A Big Difference Between a Transsexual, Transvestite and Hermaphrodites
Transvestites (TV), are men just dressing up in drag for fun, often called cross dressing, and perhaps enjoy fooling people and getting the shock reaction when the man finds out she is a he. A TV may be either a homosexual or heterosexual. I would be surprised if there are any TV sexworkers. Usually they perform in clubs for entertainment purposes.
The second group which it far larger is the true female, with the genetic/hormonal defect which creates the terrible result of nature of being a women trapped in a male sexual body. This is the transsexual (TS) who isn't playing any games like the transvestite, but often desperately want the sex change operation to align their gender and their physical sexuality. But it is very costly and you first you usually have to take hormones for a few years and other complex preparation.
She is in no way gay. She seeks heterosexual relationships with men. A gay does not desperately want to have female breasts (just icky fat cells to them) etc.
Another group are Hermaphrodites. These unfortunate folk have a genetic problem and can end up with both male and female organs. Both sets of organs can produce hormones, so you can have a person who appears female, but is a man as well. With some Hermaphrodites, their gender may correspond with their predominant sex, so they may live their lives unaware of their duality.
In in the womb we are all female to start. Based on genetics different hormones cause our sexual organs to develop either male or female. Men...look at the back of your penis. See the line? That is where your vagina would be if your penis developed as a female instead of male. We are all just a chromosome away from being the opposite sex and we all have the same internal sex structure that just develops differently. That is why for example, many women can ejaculate, just like men. The sexually plumbing has developed differently but it is all there male or female.
In Thailand TS's are very common and called Katoeys or "Lady Boys". Thailand is noted for its very good sex change procedures at a far less cost than in the U.S. I discuss them with pictures in more detail at http://www.sexwork.com/Thailand/katoey.html
I am an extreme heterosexual, a zero on the Kinsey scale and hardly like to hug men just as friends. I accidently bar fined a Katoey in Thailand but enjoyed the intimacy experience with..most of her. I have zero interest in anal even with a regular women. I discuss my Katoey experience "Dave meets a Katoey" at http://www.sexwork.com/Thailand/davmeetskatoey.html. In Canada and the U.S. there are often referred to as shemales but they are really TS's.
Often the TS's, especially in Thailand look much more attractive than "full" women. And Thai women are very attractive! Some TS's produce little or no male hormones in their bodies from birth. This means that at puberty their feet and hands didn't get big, their voice didn't change, no facial hair, no Adams apple. Without masculinizing hormones they always appeared female with only the naughty bits down below to betray them. All it takes is for your friendly Bangkok surgeon to turn the outie into an innie and now not even a General Practitioner's medical exam could tell. Only a GYN could find out.
Many TS's seek surgery to attempt to get their sex to correspond with their gender, and sex reassignment surgery is now quite common. However, this is not a recent phenomenon and the first recorded sex change was done in 1931 when a Danish artist Einer Wagenar became Lili Elbe. In 1951, the British public were shocked when ex R.A.F. pilot and racing driver Robert Cowell became Roberta after similar surgery. However, in 1953, the most publicised case was ex-G.I. George Jorgensen who became Christine. Her doctor received 465 requests for sex change following this case.
Gender confusions are not something new. There are many famous cases in history such as the Assyrian ruler Assirbanipal who was a cross dresser in the 7th century BC. Transsexualism was known in ancient Rome, and even Julius Caesar did a little cross dressing himself. Or what about the Englishwoman who became Pope John the 8th in 855? Joan of Arc has had much publicity, as has Dr. James Barry, the Inspector-General of Army Hospitals in the Crimean whose true sex was only discovered after death.
Perhaps those of us without gender recognition problems should be thankful that we do not have to make sacrifices, just to live happily with our own bodies.
Regardless if one is a TS, shemale, Katoey, gay, bi, or straight, Black, White, Indian, Asian, or Western, we are all most importantly the same human race, with the same emotional desires to love, play, be sexually fulfilled etc. To me what is the same is more important than looking at what is different.
