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OCR for page 177
CHAPTER 10
Ir' Search of
T~omar~hooc] are] Mer'
,.,.,.,.,.,... .
]{ wrote first about autogynephilic
transsexualism because it is so much
~ less familiar, and harder to grasp, than
homosexual transsexualism.As I mentioned, most people have homo-
sexual transsexuals in mind when they think of transsexuals at all. But
homosexual transsexualism is also an interesting, complex condition,
and as is the case with autogynephiles, there are misconceptions about
homosexual transsexuals. My own recent research has focused on the
homosexual type. Oddly enough, most of the homosexual transsexuals
I have met, I met through Cher, who is the other type of transsexual.
This is odd because, as I have mentioned, in the United States and
Canada these days, homosexual male-to-female and autogynephilic
transsexuals do not run in the same circles. None of the homosexual
transsexuals I asked had ever met a transsexual like Cher before. (Ho-
mosexual transsexuals do socialize with each other. Most of "Cher's
girls" had met each other before meeting Cher.)
177
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178
the Plan TAlho Would He Queen
Cher's connection with the homosexual transsexuals is her doing.
Early in her transition, after she was diagnosed as "transsexual," she
decided that she wanted to try the "major leagues." (Cher's frequent
allusions to sports and automobiles are sufficient to indicate that she is
not a homosexual transsexual.) So she went to gay clubs and gay bars
looking for accomplished transsexuals those who looked and acted
like attractive, sexy women. She watched them, befriended them, and
learned from them.When I met her, she not only lived with a homo-
sexual transsexual, but her best friend was one, and she was advisor,
confidante, or chauffeur to several others. Her friends' experiences,
contrasted with her own, have made her an astute observer of their
differences.When I asked her opinion about the main difference be-
tween transsexuals"from gay versus straight backgrounds" (as she puts
it), she said,"Gay transsexuals are boy crazy."
One implication of Cher's assertion is that homosexual transsexu-
als are like gay men. Many of the facts discussed in the last section on
gay men apply to homosexual male-to-female transsexuals. For ex-
ample, the causes of homosexual transsexualism are largely the causes
of homosexuality. To be sure, only a small minority of gay men be-
come transsexual, but homosexual transsexuals are a type of gay man.
Richard Green began his important study of feminine boys (discussed
in the last section) precisely to see if he could predict which boys
would become transsexual adults. Sensibly, after hearing the memories
of transsexual patients, he sought extremely feminine boys. In adult-
hood, most of these boys were gay men, and only one of the sixty in
his study was clearly transsexual. Evidently, something prevents most
very feminine boys from becoming transsexual. In order for a femi-
nine boy to become transsexual, something extra must happen.
What is the "something extra"? Ken Zucker, whom we met in
Chapter 2, has tried to predict which boys with gender identity disor-
der (GID) would still have the disorder when they become adoles-
cents. Adolescents with GID are much rarer and presumably much
closer to being transsexual. Zucker found several predictors of adoles-
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In Search of Womanhood and Men
179
cent GID: lower IQ, lower social class, immigrant status, non-intact
family, and childhood behavior problems unrelated to gender identity
disorder. Obviously, none of these factors can be considered very spe-
cific. Parental divorce and low social class are both very common, and
most males who experience them do not become transsexual. The
factors do, however, suggest a common theme: early adversity. I will
speculate later about what this might mean.
When I have discussed the theory that homosexual transsexuals
are a type of gay man, I have met resistance. I was surprised at this, for
the idea is neither new nor, it seemed to me, controversial. Some of
the resistance was emotional. People who believe that homosexuality
is not a disorder tend to dislike the implication that a subset of homo-
sexuals are disordered. I think that this is a bad reason to object to the
theory, no better than to object to the theory that autogynephilia is a
form of heterosexuality because autogynephilia can be considered a
disorder.
Another reason why people have difficulty with the notion that
homosexual transsexualism is a form of homosexuality is that at their
endpoints, the two conditions seem quite different.The picture of the
muscular gay man in leather looks quite different from that of the
shapely postoperative transsexual in an evening dress. But look at the
entire trajectory. As I have emphasized, as boys, some gay men look
just like transsexuals. Nearly all homosexual transsexuals go through a
stage in which they are "gay boys," feminine to be sure, but not dis-
tinctly more feminine than many gay boys who will become gay men.
