A transgendered person is someone whose perception of their gender differs from their genital sex.
A transvestite (TV) is a person who feels a [compulsive] need to dress in the clothing of the opposite gender. Their perceived gender is at odds with their actual genital sex. This condition is also described as Gender Identity Disphoria (GID).
Strictly speaking the two words mean the same thing, the latter being the Latin form. However, many people use the two words to define two different things. Transvestites (TV) are motivated in their dressing by the feeling of giving expression to the "inner woman" or vice versa. Crossdressers (CDs) are motivated mainly by the eroticness of the clothing. This latter group are also known as "fetishistic transvestites".
Some TVs are gay, others are strictly straight. With many their sexuality follows their gender, i.e. in both modes they are attracted to members of the opposite gender.
However, there's no inevitable link between sex and gender: many TVs aren't gay, and most gay people aren't TV.
Transsexuals seek to live full-time as members of the opposite sex and seek hormones and surgery to change their bodies. Many transsexuals have known from an early age that their body didn't fit their true gender, and others realise later in life.
For further information see our longer piece on Transvestites. See also Forced Dressing.
This is a difficult question to answer as the term has been applied pejoratively to all types of transgendered people. The most correct application is to males, generally gay, who have had alterations made to their bodies to make them more feminine while at the same time deliberately retaining many male characteristics. Generally they will take hormones to promote bust development. In many cases they are also castrated and in some cases have also had the scrotum removed leaving only the penis.
Last modified 19 Jan 2002