Get this 'straight'

I recently read this wonderful article in Brunch (Hindustan Times’ Sunday Supplement) and for the first time I really understood what being a transgender or transsexual means. I knew the meanings of gay or lesbian and bisexual, but never knew the exact difference between a transgender and transsexual or transgender and gay or lesbian.

If yu too are as clueless as I was earlier, here’s briefly what these terms mean (courtesy: brunch, again):

Heterosexual: The so called ‘straight’ people. A person who is attracted to the opposite sex.

Gay (or lesbian): A man (or woman) who is attracted to men (or women).

Transgender: A person who believes he or she was born in the wrong physical gender. A transgender person is not a gay or lesbian. She (or he) is a man (or woman) born in the wrong gender, attracted like any heterosexual, to the opposite sexual.

Transsexual: A person who has had sex reassignment surgery (SRS), known colloquially as sex change operation. Such a person is said to have ‘transitioned’.

Transvestite: A person who for whatever reason enjoys dressing in the clothes of the opposite sex. A transvestite need not necessarily be gay or lesbian, bisexual or transsexual. Many heterosexuals are transvestites.

Hijra: A transgender or transsexual woman born as a physical male, who is a part of the established community of hijras. You are not a hijra unless you officially join the community, becoming what is called as a ‘chela’.

Before reading any further, I strongly recommend that the article be read first. I would like to share here a few things that ran in my mind while I was reading the article.

Earlier I used to wonder why are people with alternate sexual orientations are the way they are. I think I now it now. They are the way they are b’coz that is the natural way for them...I particularly liked the way Rose has put it in the article. “I can’t explain why I want to do sex change surgery because I don’t need to become a woman, I am a woman”. And the difference between gay and physical male transgender couldn’t be explained better than when she says why she isn’t a gay. "I am not a man. You have to be a man to be gay.”

One thing that has sort of surprised me is Rose’s remark that US is a very homophobic and transphobic country. Even more than India. Another surprising thing is the significance of hormones. I knew that hormones is the reason behind differences in physical features between men and women (like men’s beard or woman’s tone of voice). But I never knew that they influence even our mental processes. When Gazal, talking about HRT says, "Suddenly, I found it easy to cry. Now I know it’s all to do with hormones", yu understand how fragile are our identities as males or females. We are not studs or chicks by virtue or choice but are mere consequences of some chemicals in our body :)