And there is that "missing link" between transsexuals and ordinary gay
men the drag queen. Drag queens are gay men who cross-dress oc-
casionally but who have no intention of changing their sex, and who
do not take measures to physically feminize their bodies. Unlike het-
erosexual cross-dressers, drag queens do not become sexually aroused
by dressing in women's clothes. Some drag queens are transsexuals
who have not yet accepted it, but for others, occasional cross-dressing
is as close to female as they will ever get. In our study, we found that
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She Plan TAlho Would He Queen
drag queens ranked between gay men and transsexuals on a number of
traits related to femininity. Also, they liked their penises much more
than transsexuals did.
The other reason some people object to linking homosexual
transsexualism with homosexuality is, they argue, that this confuses
sexuality with gender. The standard transsexual narrative says that
transsexualism is not about sex but about"gender identity," or the
internal sense that one is a man or a woman. According to this narra-
tive,transsexuals want to change their sex because their sense of self
disagrees with their bodies, not because they have any unusual sexual
preferences that depend on a sex change.While the first part of this
explanation sometimes may be true, the latter is not. It should be clear
by now that the "gender, not sex" part of the transsexual narrative is
false for autogynephiles, whether they are transsexuals or merely cross-
dressers. Autogynephilia is a very unusual sexual orientation (towards
oneself as a woman), and it is usually accompanied by specific and
intense sexual imagery. But it would be a mistake to think of
autogynephilic transsexualism as the sexual type of transsexualism, and
homosexual transsexualism as the type that is solely a disorder of gen-
der identity. Homosexual transsexuals are in their own way just as
sexually motivated as autogynephiles.
*********
There is no way to say this as sensitively as I would prefer, so I will
just go ahead. Most homosexual transsexuals are much better looking
than most autogynephilic transsexuals.There is the rare exception, but
for the most part, autogynephilic transsexuals aspire (with some suc-
cess) to be presentable, while homosexual transsexuals aspire (with
equivalent success) to be objects of desire. Homosexual transsexuals
have been models and actresses. For example, the model,Tula, was in
several movies and posed for Playboy before she was exposed as a trans-
sexual.
There are three reasons why homosexual transsexuals are better
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181
looking. First, they are typically younger when they start transitioning.
This almost certainly helps prevent some of the masculinization that
might have occurred had they waited 8 to 10 years, when they would
be the same age as the typical autogynephile. Second, they want to
attract men, and they get constant feedback (in the form of proposi-
tions from men and mostly unsolicited critical advice from their trans-
sexual sisters) about how they are doing. This allows them to hone
their presentations faster than the autogynephilic transsexual, who has
spent most of her femme life looking at a mirror by herself.
Finally, homosexual transsexuals are better looking because ho-
mosexual men who want to be women tend not to enact that desire
unless they can pull it off.The standard transsexual story implies that
the transsexual is so dissatisfied with her incorrect male body that she
cannot wait to discard it, regardless of how good she will look as a
woman.This is another place where the standard narrative is wrong, at
least about homosexual transsexuals. I have begun asking the homo-
sexual transsexuals I meet whether, if they had looked awful as women,
they would have transitioned to full-time females. Most have said"No,"
and no one has answered with an unambiguous "Yes." Extremely mus-
cular and masculine looking homosexual transsexuals probably choose
not to transition, but instead remain among gay men, who value their
masculine looks. Blanchard has found that homosexual transsexuals
tend to be physically smaller than their autogynephilic sisters, which
is consistent with just this sort of self-selection. The "Before" and
"After" pictures they have shown me also support my thesis. As men,
the homosexual transsexuals look and act extremely feminine, and
that presentation is not very marketable among gay men.They are far
more fetching as women.
Kim, whom I mentioned at the start of this section, exemplifies
the dilemma that some homosexual transsexuals face. Recall that
when I first saw Kim, she was at Crobar with a very handsome and
muscular man, and I thought they looked sufficiently like a beautiful
heterosexual couple that I refrained from approaching her. Sure
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the Plan TAlho Would He Queen
enough, though, when I told my transsexual informants about her
later, they recognized the description and claimed Kim as one of their
own. I arranged to interview her for the study we were conducting.
