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Sexual Orientation

Despite the assertions of Blanchard and Bailey, it is nowadays widely agreed that gender identity and sexual orientation are related but independent constructs. The typology forged by Harry Benjamin in his seminal The Transsexual Phenomenon, and long thought true by many researchers and caregivers, had it that transsexuals and transvestites could be distinguished in part by sexual orientation: transvestites were men who were attracted to women, whereas transsexuals were men who wanted to be women and were attracted to men -- or occasionally the other way around. Those who did not fit this typology must not be "true transsexuals" -- or as Lawrence put it, "sexual interest in women has been seen as a contraindication to surgery, or at least as a poor prognostic factor" (1997). After all, society's definition of a real woman includes compulsory heterosexuality, and doctors definitely did not want to be in the business of creating homosexuals. As we have seen, sexual orientation is one of, if not the most frequent thing about which transsexuals and transgenders have lied to caregivers.

It has become more and more clear that trans people come in more or less the same variety of sexual orientations as non-trans people. As early as 1976 sociologist Deborah Feinbloom noted that

the majority of male-to-female transsexuals consider themselves heterosexual, but some ... wish to be homosexual females or lesbians postoperatively. Others wish to maintain options for bisexuality. Essentially this group is small, but given the greater freedom in sexuality, it is likely that these resolutions may become more common. I am unaware of any female to male transsexuals who consider the possibility of male homosexuality. (1976:31)

Other early researchers focusing on FTMs (or "female transsexuals" as they were called) such as Stoller (1972) and Pauly (1972; both cited in Cromwell 1999 and Devor 1998) thought that FTMs were exclusively attracted to females who were nonhomosexual. Stoller also commented "female transsexualism strikes me as a form of homosexuality more than a distinct condition" (Stoller 1973:387, cited in Cromwell 111). Mark Rees reinforces this stereotype in his autobiography, writing that his "first and last affair with a male" was a kiss behind the cloakroom door at age six (1996:4). Nevertheless, many researchers showed that a substantial number of FTMs had had some sexual attraction to and/or experience with men before transition -- including half of Pauly's participants! (Pauly has since changed his position that FTMs are "by definition" homosexual/heterogenderal; see Pauly 1998.) As late as 1985, Betty Steiner insisted in her handbook Gender dysphoria: development, research, management that "all transsexual biological females [that is, FTMs] are homosexual in erotic object choice [that is, attracted to women], and all of them wish to have a penis, though most are aware of the difficulties involved in such a procedure" (Steiner 1985:353).

Rejected by clinics that saw sexual interest in women as a necessary indicator of female-to-male transsexualism, Lou Sullivan obtained them from a doctor in private practice (Califia 1996:186). "What I really want," wrote Sullivan, "is a sexual relationship with a gay man, as a gay man. One clinic told me that I could not possibly live as a gay man since gay men were primarily interested in large penises and were not sexually aroused when shown photos of female-to-male surgeries" (Sullivan 1989:69-70, cited in Cromwell 1999:110). Sullivan went on to found the organization FTM International and was the first widely visible gay-identified FTM. Sullivan's struggles to increase the visibility of gay and bisexual FTMs seem to have paid off: by the time he died of AIDS in 1991, there were two clinical articles and one book-length study which discussed gay FTMs (Califia 1996:187; Devor 1998:255). Clements-Nolle et al (2001) reported that 65% of FTM participants identified as either lesbian/gay, homosexual/gay or bisexual, compared with 30% of MTF respondents.

In general, bisexual and lesbian orientation among MTFs has been much more visible in the literature. Some clinical studies have shown a fifth to a third of MTFs reporting bisexual or lesbian orientation (Blanchard 1989, Tully 1994, Rehman et al 1999). Non-clinical research suggests this is even more common. Sociologist Frank Lewins gave a composite case history of a lesbian transsexual that he called "reasonably typical" of MTFs (1995:67). Bolin reported that "of the seventeen [MTF transsexuals providing sexual orientation information] only one was exclusively heterosexual. Three of the six exclusive lesbians were living with women (genetic), one bisexual was living with a lesbian female, and two transsexuals were living with each other in a lesbian relationship." Lawrence reported that "six of the thirteen NWC participants identified as lesbian, and four of the thirteen as bisexual" (1997).

Lewins uses transsexuals' sexual orientations as a grounds for arguing that gender is not continuous but a series of fixed categories, and that transsexuals are gender defenders and not a third gender. "Whether they are now homosexual or heterosexual, transsexuals' histories reveal both constancy of the object of desire and, in a weak sense, their own psychological identities" (1995:134). He is onto something when he argues that "reciprocated desire helps to confirm one's own psychosexual identity" (135). But he generalizes too much. For relationships to endure "there must be a correspondence or self-identity and how one is seen by a partner." But then he says that

The pattern was universal among transsexuals in the study. There were no sexual revolutionaries Whether heterosexual or lesbian, they saw themselves as women; they stressed the importance of having a woman's body and looking like women, and of being regarded as women by their partners and the wider society.... where a sexual relationship exists, it is viewed by self and partner to be one of four dominant types [that is, gay male, lesbian, heterosexual man-woman and heterosexual woman-man] Regardless of whether they were heterosexual or homosexual, transsexuals involved in a relationship saw it as one of those dominant types. No transsexual saw herself or was seen by her partner as a 'transsexual.'

