Transgender and Transsexuality

Transgender and Transsexuality

Video One

Transsexuality is a term that has a problematic history and, as a result, many scholars of media and gender have stopped using it. However, countless researchers, social activists, and everyday people proudly self-identify as transsexuals still today. In general, transsexuals are people who are born with what medical professionals deem normal male or female bodies, but psychologically they identify with the opposite sex. For example, feeling trapped in the wrong body is a common theme in discourse coming from transsexual people and in media coverage and medical reports about them.

As a result, many transsexuals not only dress up as the opposite sex but also change their bodies to align with the opposite sex by undergoing hormone therapy and/or sex reassignment surgery. Transvestite is an older name for transsexuals who did not physically modify their bodies, whereas pre-operative or postoperative females-to-males (FTMs) or males-to-females (MTFs) have become more common names for them in recent decades as a result, in a large part, of advancements in medical treatment and an increase in its accessibility (Brill & Pepper, 2008). Sometimes transsexual people refer to themselves as (or are referred to as) cross-dressers, drag queens or drag kings, or queer. These people are rarely called hermaphrodites or intersex, since they are not born with ambiguous gonads or external genitalia.

The Internet provides opportunities for LGBT students to meet others like themselves and offers validation, discourse, and connection. In addition, virtual spaces have the ability to provide a social connection while allowing students to maintain anonymity and remain in the closet if they so choose.

University staff and faculty are making use of the Internet's popularity to connect with students through various online media. Professionals use innovative techniques to reach LGBT students to help them with identity development, community connections, and resource information. Students access social networking sites, blogs, chat rooms, bulletin boards, cruising sites, multiplayer role-playing games, and virtual worlds. Professionals have had great success in reaching out to students on bulletin boards and blogs, organizing chat rooms through their offices, as well as visiting chat rooms where LGBT students congregate.

Other resources are virtual worlds and multi-player and massively multiplayer online role-playing games, which provide spaces where students meet others, explore identities, and try on different personas. Princeton University, for example, developed a virtual LGBT Center on its campus in Second Life, an online virtual realm, where the real office held virtual office hours and provided outreach to support students online.

Video Two

Sexual orientation and gender identity are only two factors that define LGBT people. Race, ethnicity, nationality, class, ability, economic status, and spirituality are other key identities for LGBT people. However, LGBT students often feel they must choose or prioritize identities. This is exacerbated by the many forms of bias (e.g., racism, sexism, classism, ableism, xenophobia, religious hegemony) in LGBT communities and the homophobia and gender bias that exists in some other identity-based communities on campus (Stryker, 2008). It is important for institutions to integrate intersectional work into all services and to ensure that ...