Zenlitened
Zenlitened's Journal"Feels like home: Helping homeless LGBT youth"
If your faith in humankind has been... um... ebbing lately...
By Mona Iskander
January 13, 2012
This week, as part of our ongoing effort to shed light on under-reported issues, we focus on a problem a surprising number of young gay people experience: homelessness — often because of rejection by their families.
Need to Know correspondent Mona Iskander traveled to Minneapolis recently. There she met one young man who made it up from the streets thanks to a small innovative program now drawing attention across the country.
Video available at link:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/video/video-feels-like-home-helping-homeless-lgbt-youth/12835/
May be more accurate to say "crossdresser" is a subset of "transgender."
"Transgender" (abbreviated TG) is kind of a blanket term for all people around the issue of gender expression.
Some within the TG community feel it is overly broad, too encompassing, and they prefer terms that communicate something more specific.
But overall I think there is a fairly clear consensus that TG is a good you-get-the-idea sort of term, and that specifics can be added as needed, like in any conversation.
Regarding implications of pathology, that is exactly the issue in the evolution of some of these terms.
In this case, though, both "crossdresser" (abbreviated CD) and "transgender" ARE the new terms, meant to replace the old, medical terms that, as you point out, seem to imply pathology.
"Crossdresser" replaces "transvestite," while "transgender" sort of replaces "transsexual" (abreviated TS).
I say sort of, because "transgender" didn't just replace, it was also meant to be more inclusive, more encompassing. And "transsexual" is still used at times, primarily by folks who plan to have or have had genital surgery.
I guess you could say a TS person is TG, but a TG person is not necessarily TS. While a CD person is also TG, but might not prefer to be called TG lest someone think they are TS, though they won't really take offense and will simply correct you. And, of course, someone who is TS will almost always prefer not to be called CD, although TG is pretty much fine and no offense will be taken.
Does that clear things up?
Uh, yah, no... no it doesn't at all! 
Thus "transgender."
Simple, easy to remember once you get the hang of it, and safe to use in pretty much all occasions when the conversation turns to gender expression.
What are DU3's Community Standards? What do we want our CS to be?
Perhaps we should "convene" right here in Help and Meta to begin drafting, by consensus, a document to encapsulate the various ideas people have about CS.
Something that would give future jurors a clearer sense of the community's sentiment.
It's true we no longer have a set of Rules handed down from On High. As I understand it, that's by design, and IMO it's a good approach. One that will require some time and patience to nurture.
Others, however, feel it's become a free-for-all here, and that bad precedents are being set, an overall poor standard emerging already. And they're concerned it may become irrevocable at some point.
I don't favor a new set of rules created by admins. I think it would be more in keeping with the intent (as I understand it) of the new DU, and make better use of it's still-unexplored potential, if the members themselves held a summit or conference open to all, to attempt to express the various wants and don't-wants of the community present right now.
Maybe start from scratch, maybe begin with existing guidance from the admins... I dunno. We'll see what emerges, or begins to emerge, I suppose.
What do you think?
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Gender: FemaleHometown: Massachusetts
Home country: USA
Member since: Fri Dec 3, 2004, 02:09 PM
Number of posts: 9,488
