If being trans is just like being gay....

This doesn't fit with my (limited) experience. Anecdata I know but I just wonder if that trend is more apparent in those who are represented in the media?

I know:

One pre-teen child MTF who wears their hair chin length and mostly baggy sports clothes with the occasional t shirt dress.

One young child (girl) who wears her hair very short and never wears dresses, wears the 'boy' uniform at school.

One adult MTF who wears skinny jeans and shirts with long hair. No or minimal makeup. Very unflamboyant.

btw GS was very hesitant to talk about it, it wasn't until I talked about the conflicts with GDS and EA that he felt comfortable talking. I was really upset by this, because we are open in our discussions and it felt a bit sinister.

@shmurf I don't have an issue with it personally but let's not kid ourselves that the average lad who wears a dress to school won't get utterly terrorised. Most women don't really seem to understand male culture.

Interesting a young lad at my DS school wears a dress. They had 'Stonewall' stuff. GS has been brought up to be tolerant and that's what he is however, he said that the Stonewall stuff put loads of them off. He said it was limited and that they didn't feel encouraged to ask questions. The young lad hadn't been bullied at all, the kids just thought it was odd and left it at that. They were more suspicious after the talk. That's strange. They are 14/15

'As someone said on another thread, being trans is not at all like being gay because you can be sexually attracted to either sex (or both) but you can’t become someone of the opposite sex.'
A 2015 survey: "National Transgender Discrimination Survey: Full Report"
showed 60% of of the 3000 trans women surveyed were sexually attracted to women.

@OldCrone being transgender doesn't respond to psychiatric treatment. No amount of therapy or pills can 'cure' the gender dysphoria.

Other psychiatric problems such as body dysmorphia do respond to treatment.

Boys and men in skirts every Sunday at the Pacific Islander Church round the corner from me.

I see boys and young men in skirts/tunics in very cool suburb not far from me.

Men in kilts doing yoga quite popular at the school gate here!

It's only Anglo and other conservative men that seem to have a problem with boys in skirts.

I don't know of any parents in my circle who'd have so much as blinked an eye about a young boy wearing dresses. It's play, isn't it?

Not the same at all. Kilts are considered manly and I'd bet many kilt wearers wouldn't don a strapless evening dress. All the above cultural examples are considered normal in their environment.

I don't have an issue with it personally but let's not kid ourselves that the average lad who wears a dress to school won't get utterly terrorised. Most women don't really seem to understand male culture.

Boys and men in skirts every Sunday at the Pacific Islander Church round the corner from me.

I see boys and young men in skirts/tunics in very cool suburb not far from me.

Men in kilts doing yoga quite popular at the school gate here!

It's only Anglo and other conservative men that seem to have a problem with boys in skirts.

I don't know of any parents in my circle who'd have so much as blinked an eye about a young boy wearing dresses. It's play, isn't it?

What has wearing dresses got to do with gender dysphoria? Dresses can be for girls or boys.

To be fair, only people on here seem to really believe that. Most people would regard a boy in a dress as a bit odd, for better or worse.

On another note, I was reading a dating profile today where a guy was claiming to be a lesbian trans girl. I couldn't help wonder at what point a male attracted to women decides that they're a lesbian? Obv people can identify as what they want but I was a little perplexed.

Why do men feel entitled to get their sexual kicks from non-consenting others in this way?

If your dad wants to be a lesbian, why not?

Ha! Your dd, NOT your dad!

It's nothing like being gay.

Being a lesbian doesn't harm a woman's health, for one thing.

Your dad comes out as a lesbian? Congrats honey, and life goes on with zero psychological, medical or social intervention required.

Also, OP it's difficult to get a good assessment of the different motivations, especially from adults, as there is so much material available to coach people about what to say in GID assessments to get the outcome they want.

I guess the dress thing is a classic example of one person's privilege being another person's punishment. I find the same is true about a lot of "male privilege"; it sounds great but if you aren't cut out to be a tough, ambitious sporty leader, it may not feel that way.

Female gender roles are not a privilege for women. All men benefit from male privilege even if they don't meet the ideal of masculinity.

Not being tough, ambitious, sporty or a leader does not mean you are not a man (if you are male) or that you are a man (if you are female). Women who exhibit "masculine" traits don't suddenly benefit from male privilege, in fact they are often scorned for it (bitch, bossy, dyke etc.).

I noticed the last part of your middle post and I thought I wonder how often that happens- that you’d start being attracted to a different sex when your much older.

I always imaged you would know from about 12/13 whether you were straight/gay or bisexual. It never occurred to me it could changed in time....

Sexuality emerges later doesn't it? I haven't heard many people say they were sure of their sexuality since early childhood, it's generally more of a process from puberty onwards.

Yes, because they don't understand about sexual attraction until puberty.

What do you think pre-pubescent children understand about being transgender/transsexual @SapphosRock?

They are in their 30s @SapphosRock. I am talking about teenagers. You know the ones who have seen a 5000% increase in referrals in the last ten years. When rose and Rosie were teenagers, 32 girls were referred to GIDS. Last year, there were 1740.

Actually I don't. Every single childhood trans story I have read (and that is many) has started with a mismatch between brain and stereotypes, not brain and body.
Then very small children have little understanding of sex or gender. You need to explain to them that boys have penises, you need to explain to them that having long hair doesn't turn a boy into a girl, or wearing a dress. They observe and they generalise, often wrongly. They try to enforce their wrongly understood rules on peers. ("You can't play football, you're a girl". "But you must be a girl, you've got long hair".)
So basing any understanding of transgenderism on what small children think is standing on thin ice.

But being trans isn't just like being gay - anyone who says that is talking out of their arse.

You hear lots of stories about children feeling a strong sense of mismatch between their brains and bodies. So the body they have is not what they perceive themselves to be.

So is this like a skinny anorexic who looks in the mirror and sees a fat person?

Isn't a mismatch between brain and body something that requires psychiatric treatment? If the brain is rejecting the body, that's a cause for concern, isn't it?

What exactly do you think trans people 'know' from a younger age @SapphosRock?

You hear lots of stories about children feeling a strong sense of mismatch between their brains and bodies. So the body they have is not what they perceive themselves to be. When this ensures into adulthood they may decide to transition.

Sexuality emerges later doesn't it? I haven't heard many people say they were sure of their sexuality since early childhood, it's generally more of a process from puberty onwards.

@Clymene I disagree. It's very cool to be a lesbian at the moment. Look at Rose and Rosie - 1m subscribers to their YouTube channel. I don't know any trans people who are anywhere near as popular.