When she came to my laboratory, my initial impression was recon-
firmed. She was stunning. Afterwards, my avowedly heterosexual male
research assistant told me that he would gladly have had sex with her,
even knowing that Kim still possessed a penis.)Yet despite her appear-
ance, Kim was the most ambivalent homosexual transsexual I had met.
She didn't know if she wanted the operation. It turned out that the
handsome man with her at Crobar is a gay man, who enjoys her
company and being seen with her, but who of course could never be
attracted to Kim the way she looked that night. Kim had fallen in love
with him, however. Because she knew that she could never have him
as a transsexual or a woman, she was considering reversing her transi-
tion and becoming a man again. In her case, this would have meant
removing breast implants and silicon in her hips. She also said she
would probably have to hit the gym to bulk up. As she told me of her
dilemma, I increasingly wondered what she could be thinking. I could
not believe that Kim could ever be attractive enough as a man to
attract the likes of the gay man I saw. Such a sexy woman could not
possibly make the kind of masculine, muscular man that gay men tend
to prefer. I silently predicted that Kim would come to her senses, let
her man go, and embrace the femme fatale she was well on her way to
becoming. So far, I am half right. Kim is no longer seen with him, and
she is still a nascent woman, but she has not yet gotten surgery.
Kim's story shows that sex reassignment is not necessarily an in-
evitable, unwavering goal for the homosexual transsexual. Rather, sex
reassignment has a rational choice component:"Can I make it?Will I
be happier as a female? Will I be more successful getting straight men
as a woman than I am at getting gay men as a man?" (The last decision
has to be weighted by a particular transsexual's degree of preference
for straight versus gay men. Most vastly prefer straight men.) This
could help explain why the large majority of boys who start out look-
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In Search of Womanhood and Men
183
ing transsexual ultimately do not pursue sex reassignment. Some doubt
they can be attractive women.
This is a significant difference between the homosexual and
autogynephilic types. In making the decision whether to undergo sex
reassignment, the autogynephiles do not seem to dwell much on
whether they can attract mates. Even autogynephiles who worry that
they cannot pass as women are concerned more about stares at the
grocery store than about a lack of stares at the cocktail lounge. This
makes sense.The autogynephile's main romantic target is herself.This
is also consistent with my intuition that autogynephilia is a very inter-
nally driven condition, much less susceptible to the kind of rational
analysis that homosexual transsexuals seem to engage in.
*********
Alma is a 40-year-old Latina homosexual transsexual who got her
sex change in her mid-30s quite late for the homosexual type. She
looks great, and works as a call girl out of her condo, which she owns.
Alma has seen more than one era of transsexuals. Her brother (whom
she calls her "sister" there is no avoiding this kind of confusion) was
also a transsexual, who saw the heyday of NewYork's Studio 54 before
dying of AIDS in the early 1980s.Alma has seen many a transsexual
come and go, and the first thing that she thinks of that most have in
common is that they are outcasts.They are outcasts as children because
of their extreme femininity. They mostly come from poor, broken
families, and family rejection is common.The gay community rejects
transsexuals, according to Alma, because "they're jealous that we suet to
have sex with straight men."
, ~ O
Alma has also noticed, as I have, the large number of Latina trans-
sexuals. In Chicago, there are several bars that cater to Latina trans-
sexuals. About 60 percent of the homosexual transsexuals and drag
queens we studied were Latina or black.The proportion of nonwhite
subjects in our studies of ordinary gay men is typically only about 20
percent. Alma says she thinks that Hispanic people might have more
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the Plan TAlho Would He Queen
transsexual genes than other ethnic groups do. Another transsexual,
remarking on the same phenomenon, attributed it to ethnic gender
roles: "My culture is very macho and intolerant of female behavior in
men. It is easier just to become a woman."
