’s the now out-of-nowhere idea that the person is attracted to men – as a man attracted to men, it seems in that sentence. A MtF transsexual would probably not feel men were their ‘own species’ the way it’s specified in that sentence (think of how such people feel ‘trapped in the wrong body’). The further mentions of sexual attraction to men are also a bit off the subject manner, as the transwoman might not be heterosexual – though there is certainly nothing wrong with thinking it likely that she is, the undertone that she must be can hurt some.
On another note: you use the pronoun ‘he’ in the beginning. One should always use the pronoun of the sex the person identifies with, as a matter of basic respect. I have been told that transsexuals also prefer that the pronoun of the sex they identify with is used even when referring to them in their past before realizing, coming out as a transsexual, or having surgery.

On altering the post at all: it’s tricky, the way it’s written, with the two things (homosexual and transsexual) mixed up. It is of course your choice what you do with it – I’m just glad we’ve got these comments here – but if I were in your situation, I think I would have kept the post in it’s original form, but with a note at the beginning pointing out the errors in it, and maybe a ’see comments’ for further explanation. Else, you have to alter it carefully. And I think a ‘pointing out of errors’ might bring more light to the subject – I have learned some of my best lessons from critique of mistakes.

—
For more information, wikipedia currently has some extensive articles on these matters. links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transwoman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transsexualism
—

Again, thank you! Open-minded people like you make the world a better place
- Desertwolf