Saltpeter, you've done what a heck of a lot of people refuse to do. You asked and you learnt something and the ability to do so is to be highly commended.

You really tested the old brain cells though for it's been over a decade since I moved into an entirely different mental health area. There's so much I could tell you, but word limit and my personal time is prohibitive.

David f, you raise a very good point concerning the "transsexual community." Whilst there are, or at least used to be groups in capital cities where TS people could meet and obtain help through integration, the TS community, if it can be said that one even exists (my knowledge as I said is very outdated) is relatively small compared to that of the gay community.

Most TS people who have transitioned simply fade into the general community and for all intents and purposes disappear. That's the very reason follow-up studies are so difficult to complete. The "former transsexual" (a fully transitioned transsexual) often returns to the gender program's psychiatrist for a couple of follow up consultations, then despite the promise of more follow up sessions, the person who is now relieved of a terrible burden, simply goes about their life and disappears off the program's radar for good.

In fact, it's been my opinion that former transsexuals don't seem to hang out with like kind. It's possible they feel in some way that one will undo the other in public, especially if one or both of them are having trouble "passing" well, although it's more likely that that the transition phase is the only connection they have in common and once they've fully transitioned, then they have no bond at all and go their separate ways.

Walt's concern regarding the high rate of suicide among transgender people is touching. Of course, the articles he links to tend to completely undermine his own positions, what with taking into account important details like how these rates tend to go down *after* the very transition he finds so harmful.

This "article" is a rare example of gibberish so profound I actually had to bother to register for some random forum on the internets just to comment on what gibberish it is.

Walt your history is tragic. I don't know whether the system failed you or whether you outsmarted it to your own detriment, but either way by working now to make life more difficult for people who aren't you, you've turned what should have been a cautionary tale about the importance of getting the diagnosis correct into a joke about the little bigot that couldn't.