The Pain Trans-gender and Transsexual People Face Every Day

Imagine staring into the mirror, feeling an empty revulsion towards your physical body, your face, and your very being. Many trans-gendered and transsexual people face this feeling every day, and not just when looking in a mirror, but while at work, while interacting with other people, while shopping, while driving, and even when waking up to a brand new day. Often the sense of disconnection and pain towards your physical body turns to despair and anger for a trans-gendered person, and it can be difficult to make yourself go places where others might see you, and judge you.

Trans-gendered and transsexual people are no different than anyone else, save for the fact that many feel the often overwhelming sense that they were born into the wrong body. Generally, 'Transsexual' refers to someone considering or currently undergoing hormonal treatment and/or surgery to correct their outward gender appearance. However, transsexual is more often used in the former meaning, to indicate a person as pre-transition or within the beginning stages of physical transition towards their desired sex. 'Trans-gender' is a term that typically refers to the state of a person's 'gender identity' (their self-identification as male, female, or otherwise) not matching or correlating the genetic or physical sex they were assigned at birth. Being trans-gender does not imply a specific sexual orientation in any way - a trans-gendered person may identify as straight, gay, bisexual, or any other orientation just as non-trans-gendered folks do.