I am not sure about the validity of all ofAlma's observations, much
less her theories, but there is clearly something to the idea that homo-
sexual transsexuals are used to living on the margins of society. They
have, in fact, had to learn to cope with rejection and disapproval since
childhood, because of their extreme femininity. And they have not
had the advantages that tend to instill respect in the social order.The
early chaotic backgrounds of so many homosexual transsexuals might
help explain why they do not defeminize the way that most very
feminine boys do. A feminine boy from a middle-class or upper-
middle-class family (such as Danny's) has more motivation to "hang in
there" until he normalizes his gender role behavior, because he has a
good chance at a conventionally successful future. Defeminization
might also require more ambition and family support than some ho-
mosexual transsexuals possess.
Most homosexual transsexuals have also learned how to live on
the streets. At one time or another many of them have resorted to
shoplifting or prostitution or both. This reflects their willingness to
forgo conventional routes, especially those that cost extra time or
money. Homosexual transsexuals tend to have a short time horizon,
with certain pleasure in the present being worth great risks for the
future.
Prostitution is the single most common occupation that homo-
sexual transsexuals in our study admitted to. About half of them have
worked as prostitutes at some point. In Chicago, the entry-level posi-
tion is as a female-impersonating streetwalker who works the area of
Broadway that is mostly gay after dark. (Their customers, of course, are
not gay men.They are either unwary straight men or men looking for
she-males.) This kind of prostitution is dangerous, especially for trans-
sexuals, whose customers sometimes do not know what they are.They
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In Search of Womanhood and Men
185
often form relationships with street hustlers or ex-cons. The rate of
HIV infection among transsexual streetwalkers is very high, partly due
to the high rate of intravenous drug use.
The more resourceful and attractive transsexual prostitutes are call
girls. Before their sex reassignment surgery, they advertise as transsexu-
als.There is, in fact, a market for the services of preoperative trans-
sexual prostitutes, and I will discuss this later. After surgery, many
transsexual call girls continue in the business.Alma's friend,Juanita,
is a very attractive postoperative transsexual who has worked as a
call girl both before and since her operation. Juanita differs from
genetic female prostitutes because she asks men to describe them-
selves on the phone before she makes an appointment with them. In
doing so, she is trying to determine whether their appearance will be
acceptable to her. For example, she rejects obese men. She also admits
that she finds some of the men who patronize her attractive, and en-
joys sex with them. She doesn't tell them, though, because she doesn't
want them to try to get sex for free. Although~uanita says she would
like to switch occupations, she does not feel degraded and guilty about
what she does for a living. I suspect that this reflects an aspect of her
psychology that has remained male.When we ask transsexuals about
their level of interest in casual sex, they respond pretty much like gay
men and straight men, all of whom are more interested than either
lesbians or straight women, on average. Although Juanita is so femi-
nine in some respects, even some behavioral respects, her ability to
enjoy emotionally meaningless sex appears male-typical. In this sense,
homosexual transsexuals might be especially well suited to prostitution.
As for shoplifting, homosexual transsexuals are not especially well
suited as much as especially motivated. For many, their taste in cloth-
ing is much more expensive than their income allows.Transsexual call
girls are among the few who can afford expensive clothes. In female
impersonator shows, transsexuals often wear designer gowns, which
are widely believed (by other transsexuals) to have been acquired via
the five-fingered discount.
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the Plan TAlho Would He Queen
Living on the edge is more out of necessity than desire. Most of
the homosexual transsexuals I talked to had similar dreams for the
future. They wanted to get their surgery (if they had not yet had it)
and meet a nice, attractive, and financially stable heterosexual man
who would marry and take care of them. This is obviously similar to
the hopes of many non-transsexual women.When I was conducting
my study of homosexual transsexuals, I routinely asked them if they
knew anyone who had realized this dream. No one did.
*********
The Baton is Chicago's premier female impersonator club, featur-
ing several past Miss Continentals, including the gorgeous Mimi Marks.
The performances consist of lip-synching and dancing to well-known
songs, and the intended effect is to awe the audience with the beauty
and realism of the female impersonators, who all appear to be women.
Mission accomplished. Even the less attractive performers are not so
because they look like men, but rather, because they are overweight, or
merely plain. They look like women. All the performers I met there
label themselves transsexual, and they all love men. They also all still
have their penises. Once they have their sex reassignment surgery, they
become women, and women cannot impersonate women.
