I wonder what has prompted all of the gender confusion of late?

Only in America can a black boy grow up to be a white woman.

I believe Michael Jackson started the trend.

I doubt the amount of transgendered people in the population has ever changed, but as the society has advanced and become more tolerant, more are open about their identities.

Some cultures have been more accepting towards transgendered people. The term "two-spirit" is used among some native americans, and they had their own roles within the community. The Spanish Conquistadors spotted two-spirited persons in nearly every village they visited in Central America.

In which case I would think they would have been simply cross-dressing homosexuals rather than transgendered. I wouldn't think the native americans would've had the surgical expertise to completely alter someone's sex.

But then, I could be wrong. ;)

There is also an old saying that goes, "If you feed it, it will grow." I would think that acceptance towards transgendered persons would foster further growth of the trend. If transgendered persons are accepted in our society (which I'm not completely sure of), then it will likely result in a net increase in "trannies."

But again, I could be wrong. I don't claim to be an authority on anything.

The term "transgendered" refers to a person who is physically different sex than psychologically. Among native americans this was often a female spirit in a male body.

I believe a transgendered person who goes through a sex change operation would be just called a man or a woman, and opposite of what they born into.
Being transgendered means being born a different sex than your body indicates. It's not a "lifestyle choice", like choosing to wear light blue tie with black suit.

One description of transgendered is: "People who were assigned a gender, usually at birth and based on their genitals, but who feel that this is a false or incomplete description of themselves." The Inuit language word for transgendered person is Sipiniq, which means "infant whose sex changes at birth".


I believe most transgendered folks are straight, ie. they prefer the opposite sex to which they personally identify to be.

Seems like there is no longer an average american... there are enoug gays, handicapped, and people with mental disorders for there to be a real "average" person within our society... Everyone seems to be some kind of weird.

Well, I never said I was an authority on the subject.
Glad you are.

Well, now you are too.

Knowledge doesn't hurt. Usually.

Good for him. I had a couple friends who were transgendered, and they have to deal with ehough social rejection. I'm glad society is showing progress in this.

BTW, folks, there is no "all of a sudden a bunch of weirdos are popping up". You just never heard about them much in the past because society tended to crack down hard on people who didn't fit within very narrow strictures. Transgender especially, because putting someone into a box labeled "male" or "female" is a very basic part of identifying them.

Also, transgender is not something someone just thinks up on their own. It's a BIRTH DEFECT, usually the result of prenatal hormone imbalance. With this kid, his brain is literally male, and his body didn't develop to match. So don't think of transgender or the surgeries requiered as something outre and weird, think of it as corrective surgery for a difficult-to-detect birth defect.

If you're interested, try reading "The First Man-Made Man", about what life for a female-to-male transsexual in the supposedly-good ol'days. Or "Biological Exuberance", which shows how human conditions like homosexuality and transgender occur in nature.