Parents, Families, and Friends of
Support Education AdvocacyMore Questions and Answers
What is Transgenderism?
Until the late 1990's, PFLAG dedicated itself almost exclusively to the health and well-being of our gay, lesbian and bisexual children. It did not take much for us to realize that we had left out an equally important sexual minority: transgendered persons.
Often throughout this website, we mention "sexual orientation" and "gender identity." We make that distinction because they are different things. As mentioned earlier, sexual orientation refers to one's attraction and and ability to create romantic bonds with persons or the same or opposite gender (homosexuals and heterosexuals, respectively). Gender identity refers to how one identifies oneself as a male or a female. For most of us, our physical gender (male or female) "matches" how we identify ourselves at a psychological level.
Transgendered persons, however, have one physical gender but identifies themselves as the opposite gender. For example, a (genetic) male may identify himself as a woman; that's his gender identity. If he's attracted to women, his sexual orientation is heterosexual. However, from the transgendered person's experience, he's a she, attracted to women; therefore, she is a lesbian. Others may live as a gay male, therefore attracted to other males... but from their perspective they are heterosexual women.
Confusing? If it's confusing for you, imagine what it must be like for a transgendered person,
growing up with the entire world around them expecting to behave as a boy or a girl, when
they feel that they exactly the opposite. If your loved one just revealed to you that he or
she is transgendered, you're going through the same issues as parents whose children
are gay, lesbian or bisexual. Whatever your case may be, PFLAG
will provide you a safe haven for us to support one another and educate
