Something that seems to be specifically absent from the transgender worldview is the innateness of HBS and its incredibly purpose-driven manifestation. HBS is a life-threatening, all-consuming, ever-present (not intermittent) condition unlike anything transgenders know. HBS is uniquely evident to those who are born with it, and only HBS born people will ever understand its essence, the manner in which it can rule and destroy lives, or its deeply held motivational impetus to correct the biological mistake prenatally formulated. All these things are part and parcel to the HBS born, whereas they remain totally foreign concepts to the politically motivated transgender crowd. Our numbers remain few, theirs many. We've a long road ahead to overcome their distractive obstructionism I'm afraid, but we have one advantage in our favor - science. Facts is facts, ma'am, and we know how to use them.

I am silenced for you both have stated it with clarity better than I. Thank you!
Diane

Lisa, that was very well put! What you mentioned is true - the TGs want to legitimaize what is fantasy, and insist that we treat it as reality. They are typically guys in dresses. Their mindset shouts it out - my way or no way. I knew a person who insisted that the old term of transsexual was dirty - it connotated sex. I beg to differ. If anything TGs have nothing but sex on the brain most of the time, whether it be in the form of sexual fantasies, or doing what I consider to be the nonsensical thing of stating that their sexual preferences define their identities. Those of us who have been through the HBS wringer, do not define ourselves by our sexual preference. I define myself first and foremost as a woman. Not a heteresexual.

Hugs,
Ellen

they will go no further.

I think Kelly mentions a very important point when she talks of innateness. It is the driving, compelling, all consuming hard wired innateness that separates the HBS/transsexual from the transgendered. It is not something the transgender can empathize with. I personally think it is the single most differentiating factor between the transgendered and the HBS/transsexual and what leads the transgendered person to consistently play the you-just-think-you-are-better-than-us card Their paradigm is one of spectrum and variations in an ever morphing ensemble of combinations and definitions. The HBS/transsexual has just one: from birth, we have felt an overwhelming, unshakeable, and absolutely certain innate knowledge that we simply are. That innateness concept has to be most frightening to the transgendered who have more forms than Office Depot and colors than Joseph's coat.

Susan
http://enoughnonsense.wordpress.com/

Stay tuned.

You go girl (Lisa), your dead on target.

Before I came across the concept of "Harry Benjamin Syndrome" I had for years, about 22 actually, pondered and then formulated what it was that made me different from those who identified as transgender. All those years ago I came to the conclusion that it was the source of what it is that caused me to be so disassociated with my physical body. For up until physical correction I lived a life where my mind was in one place and my body another.

Kelly talked of "innate" and it is that which separates the two conditions. I can understand why people are confused about the difference between transgender and HBS because to the casual observer they appear to be the same thing. But the confusion actually arises from the term transgender. Let me explain what I mean; transgender does not actually exist, the real term for these people is "transvestite" so let us start by calling a spade a spade and a transgender what they really are; a transvestite. Suddenly the muddy pool clears does it not? Charles Prince coined the term because he lived full time in female clothing and did not desire to undergo surgery; he thought it a waste of time, to put it mildly. So he coined the term ?transgender? to describe "full time transvestite" He told me that himself and in person!

For those born with Harry Benjamin Syndrome it is about the physical it is not about the cloth that adorns the body. It is about that sense of self that identifies us from within. My sense of self was in direct conflict with my physical body and I was aware of that conflict from the age of two in fact as far back as I can remember. It was a conflict that did not suddenly materialize with the sudden rush of pubescent hormones. (In my case I never did get much of a hormone rush! But that is another story).

So, what we have here is two conditions that to the casual observer are similar but have quite different motivating sources for their manifestation in the person who experiences them. A simple way of putting this is the transvestite wishes to appear to be a woman the HBS wishes to confirm what they already are, a woman! The crux of this is the source of the motivation. For the HBS it comes from the very source of her sense of self. The way her brain is wired, for the transvestite, full time or not. The source is a psychological based desire.

There is no hierarchy here; one is not better or worse than the other; lets face it the religious right can't tolerate either. A large part of the medical profession will have nothing to do with either condition and medical insurance companies duck any responsibility.

However, the militant transgender brand of extremism has begun to threaten and to invalidate those who are HBS born in the eyes and minds of those who might otherwise be sympathetic to HBS women and men. The extreme and frankly unbalanced demands of the transgender movement threaten the existence and well being of the HBS women and men. They must no longer be allowed to ride on the back of the HBS narrative to satiate the transvestite lust for privileges to which they are not entitled.

Whats with all the one upmanship or upwomanship I live fulltime as a female and have done so for the last six years.
I have just recently been seeing a psychiatrist who is an expert in the field.
He does not actually define me as transexual I actually thought I was.
However I do know that there is no way that I want to live as male although I am ambivilient or nonplussed about going through full sexchange surgery.
I have gone as far as having breast implants.
I have come to the conclsion that often although our journies lead us to to similar manifestations we can come from a very different mindset.
Can we not just accept that different people have different reasons.
Surely an understanding and an acceptance of our diversity is just as important in this niche of life as any other.

You say you "live fulltime as a female" but also say you are "ambivilient or nonplussed about going through full sexchange surgery". Which is it? Are you female or not?

I know that Lisa Thompson made a point in her series to say that transgender people deserve respect and understanding. She also says that transgenders and what you might call "classic transsexuals" in transition are in very diferent situations. Among other things, the latter have distinct and important medical needs.

Besides, having a vagina, etc. is really really different from having a penis.

Dear Sarah, a transsexual has no ambivalent/nonplussed feelings about having SRS; there is the deep desire to have a body congruent with the gender our mind tells us we are, get the anomoly corrected and move on with our lives as women. Transgenders or transvestites are NOT driven to that, but by the same token, they are NOT females but are males ( unless FtM's then the reverse applies) that desire to live and emulate being a female, kind of a "let's pretend" wanting to penetrate female spaces, but able to revert to "male privilege". Having breast implants as a TG seems to me to be similar to letting your hair grow out so that you don't have to wear a wig; but you still have a penis. I also notice you don't mention HRT.
Nobody denies you your "niche" as a TG, but just don't try to drag TS people under your umbrella, don't use us to justify your entering into women's spaces