Transgender and Trans are terms that are used for people whose sexual identification is not in line with the traditional ideas of male and female. Your wellness and wellbeing can be greatly linked to how you view your own sexuality.
The term ‘trans’ embraces a variety of different types of sexuality, including transvestites. Transvestites are people who like to wear clothing of the opposite sex and occasionally pose as a member of the opposite sex, but they do not want to live full time as someone as the opposite sex. Trans can also mean people who feel that they are neither male nor female, or people who feel that they are both male and female. It can also encompass drag queens or kings and other people who don’t appear to show conventional characteristics of masculinity or femininity.
Transsexuals can also come under the category of ‘trans’. These are people who have a strong and ongoing to desire to live and to be accepted as a member of the opposite gender to the one that they were born with. Many of these transsexual people go through treatment such as gender realignment surgery and hormone therapy.
Trans people often have a complex idea of their own identity, and their idea of their gender may also change over time. They may start, for example, by simply cross dressing occasionally and then later on in life they may decide that they want to live full time as a member of the opposite sex. This process is called transitioning. Trans is also not always a popular term – many people who decide that they want to live full time as the opposite sex do not wish to be referred to as ‘trans’ but simply as a man or a woman.