My first time at the Baton, I too was wowed by the accomplished
female impersonations. But the most interesting part of the experi-
ence involved the audience. One man who sat close to the stage, by
himself, was the object of derision by the transsexual MC and several
of the other performers, during their acts.The performers made ges-
tures indicating that he was dirty or perverse, while the man gazed up
at them, seemingly unfazed. At one break, I overheard one of the
performers telling him, exasperated,"Of course I still have it!" Only
later, when I spoke to several homosexual transsexuals about it, was I
able to surmise what was going on. None of the transsexuals I asked
had difficulty interpreting the interaction. It was evidently in the realm
of experience of all of them, in one way or another.
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187
The man was at the Baton because he was especially attracted to
she-males, or transsexuals who live as women but still have their pe-
nises. She-males are most often depicted as mostly feminine individu-
als, with women's faces, breasts, and absence of facial and body hair,
but with functioning and erect penises. She-males are not just an ac-
ceptable substitute to this man. They are his preferred targets. Evi-
dently, there is a significant market for she-male sex. Advertisements
in pornographic magazines often sell videos or other magazines fea-
turing she-males. About half of the homosexual transsexuals I have
met have worked as prostitutes, and the majority of these worked pre-
operatively as she-males. One study found that among prostitutes' so-
licitations in aToronto alternative newspaper, about one in twenty was
placed by a preoperative transsexual prostitute.
Who are the customers? Are they gay, straight, or bisexual? Are
they merely men looking for something exotic? Ray Blanchard is the
.
only researcher who has studied men who are sexually attracted to
she-males. (Blanchard calls men with sexual interest in she-males
"gynandromorphophiles." Cher calls them"transie sniffers." I will stick
with"men with sexual interest in she-males.") In a content analysis of
sexual personals advertisements, he found that about half of men who
sought she-males were cross-dressers. Blanchard thinks that a signifi-
cant number of men who want she-males are "partial autogyne-
philes" they are primarily aroused to the image of themselves as she-
male. Blanchard says that the men are not gay but are more like
"scrambled up heterosexual men." The transsexuals I know who
worked as she-male prostitutes confirmed this."There was nothing
gay about those men," said one, who knows plenty about gay men.
There is a rather uneasy symbiosis between the homosexual she-
males, on their way to sex reasssignment, and the men who want them
at that stage.Juanita, who has been a successful prostitute before and
after sex reassignment surgery, says simply"You would have to be
crazy to prefer being a she-male prostitute."According to Juanita, there
were several problems with customers who call on she-males. Most
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the Plan TAlho Would He Queen
annoyingly, they frequently don't show up for the appointments they
scheduled. She thinks the no-shows want something exotic but simply
lose their nerve and decide they can't go through with it. Another
thing that irritated Juanita about the customers who called on her
when she was a she-male was the way they viewed her."They consid-
ered me their little sex toy and assumed that just because I was a
transsexual I would do anything kinky. They didn't care about me, or
even what I looked like. They just wanted to know if my thing
worked."Juanita says that the most frequent unwelcome requests were
that she would penetrate them anally, act like a dominatrix, or allow
them to cross-dress with her. The most frequent activity that she
granted was oral sex (the men sucked Juanita's penis).
Juanita has had her sex reassignment surgery, and now works as a
call girl for men who want real women. She does not tell them that
she used to be a transsexual. None of her frequent customers from
before was interested in continuing with her, post-surgery. The new
men are more "intimate," according to Juanita, because they see her as
a real person rather than merely a"sex toy."Juanita is a very attractive
transsexual, and had the luxury of continuing to work successfully
even after she was no longer exotic. Although I have not met one,
some she-male prostitutes allegedly delay sex reassignment surgery
because they are concerned that their incomes will suffer after they no
longer have their penises.