He even quotes the famed sexologist John Money: "There are some partners of pre-operative male-to-female transsexuals who are strongly attracted to a lady with a penis as a sexuoerotic partner. Postsurgically, their attraction wanes, and the partnership dissolves" (Money 1988:92, cited in Lewins 1995:137). But what if, as with more and more MTFs, there is no surgery? His citation seems to work against rather than for him.

Contrary to Lewins's claims, it is clear that for some transpeople -- as for many other people -- sexual orientation is not constant over the lifespan. According to Tully, most MTFs who have experienced attraction to women find that

once movement along the transsexual career commitment had gone far enough, things began to change. 'My attraction to females has been changing, i.e. reducing. I know many other transsexuals who were heterosexual before the change of role, and following the change would never think of that. (Tully 1994:124)

Daskalos (1998) surveyed twenty MTF transsexuals, half of them postoperative, about their sexual orientations before and after transitioning. Six of his participants reported that their sexual orientation had changed from female to male. All six reported that their relationships with women were largely motivated by wanting to fit the masculine gender role -- or, in one case, an outgrowth of an emerging feminine identity. As women, however, they reported being attracted to men. Two had previously experienced such attractions but not acted on them as men; none reported homosexual experiences as men. Attraction to men seemed to be part of their new gender roles. Whether acknowledged or not, homophobia appears to have played a strong role in participants' shifts in orientation; heterosexuality was seen by them as being a part of normal gender roles. Three participants thought that hormones had been involved in their sexual orientation shift. While clinical research shows no such psychosexual changes related to female hormone therapy, it does show that increased relaxation, and reduced tension were effected. These participants believed that hormone use allowed their (feminine) attraction to males to "come out."

Deirdre McCloskey reports in her autobiography being surprised at her own sexual shift:

These past months [leading up to SRS] I've begun to look on men as consumption items rather than as competitive suppliers. I certainly have not had sexual desires directed toward women since the epiphany, and even some months before. One thinks of sexual desire as unalterable. In this case perhaps not. (1999:196)

Renee Richards's autobiography also reports a shift from straight male to straight female, and one of the more popular books on transsexuality for lay audiences (Brown & Rounsley 1996) says that such changes are neither to be expected nor uncommon.

It is probably comforting to many caregivers to find transpeople transitioning from heterosexual to heterosexual -- some however, do just the opposite. David Harrison, for example, reports that his relationship with trans writer/actress/advocate Kate Bornstein broke up because when he transitioned from female to male, he found his sexual desires shift towards men; he had to learn to date all over again as a gay man (Harrison 1997).

Lewins's theory falls flat also on the assertion that sexual attractions and relationship must always fall into his four dominant categories. Many objections could be leveled at this -- take for example the assertion by Califia (1994:183-89) among others that sex between gay men and lesbians is not necessarily heterosexual sex -- but the relevant one here is that just as some transpeople do indeed articulate gender identities outside of male and female, many people report being attracted to transpeople as other than simply male or female. While I am unaware of any scientific research on the subject, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence. Clinical studies have much to say about the salutary abilities of transpeople's partners to overlook their gender-incongruent anatomies -- but what of one who declares, "I love breasts and a dick on the same body" (Newman 1999:171)? In S/HE, her collection of poetic writings inspired by her relationship with trans activist Leslie Feinberg, Minnie Bruce Pratt describes "how I love the maleness in your femaleness, how you are poised where the oppositions meet" (Pratt 1995:103). While Lewins's argument implies that even bisexuals would be attracted to trans partners as man or woman, Andrea Michaela-Gonzalez, in an issue of the bisexual magazine Anything That Moves dedicated to "Forging a Bi-Trans Alliance," describes her attraction to a trans person encountered at a club:

Whether she identifies as male, female, both, neither, or something else entirely, I have no way of guessing, nor do I know what her actual anatomy is -- nor do I care. It doesn't matter, and I don't even think about it as I plunge into her mouth and trace the outline of her teeth with my tongue, while the heavy-set German tourist snaps Polaroids of the two tall, smooching femmes to take home as a souvenir from San Francisco. (Michaela Gonzalez, n.d.)

"Some femmes may even prefer FTMs as partners," reports the Whole Lesbian Sex Book, "appreciating such a high degree of masculinity in someone who wasn't born and raised male" (1999:176). Cromwell (1999) and Nataf (1996) report similarly, and I myself have known many women, and not a few men, who find themselves attracted especially to transpeople.

Next Section: Between Us

Part II: My Study

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