What is transgenderism?
Succinctly stated: transgenderism is the manifestation of a person’s need to identify with the opposite gender from which they were physically born. In other words?
Transgender people are compelled from an early age to live and represent the gender opposite from the one they were born.
Additional chapters Included in This Section Include:
Transsexual Slangs - Learning the Lingo
Transgender Definition: Who & What We Are
Transgender vs. Transsexual: What's the Difference?
Problems with Transgender Labels: Everyone is not always what they say
What's All With All These Different Labels?
Men Dressed as Women: Do You Already Know a Trans Person?
What Causes Transgenderism?
There's enough research to accurately determine that our need to express an alternative gender from the one we’re born is caused by varied degrees of masculinzation to the brain during our evolution in the womb. 
Every mammal is first conceived female: it's the default gender. Every once and awhile the most complex organ on the body - the human brain - doesn’t successfully compete the light speed trek to its final gender. Thus, you end up with a male body being born with a female brain.
What we deal with is an inborn medical condition. It’s very real. It’s also challenging.
More Than One Possible Outcome
There's an endless number of transgender permutations - from men occasionally donning panties to a comprehensive surgical gender reassignment. Labels are associated with common forms, including: crossdressers, transvestites, DRAG queens, transsexual women and trans-men. 
Transgenderism is often classified as a subset of the gay community – hence “GLBT”. However, it’s here that the similarity ends. Transgenderism is about gender identity whereas our brethren are rooted in sexual orientation.
What’s the difference between sexual orientation and gender identity? Sexual orientation is about who you want to go to bed with. Gender identity is about who you want to go to bed as.
Make sense?
Transgenderism Defined
“Transgenderism” is an all-encompassing term to describe all forms of alternative gender expression. You could liken it to the term “automobile” - based upon other conditions you describe the make, model, cold, fuel economy, etc. It’s used to broadly describe all forms of transgender expression or thoughts. Within this broad-base is a very wide variety of manifestations - transsexuals, cross dressers, transvestites and fetish genderists. This wide variety is one reason society at large still struggles with understanding trans-issues: there’s so many versions.
Most commonly, transgender women are considered distinctive & different based upon:
- Who describes us
- How far we intend to go in our transformation
- Where we are in the transformation process
- How we identify in our sexual orientation
The proper terminology for various forms of transgender expression is often considered very important to the trans-person because some gals consider other labels to be insulting. For instance: if you call a transsexual woman a cross dresser, transvestite, TV or shemale? She will most certainly be offended. Using improper language can get you in a great deal of hot-water in a hurry.
However, you can’t ever go wrong calling such a person “transgender”.
There’s a lot of misunderstanding regarding transsexual women. Our situation improved dramatically because of increased visibility of trans-women and media profiles of transgender people. However, misunderstanding prevails.
Some of the most common myths?
The Most Common Myth About Transsexual Women
Lots of people carry a vision that transsexual women are just ultra gay men. They’re so gay, in fact - they need to become women. This is very far from the truth. Being gay is a sexual orientation issue. Transgenderism? It’s about gender identity?
What’s the difference between these two?
Simple:
Sexual orientation is about who you want to go to bed with,
Gender identity is about who you want to go to bed as.
Sound like only a subtle difference? It’s not. No gay guy wants to be intimate while dressed like a woman and the majority of transgender women have no sexual interest in men. It’s estimated that over 80% of transgenders are not even bisexual - let alone homosexual. They are just happily heterosexual men - who have an alternative gender identity. Namely - they have a need to express a female side of their personality. 
Likewise, a man who acts feminine - for the purpose of expressing a womanly persona - is not necessarily homosexual. Is a woman a lesbian if she works in a traditionally male role - or dons prototypical male attire? Of course not!! Both are simply exploring those aspects of their personalities which make them feel most comfortable.
Make sense?
How about if delve into the core components of each group to get a better understanding of what they're about?
Sound fun?
Good...then let's get to it.