I'm confused... HELP?

Question

I'm doing this research for my psychology class and I want to know what is the difference between homosexuals (gay and lesbians) and transgenders? Are Male-to-female transgenders attracted to males just like gay people do? And are Female-to-male transgenders attracted to females just like lesbians do?

Wow thanks for making it clear to me... I made a mistake with the question. It's suppose to be TRANSSEXUALS instead of TRANSGENDERS.. but they're kinda similar. I'm actually doing a research on GENDER IDENTITY "DISORDER" which are both of them.

Answer 1

Wow, I'm actually surprised at how well informed and educated these answers really are. Just wanted to chime in, I'm a FEMALE to MALE transsexual. Born in a girl's body, but definitely NOT a girl on the inside. However, BEFORE I started my transition process, I was grouped into a "butch lesbian" category. This kind of bothered me, because I'm not a lesbian. I don't conform to the "lesbian" lifestyle, even though I don't believe there's such a thing as one blanket 'lifestyle' to define a group of people. We all live our lives the way we want to.
However, since starting my transition, I live 24/7 as a male. Have legally changed my name to male, and am under a doctor and psychiatrist's care, which is very expensive to BE a male. When I tell people that I am a female to male transsexual, one of the first questions I get (besides "which bathroom do you use") is so, do you like guys or girls? I tell them I am a straight man, therefore I like girls, and they get VERY confused. They're like 'but you are a girl, and you like girls, that makes you a lesbian" This is the problem. They're getting GENDER IDENTITY and SEXUAL ORIENTATION confused. A gender identity is what gender you identity with and present to the world as. It's a self introspection of the gender you feel you are. You don't have to have a penis to act like a man, and you don't have to have a vagina to act like a girl. Most non-trans people have NEVER had to deal with this issue, so they can't really grasp their minds around the concept.
A sexual ORIENTATION however, is what you feel attracted to sexually speaking and emotionally speaking. It's the sex you are drawn to. I believe there should be a distinction, and make it to where there's SEXUAL ORIENTATION (what you're attracted to between the legs) and GENDER ORIENTION (what you're attracted to as far as gender roles and gender presentation) I personally think this would help clear things up a bit.
Homosexual people are comfortable being the sex they are. I say SEX because a lot of them are also transgendered. They don't conform to traditional gender roles. "Transgender" is an umbrella term used to describe ANYONE who doesn't conform to traditional gender roles. This can be butch lesbians, effiminate gay men, drag queens, drag kings, and crossdressers. A TRANSSEXUAL on the other hand is someone who feels so much of a disturbance being in the wrong body from the gender they feel they are, that they actually take medical steps to resolve the issue, and "change the body to match the brain". Most homosexuals feel comfortable in the body they were born in, they acknowledge the fact of the sex they were born as , and don't feel the need to change that. They are just simply attracted to the same sex. Sex being spoken of in the biological term here. They are attracted to the same sexual organs between their legs, as they have.
I know it gets very confusing. You have to really get down to semantics and define terms such as transgender, transsexual, homosexual, gender orientation, gender identity, sex in the biological terms, and sex in the physical terms. Too many people get biological sex and gender overlapping, when there's really a distinct difference.
I know lots of transsexuals who have a homosexual sexual attraction, (like a guy who becomes a female that's still attracted to females) or there's also transsexuals who have a heterosexual sexual attraction (a guy who becomes a female who is attracted to men) There's also the transsexual who would be a homosexual, (a female who becomes a male, who is attracted to men) and the heterosexual transsexual male ( a transsexual who was born a girl, became a male, and is attracted to females) You may be thinking "no, that's totally the opposite" but it's really not, because these transsexuals , their gender was already the opposite to begin with, and they are just changing the body. The body is just a shell of who they are as a person. You have to open the shell to see the person for who they really are. Me personally, I was born a girl, became a male, and I'm sexually attracted to females, and I do NOT call myself a lesbian. I identify as a straight male.
I guess let me put it to you in an analogy kinda way. If you were a biological male, born with a penis, and you got into some weird kind of car wreck or something and had to have your penis removed, would you still be a male? Or a woman, who has cancer for instance and has her breasts removed and a hysterectomy (losing female reproductive organs) would she still be a female? Sexual organs don't define your GENDER IDENTITY. You're teh gender you ARE, because it's how you feel you are on the INSIDE, not the OUTSIDE.

Answer 2

The difference is that transgenders are born in the "wrong" body. So if a boy is a transgender that means that even though he has a male body, he is not a man, he is a girl.

Now about your question if they are gay too, I would say no, they are not. Why? well, because if a boy is a transgender, he would feel like a girl, he would think that he is stucked in a body that does not belong to him because deep inside "she is a girl", so obviously she likes boys, she'll be attracted to boys not to girls. However if that boy start dating a girl, that would make "her" a lesbian because feeling like a girl she shouldn't be attracted to girls.