*********
The voice on my answering machine sounded serious, even wor-
ried, and I wondered why. Maria had seemed ready and eager for her
surgery. She was one of the few homosexual transsexuals I had met
who had a conventional job; she was cheerful and not at all ambivalent
about the surgery. She knew what she wanted. When I called her
back, she asked to meet at a restaurant in Lincoln Park, Chicago's
trendy urban neighborhood. When I arrived, she greeted me at the
door, and I barely recognized her. She had been quite passable before,
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189
but not especially attractive. Now she was the kind of woman that
men gawk at (and later when we left the restaurant, they did). She now
had very large breasts and an hourglass figure. Her face, which showed
light stubble before, was radiantly feminine now. And she had already
had one of the best voices I had ever heard on a transsexual.Yet she
began by saying she had problems.
Wherever she went, Maria was constantly feeling that people were
whispering about her, identifying her as a transsexual. I was quite cer-
tain that people were whispering about her, but equally certain that
they were not"clocking" her (detecting her status as a transsexual).
Then she revealed her current personal situation, which helped ex-
plain her paranoia. For over a year she had had a steady boyfriend who
did not know that she is a transsexual. She had made up a past life in
response to his queries. Her gay brother collaborated with her to con-
vince her boyfriend of the truth of her false past and to hide the true
past. She was extremely concerned that her boyfriend would find out,
and the constant worry caused tension in their relationship. For ex-
ample, she was jealous that he would seek a "real woman," although in
fact he believed he was already with a"real woman," and they had
been fighting.
Maria had met her boyfriend shortly after getting breast implants
but before her vaginoplasty. Evidently, many men had made advances
at that time, and she chose him because he was good looking and
ambitious. She was able to postpone intercourse with him for a few
months, meanwhile frantically managing to get her surgery scheduled
sooner. She had sex with him sooner than she was supposed to, but
had not had any physical problems as a result. Her new body worked
well.
She and her boyfriend had talked fairly specifically about a future,
including marriage and children.Although aware that she cannot have
children, she was willing to adopt. The boyfriend had integrated her
into his circle of friends and introduced her to his family, who loved
her. Maria had absolutely no intention of telling her boyfriend, ever.
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the Plan TAlho Would He Queen
She had cut off, or at least drastically reduced, interactions with her
old transsexual friends to reduce the chance of discovery, but had a
couple of close calls in public with her boyfriend, once with Cher.
Some of her old friends understood and wished her well; others did
not. In fact, Maria worried that a resentful transsexual might track
down her boyfriend and tell him merely to spoil things for her.
As we spoke, I sympathized with Maria, but I also pondered her
and her boyEriend's predicaments. Maria's is clear enough. Ray
Blanchard once presented the following dilemma to a prominent and
open-minded heterosexual male scientist. Suppose that you met the
perfect woman attractive, sexy, and interested in you with one
catch: She is transsexual. Would you be her partner? The scientist
sheepishly admitted that he would not.When I asked Juanita, the sexy
transsexual prostitute (now post-op, and not generally open about her
past) about the best, and worst, reactions she had had from lovers after
she revealed that she used to be a man, she replied"I have really never
had a good experience.The men always leave."Juanita's most recent
boyfriend confronted her after penetrating her for the first time. Her
vagina is shallow, and he concluded that she is not a normal woman.
He asked if she is transsexual, and she did not deny it. He ran from her
apartment and called her later to say that he could not deal with her
revelation just now. She has not heard back from him. Juanita knows
only one transsexual who has been with a man for more than a year,
and that transsexual's boyfriend pimps for her.
All the homosexual transsexuals I have talked to say that they wish
they could find a man they could tell and who would love them
anyway, but they all worry that such a man does not exist.And they are
all deeply suspicious of men who prefer transsexuals to real women.
(These men have something similar to "sexual interest in she-males,"
and transsexuals find them weird.) There is little incentive for the
postoperative homosexual transsexual to be honest.
Cher has made it clear to her friends, such as Juanita, that she
disapproves of such deception, and that she intends to be honest with
her own prospects. (Cher currently considers herself bisexual, but
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191
thinks that she is most likely to become sexually involved with men.)
