What percentage of male-to-female transsexuals are lesbian in their sexual orientation after their transitions?

October 4, 2006 3:53 PM

What percentage of male-to-female transsexuals are lesbians after their transitions?

I have heard that a very high percentage -- my source said 70% -- of male-to-female transsexuals are lesbian after the transition. Is this the case? If so, has anyone attempted to explain why?

As always, I would really love to hear from people with personal knowledge of this group, people who are transsexual or who have dated transsexual people.

posted by jason's_planet to human relations (10 comments total)

From a study of sexological and psychological outcomes of male-to-female gender reassignment surgery in 17 new women: "About half were sexually attracted to males; about one-third were bisexual; and nearly one-fifth were sexually attracted to females." Of course, that's only 17 women, so I don't know just how accurate a representation it presents.
posted by amro at 4:05 PM on October 4, 2006

I'm not transsexual nor have a dated one, but one of my closest friends in high school changed from male to female (over her junior->senior summer), and we talked about it enough that I feel I can reasonably relay her perspective on it. She's a pretty unusual person in a lot of other ways (for instance, she is one of the smartest people I have met), and I don't have any idea how common her reasons or feelings are among other MTF transsexuals.

She found the male body disgusting and hated living in it. As you might be able to guess, she is a (happily married! Yay Massachusetts!) lesbian now.
posted by aubilenon at 4:07 PM on October 4, 2006

Sex advice columnist Dan Savage recently pontificated about this -- in his column for Aug 21, 2006 and then a followup at the end of the Sept. 21 column. From what I can see, he doesn't have numbers based on studies, he has only his own impressions. But you can read those columns for his theories about the whys and wherefores.
posted by LobsterMitten at 4:11 PM on October 4, 2006

From the ones I know about, roughly half. There's a theory called autogynephilia you might want to know about, but I don't know if I'd place a lot of credence in it. I'd read an article about it by a psychiatrist, but there was some presentation of him as a Christian psychiatrist, so ... I tend to take it with an even bigger grain of salt.

I'm willing to bet that there's a big cultural bias. I wonder what Thailand has to say about the whole thing.
posted by adipocere at 4:38 PM on October 4, 2006

I only know one m to f transsexual, and she was married with kids as a man and stayed married to the same woman after she transitioned. Small sample size, but I think that one was a nice outcome all around.
posted by rmless at 5:10 PM on October 4, 2006

You need to separate gender from sexual orientation. Transexuals have issues with their body and the gender it expresses, of which, sexual attraction is only one facet of said expression. Therefore, there is now "why" MTF become homosexual women; they were (physically) men oriented towards women and are now women oriented towards women. Their orientation didn't change, their gender did.

After further thought, why do you assume a MTF would then become a heterosexual woman? Hormones? I have read that female-to-male transexuals experience a big zeal for pursuing women once the testosterone kicks in, but I believe they identified as lesbians in the first place. Do you think all MTF transexuals are effeminate gay men wanting to be real girls? Though certain porn would bear that out, I think the reality is much more diverse.

If you define gender by who a person is supposed to fuck, then you will run into a lot of problems.
posted by lychee at 5:46 PM on October 4, 2006

A legit answer to your lead question, "What percentage of male-to-female transsexuals are lesbians after their transitions?" is difficult. Even if criteria is defined for 1) transsexual, 2) lesbian, and 3) after, a researcher then has to find these folks and get them to discuss their gender and sexual orientation. (At which point it's not uncommon to discover that the criteria is not realistic anyway.)

But anecdotally, I'd say over 50%.
posted by desuetude at 6:36 PM on October 4, 2006

aubilenon: She's a pretty unusual person in a lot of other ways (for instance, she is one of the smartest people I have met),

Huh, if she really likes to eat Thai food, we may have a friend in common, aub. She's definitely one of the smartest people I've ever met.
posted by thanotopsis at 6:59 AM on October 5, 2006

You need to separate gender from sexual orientation.

This is, in fact, the popular party line, but experience with FtMs makes me think that the two not only can be linked, but often are. FtMs quite often end up as gay men, when before the change they identified asd "lesbians."

I also think there's a grain of truth to autogynephilia. I dated and MtF who railed against it, but he always got sexually excited when he put on women's clothing....that is, until he went on anti-androgens and nothing much excited him anymore. At that point it did become more of an intellectual exercise and a "Wow, people think I'm hot and I'm not balding anymore."

Why are a large percentage of MtFs still into women after the change when the converse is not true of FtMs? I'm not sure and I'm not sure we'll ever know. You have to realize how politically fraught this is and how much it scares people.
posted by digitalis at 6:14 PM on October 5, 2006

After further thought, why do you assume a MTF would then become a heterosexual woman? . . . If you define gender by who a person is supposed to fuck, then you will run into a lot of problems.

Did you find the framing of this question a little heterosexist? I can understand how it would appear that way. I posed the question out of sincere curiosity, a curiosity born of ignorance. I know nothing, nothing at all about transsexuals and transsexuality. I'll even admit here that I bear some prejudice against them and I feel uncomfortable around them. But I don't want to respond to that prejudice by shutting myself down and being self-satisfied in my ignorance; I want to open my mind a little bit and learn more. (AskMe is good for that sort of thing.)

There's a theory called autogynephilia you might want to know about

yeah! I saw that! very interesting. Not sure what I think of it so far. But that link alone makes me glad I asked the question.

Why are a large percentage of MtFs still into women after the change when the converse is not true of FtMs? I'm not sure and I'm not sure we'll ever know. You have to realize how politically fraught this is and how much it scares people.

"Never" is a very long time. In the past, a lot of topics were politically fraught and frightening. And we eventually got over it and learned to view them dispassionately and examine them in an open manner. Not all of us. Not all at once either. (Just ask Darwin's ghost.)

Anyway . . . thanks to all of you for taking the time to answer my questions and share your experiences. I really appreciate it!
posted by jason's_planet at 7:21 PM on October 5, 2006