Homosexuals, on the other hand, have different sexual preferences and they usually are comfortable with their bodies.

I'll recommend you to watch a movie called "A girl like me" which is the story of Eddie "Gwen" Araujo, that way you are going to understand very well the difference between a transgender and a homosexual.

Answer 3

Homosexuality is a blanket for men who want men and women who want women, the latter also going by the lesbian label. Some are pretty much exclusive, others are bisexual in that they can do either hetero or homosexual connections. Transgender involve homosexuals that simply show their preference, such as men who prefer the woman's traditional role or women who prefer the male's normal role (the term butch is frequently applied to the male-role among homosexuals of either gender). Or, and this is important, the transgender simply needs to be the other role of what the physical gender is. Men want to, perhaps need to, be women. Women, similarly want or need to be men. In that perspective a MaleToFemale transexual would see the same choices a woman would have, to desire a man and be heterosexual or to desire a woman and be homosexual as a lesbian. The FemaleToMale has the same choices. Were I to become a woman, I would be a lesbian, because I have no desire for men. But as a woman, I would possibly face the desire for men, as a woman would do. In that respect, the homosexual label may fit in that an Y-chromosome person would be mating with a Y-chromosome person, but more obviously in that a woman would be permitting a man to mate with her. That's where the real difficulty lay. Is she, who was a he, looking at him the way he would look at him or the way she is looking at him? This is transgender, transexual.
May I recommend the numerous good references at:

Answer 4

Homosexuality and transgender are two separate concepts. Homosexuality usually refers to romantic/sexual attraction or behaviour between people of the same gender, while transgender is a matter of gender identity, meaning that a person identifies as a different gender than the one they were assigned (usually) at birth. It can also refer to an individual who idenitfies as neither a man nor a woman. Clear-cut distinctions between homosexuality and transgender are often impossible to make in different cultures and across time, especially where third gender social categories or gender-structured homosexuality exist.

Answer 5

Homosexuals are people who are attracted to people of the same sex, end of story.

Transgendered is a harder term to explain. It's an umbrella term used to describe a myriad of differently-gender-identified people, including:
1)transsexuals, who feel they were born in the body of the wrong sex, and live and often get surgery to become the opposite sex
2)Transvestites, who dress like members of the opposite sex but who do not want to become the opposite sex, and who can be either gay (ie drag queens) or straight.
3)intersexed people, who used to be called hermaphrodites
4)genderfucks, who want to be identified with neither sex, or with both sexes at once (think a beard and a flowing gown), often to make statements about gender identity

To answer your questions about sexual attraction and transsexuals, it's complicated, and I believe it varies from person to person. Some become gay men, some straight men, some lesbians, some straight women, some something in between

Hope this clears thing up for you, follow the link below for even more terms and explanations.

Answer 6

There is no rule of thumb. Many trans-gender people begin the quest for their true-selves through the gay community where they receive moderate acceptance. Since the gay community by nature is a sexual group they live as a homosexual. After the Gender reassignment is complete some function as a Heterosexual and others as a homosexual in their new gender.

I have no basis for this next statement but it seems very logical to me.

I suspect that a person who is so profoundly uncomfortable in their own body that they choose to pursue the horribly difficult process of reassignment, prior to the reassignment in an attempt to become comfortable with themselves they sought out a homosexual lifestyle too early. In fact, as their old gender they were heterosexual and as their new gender homosexual.

Answer 7

Gender Identity (what transgender refers to) has to do with : GENDER. What you identify as, male or female; it's about YOU. Sexual orientation is who you're romantically attracted to; has little to do with YOU. You really should be able to find that research out there, but if you need more help try hrc.org for starters.

Answer 8

Transgendered individuals identify with the opposite gender of their birth. Some actually go so far as to have sex change surgery, some take hormones to emphasize the features of the opposite sex, and some struggle with it all their lives.

Just like non-trans people, some of them are straight, some of them are gay and some are bisexual. It adds a whole new dimension to the rainbow!

Answer 9

see now thats a good question with out an easy answer.
the difference between homosexuals and transgenders are that homosexuals are just people attrackted to the same sex, transgenders are people who feel like they are the wrong sex, ex: a young girl who feels like a boy on the inside, its not penis envy or anything along those lines, she just doesn't feel right inside her skin. and male to female trangenders are not specificially attrackted to one sex, some are straigt some are gay, Ex: i knew a, married three kids, once his kids grew up he told his wife that he thought he was really supposed to be a woman, went through everything and became a woman, but still wanted to be with his wife, he still was attrackted to woman. and same goes for female transgenders.

Answer 10

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