What is a transsexual?

What are the gender issues?
Gender Dysphoria literally means a misery related to gender or being in a state of conflict between gender and physical sex. A transsexual is a person in which the sex-related regions of the brain that define gender identity are opposite to the physical sex organs of the body. Basically transsexuals feel that they are trapped in a body of the wrong sex. For example, mentally and emotionally they feel that they are women but they have male sex organs. It should be noted that this phenomenon occurs equally in both physical males and physical females. With their overwhelming desire to live their lives as members of the opposite sex, most transsexuals desire and actively work to make the transition complete through surgery.

Some transsexuals are extremely masculine while others are as feminine as possible.  Most begin to plan their physical transformation in their late teens or twenties.  Still others have taken until middle-age before they made the decision to go through with it. Many of those who made the physical change have gone on to enjoy very committed full-time relationships with their new opposite sex.  Still, some continue in their desire for the same sex that they are now identified with; whether fully or in part.

How should I address a transsexual?
If you talk to a transsexual, accept them as the member of the gender they identify with and use the proper "he", or "she" term. If it's a man who plans to become a woman, use she even if the surgery is not complete or the physical appearance is contradictory. Get the terminology correct: A transsexual girl is male-to-female. A transsexual guy is female-to-male. Never the other way around.

What is involved in the change?
The medical treatment allowing transsexual people to alter their bodies to match their gender identity is highly successful. The process is known medically as 'gender reassignment' and may take some years. After about six months of hormone therapy, physical appearance begins to change. Social gender can also be expected to change at around this stage (though usual gender roles may be maintained at work). The actual surgery usually follows after one or two years of hormone therapy, although some, for financial, medical or other reasons, do not undergo surgery.
Once a person starts to live full time as a member of a new sex, their name and other records can be legally changed. This period, during which you are expected to live and work in your new sex, is referred to as the 'real life test'. The laws governing this transition vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction so you will have to check the laws in your own country.
Canada has some of the most transsexual/transgender friendly immigration laws in the world. Transsexuals and transgender persons (from male to female or from female to male) can immigrate to Canada to enjoy improved civil rights, benefits, and the protections of a tolerant society.

What is the Jorgensen case?
One of the first to take advantage of surgical advances was a very unhappy young American photographer and ex-G.I. by the name of George Jorgensen. He was determined to have a "sex change" and was fortunate to find in his family's homeland, Denmark, physicians of compassion, scientific objectivity, and courage to help him. And so, an unknown George Jorgensen became the world-famous Christine Jorgensen. Although not the first to undergo such surgery, he was the first whose transformation was publicized widely around the world.
The facts of her case caused emotions to run high among those similarly affected. It seems as if suddenly they understood and "found" themselves and saw hope for a release from their unhappy existence. While there was praise for Christine for the courage of her convictions; there was great criticism of her physicians, as well as outright condemnation on moral grounds. So intense were the feelings that Christine was once barred from a New York restaurant and night club as a guest.

How can we be supportive?
For the so-called normal man or woman, it is almost inconceivable that anyone should want to change the sex or gender into which he or she was born, especially by such radical means as major surgery. Therefore, it is extremely difficult for a transsexual to find understanding, sympathy and, most of all, empathy. That is what they need from you. So strong is the desire  for that change that self -mutilations are no rarity, and unfortunately a number of  suicides are due to the unending misery of a transsexual.