Press her, though, and she will admit that virtue is somewhat easier for
her than for her homosexual transsexual friends. Cher is sufficiently
"clockable" that she cannot risk not telling. Before she says anything,
most men know, or at least suspect. Furthermore, I do not believe that
Cher's attraction to men is as intense or as unambiguous as that of
homosexual transsexuals. She is autogynephilic, and men's place in her
sexual world is complicated. So the loss of a potential sex partner is less
of a loss, overall, to Cher than it is to the homosexual transsexuals,
who simply lust after men.
I put myself in Maria's boyBriend's place and ask myself if I would
want to know. The answer is less clear the longer I contemplate. On
the one hand, any person to whom it mattered would seem to have
the right to know. On the other hand, this is a man who by all ac-
counts is in love with Maria, and who derives a great deal of satisfac-
tion from being with her. (My impression is that his friends and family
believe he is very lucky to be with her.) Even though the couple (if it
remains a couple) is destined to be biologically childless, this is less of a
problem for most men than for most women, who often become
depressed when a couple is infertile. By the kind of utilitarian analysis
I am partial to, let us ask which ending would leave the world a hap-
pier place: the boyfriend finds out, or he doesn't find out. Assuming
that the couple is destined to break up for other reasons (after all, they
are only in their early 20s), then surely it is better for both if he does
not find out. If they are compatible enough to make a life together,
then it is still not clear that he should know. After all, she could even-
tually reveal that she is sterile without saying why. If having biological
children were so important to him, he could end the relationship with
only that knowledge.
Maria asked me to talk to her and her boyfriend, to do couples
counseling, pretending that I have known her only as a woman. This
would serve both the goals of helping their relationship and covering
her story. I considered it briefly, then refused. But it was not an easy
. . .
decision.
OCR for page 192
¢~ z~lutogyrlephilic
artc1~9omosexual
rar~ssexuals:
riot To fell Hemp art
nce you have learned about auto-
gynephilic and homosexual trans-
sexuals and seen several of each,
distinguishing them is easy. If Blanchard and I saw the same 100
transsexuals, I would be surprised if we disagreed on more than 2. But
most readers will not have met a single transsexual of either type, and
even most clinicians who see gender patients are not used to thinking
about them this way. In any case, you cannot simply ask someone
"Which type are you?"
I have devised a set of rules that should work even for the novice
(though admittedly, I have not tested them). Start at zero. Ask each
question, and if the answer is "Yes," add the number (+1 or -1) next to
the question. If the sum gets to +3, stop; the transsexual you're talking
to is autogynephilic. If the sum gets to -3, she is homosexual.
+1 Have you been married to a woman?
192
OCR for page 193
Autogynephilic and Homosexual Transsexuals
193
+1 As a child, did people think you were about as masculine as
other boys?
+1 Are you nearly as attracted to women as to men? Or more
attracted to women? Or equally uninterested in both? (Add 1 if "Yes"
to any of these.)
+1 Were you over the age of 40 when you began to live full time
as a woman?
+1 Have you worn women's clothing in private and, during at
least three of those times, become so sexually aroused that you mastur-
bated?
+1 Have you ever been in the military or worked as a policeman
or truck driver, or been a computer programmer, businessman, lawyer,
. · ~
sc~enust, engineer, or p ~ys~c~an~
-1
-1
boy?
Is your ideal partner a straight man?
As a child, did people think you were an unusually feminine
Does this describe you? "I find the idea of having sex with
men very sexually exciting, but the idea of having sex with women is
not at all appealing."
-4 Were you under the age of 25 when you began to live full
time as a woman?
-4 Do you like to look at pictures of really muscular men with
their shirts off?
Have you worked as a hairstylist, beautician, female imper-
sonator, lingerie model, or prostitute?
Finally, if the person has been on hormones for at least six months,
ask yourself this question:
If you didn't already know that this person was a transsexual, would
you still have suspected that she was not a natural-born woman?
+1 if your answer is "Yes" (if you would have suspected)
-1 if your answer is "No"
OCR for page 194
194
the Plan TAlho Would He Queen
Keep in mind that people don't always tell the truth. This inter-
view could be invalid if the transsexual is actually autogynephilic but
is either (a) worried that you will think badly of her or deny her a sex
change if you know the truth, or (b) obsessed with being a "real"
woman.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
sex reassignment
