RANSVESTIA

conditions, migraine headaches, etc. It was to try to explain what Fem- miphilia is and is not that I wrote the book The Transvestite and His Wife. I'm happy to say that it has helped a great many marriages to hold together or to be greatly improved in happiness and understanding.

TRANSEXUALISM: In addition to being confused with homosex- uality, Femmiphilia dressing is often assumed to be just a way station on the road to a sex change. I am most unhappy to admit that too often it is just that... not because it is the logical end but through the ignorance Liberation is finally beginning to make it clear that one's genitals do not necessarily and irrevocably determine one's potentials, talents and con- tributions to society. But far too many femmiphiles don't realize that being a woman and being a female are not necessarily the same thing. They want to be women, and they are essentially heterosexual and have no need for a vagina or for accommodating a male's penis, but they feel that womanhood is dependent on and determined by the genitals. This is not true, since womanhood is a psychosocial condition usually super- imposed on the anatomical-physiological condition of femaleness.

Unhappily both lay and professional people consider that there is just one continuum upon which all people can be placed. Not so! There is a continuum of sex between male and female in which various inter- sexual conditions occupy the middle area, and there is a gender contin- uum running from masculinity to femininity. Thus the logical endpoint of cross dressing development is full time living as a woman. This can be done and I have done it for the last six years, so I am in a position to know whereof I speak. Transexualism is a much overplayed concept. While there are a few persons who are so ineffective as both males and men that they would probably be happier and more productive as females and women, the majority of those seeking surgery are either homosexuals seeking to improve their sexual desirability to male partners or misguided femmiphiles who think that you have to be a female to be a woman. Un- fortunately their self identity is between their legs and not between their ears where it should be.

The solution to the transexual problem lies in persuading surgeons to stop playing God and getting rich, to educate the prospects into under- standing their true desires and the means of achieving them, and finally changing our laws to permit a person to live in their chosen gender and not be stuck with a role based solely on their anatomy.

This whole area is a very large one and there is much more that could be said, but I hope that this has served to enlarge your horizons and con- tribute some new understanding to the field. So we will now open the floor for your questions. Thank you.

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