Tomboy or trans: The main misconceptions in the current transgender debate

On April 18 Lisa Selin Davis published an article in the New York Times called My Daughter Is Not Transgender. She’s a Tomboy.  She was clearly annoyed with the fact that some people think of her gender-nonconforming kid as transgender. Davis believes that her child is just that: non-conforming when it comes to gender roles.

Photo: Digital Vision

I have included some links to the following debate below.

Needless to say, TERFs and other transphobes have tried to use this article to argue that transgender activists are trying to turn perfectly normal cis kids into trans kids, and even entice them into transitioning.

There are even arguments about being trans becoming "trendy", which -- given the 40 percent attempted suicide rate among trans people -- is both stupid and insulting.

There are three fundamental misconceptions that drive this debate.

Transgender is not the same as transsexual

Davis and others seem to believe that the word transgender means transsexual, in the sense that a transgender person wants to -- or should -- transition and live as their target sex.

This is not what transgender means. Transgender is an umbrella term for all types of gender variance and have been so since the early 1990s. A tomboy (a girl that expresses stereotypical masculine traits or interests) is transgender by this definition.

The Directory of Crossdreamer and Transgender Resources

The word of crossdreaming and gender variance has gotten its new directory.
(Photo: Patrick Milo)

I find it hard to believe myself, but I have been working on this blog for over eight years now. That inevitably means that there are posts and pages here that no longer deliver in the way I want them to.

There are, for instance, a lot of resource pages here, pages that were set up to help people find relevant information online about crossdreaming, "autogynephilia" and transgender issues. The main page had become too long and unruly.

So today I have divided it up into several directory sub-pages. This adds a click to the process of finding information, but it makes it easier to find relevant items under each category.

Articles on gender, gender variance and crossdreaming

Resource sites on gender variance and crossdreaming

AGP Debate:  articles, papers and sites covering the controversial autogynephilia theory

Books on crossdreaming, gender identity and trans sexuality

Science: Scientific papers on gender variance and crossdreaming

Forums: Organizations and online discussion forums

Blogroll:  Blogs and personal sites on crossdreaming and gender variance

Transgender Dictionary

Essential Crossdreamer.com Posts

My next task will be to go through all listings and see if some links have gone stale.

If you know of articles, sites or resources that are not there, but should have been, add a comment to this post!

Transgender on tumblr, stories beyond crossdreaming

From blog post on Casa Susanna, a 1950s Trans Hideaway

Some of you will know that my wife and I have trans blogs on tumblr. These are more for quick references to recent transgender news and articles, plus from reblogging relevant blog post on gender variance.

The blogs are actually quite popular. Trans Express  and Sally's LGBT blog have 10,000 followers combined.

Here are some blog posts that might interest you:

One in Every 137 Teenagers Would Identify as Transgender, Report Says
Older people have been suppressing gender variance in themselves and others for years. The new generations are much more open about this. The new numbers tells us that the percentage of people who are trans have been severely underestimated.

The real cause for bathroom hysteria
is the fear or the unknown or -- in other cases -- the need for a scapegoat that can carry your own undigested frustrations.

See also Three myths in the bathroom debate.