Where we are today

If at their basic root, transvestism is wanting to wear the clothes of the opposite sex and transsexualism the desire to physically embody it, how are they related if at all and are they simply offshoots of the same tree.

Both typologies have been known to experience arousal with one arguably sometimes seeking it as target while the other as side effect of a longing to be the other sex which predates puberty. I used to feel sure that Harry Benjamin's graded spectrum was correct but was unsure about the areas in the middle (specifically types III and IV) which seemed to suggest less committed forms of transsexualism.

Today I am less stringently doctrinal to following any one model as they are all imperfect attempts at formalizing observed behaviour. This is why I feel it's best to worry less about labeling oneself as finding pragmatic solutions which are the least invasive but are conducive to optimum life balance. This way there is less possibility of regret as the guardrails today have largely been removed.

Even what we assess to be very insistent trans kids need to be watched carefully because my now bearded and tall nephew finally turned out to be an openly gay man and, after burning off the princess dress phase of his childhood he became less committed to femininity.

For his part Ray Blanchard took what we used to term tranvestic fetishism (which still exists) and tried to generalize that label to all gynpephilic-leaning transsexuals through his inventing of the AGP sexual disorder. This was less well-intentioned error than an agenda driven tactic from a baby boomer gay man who, by nature of his education, was far more likely to view such anomalies as pathology. Putting everyone in the same barrel was expedient for him but it left huge holes which many if not most clinicians regularly point out today. That most Blanchard advocates are aligned with the right wing and TERFS tells you much about the intent to discredit.

In addition, most gender variant people are only marginally more educated in this topic than the general population which makes this era more a little more prone to error. However I feel this is counteracted by my great joy that people can begin to explore their identities far earlier in life.