Hi I don't know whether this has been discussed before, but here is a question. So as I've learnt gender and sexual orientation even though are close entities are not related to each other , I.e your perception of gender doesn't influence your sexual orientation. But there have been reports of trans people undergoing sexual orientation change specifically after transition. So does this mean on some level, perception of your gender has an impact on sexual orientation? To be more clear I m not talking about a gay guy after transitioning becoming a straight girl. I m talking about a gay guy transitioning and becoming a bisexual girl or a gay girl. What are your thoughts on it? I have thought of one answer to this, which is that probably when a person has not transitioned yet and when he or she views the opposite gender he/she views them to be their target gender so isn't aware or conscious about the coexisting attraction to them. When such things come up I m often reminded as to how falsely the bigots view orientation and gender, they think its binary and fixed in only one possible way, while the human mind is so much more complex and we know very little!!
Well it's hard to know for sure, but what seems most likely to me is that after transition, people are more comfortable in their bodies and more confident, so they might be more open to other options than before. I think being transgender can lead people to repress a lot of feelings. I guess just the new confidence lots of trans people get can lead them to be more comfortable with their sexuality. Lots of trans people struggle with sexual stuff before transitioning due to dysphoria, so it makes sense that stuff might change after transitioning. I don't personally think it's really that their orientation changes, but just that the person becomes more comfortable with their true attraction. And like you pointed out, lots of people might either not notice attraction to their true gender, or they can mistake jealousy for attraction. It's hard to really know for sure though.
Personally; I believe gender identity and sexuality are separate things; they may have a partial impact on the other in some cases, but your identity of one doesn't define what you are for the other. Sexuality is also a very complex thing, there aren't a lot people out there that identify completely with being one sexual orientation. It's very fluid.
Is it possible that some trans people avoid relationships of any kind until they've transitioned, since it would be uncomfortable for them otherwise? In your example, she would have lived, and maybe even identified as a gay man before, perhaps because it's all she knew, or as a stepping stone, or as a compromise, but changed her mind after living as her true self. And yes, there's a lot of misconceptions and stereotypes involving gay and trans people, although there seems to be a higher LGB percentage within the trans community, and more gay folk who are gender-non conforming in some way or another. Whether that's due to choice or genetics is anyone's guess.
That's been my own experience. I avoided even friendship because I didn't feel remotely comfortable in my own skin. Now I'm starting to feel better thanks to transition, and am opening up to relationships. OP, I think it would be impossible to tell if transition ever truly changes sexual orientation, because people become more comfortable with themselves during transition, and might discover or accept attractions toward certain kinds of people. I would call that an improved understanding of one's orientation, not changing of it. This sort of happened to me. Since learning about non-binary genders, I've realized I'm attracted to some non-binary people (I didn't know they existed until a year ago). I still ID as lesbian because it fits me very well and feels right.
I believe that gender and sex orientation are the exact same thing. You can call me whatever you like but I'm not changing my views on that. I'm not trying to invalidate transgender's feelings and whatnot but to me, I see absolutely no difference whatsoever. If they feel like the different gender then I can't change that and only the person experiences it does. It's kinds a struggle between my mind about whether it's normal or not. There may be a lot of good transgender people out there but from what I've seen in this community, they're not quite open with the idea that not everyone truly accepts them as their prferred gender.
One thing that's interesting is that here on EC where people list both their gender and sexual orientation, I have come to believe that most trans folks here aren't "straight."
True, being more comfortable and true to yourself seems more apt, but do you guys think that the high doses of HRT they take might have some remodelling effect ? Another interesting thing is that some people experienced sexual orientation change after stroke or head injury now we don't know whether it actually happened or they became more true to themselves after facing such a paralyzing condition. Or use it as a stepping stone to acceptance The reports have mostly been from straight to gay. But what we do infer from it if its true is that it is something hardwired in our brains something more functional n maybe even anatomical rather than just a preference
