Well besides the soul crushing dysphoria, social outcasting, sexual sterotyping, and chronic depression, I rather enjoy being transgender. Give me all the hell you want, I'll still be prettier than you. *Vanishes in a rainbow puff of awesomness.

A -blam!-ING DEGENERATE

Transformers, gender in disguise

A transgender person as I know it is someone who identifies as another gender and takes steps to transition (hence "trans") to that gender which suits them. You should think of transgender people as the gender they want to be known as for a few reasons. 1. It's a nice thing and really not that hard to do. This is all you really [i]need[/i] to know. It's just courteous. 2. Being "misgendered," or addressed by unwanted pronouns (him instead of her, etc) kind of invalidates the purpose of their struggle to transition to their new gender. There's so much shit you have to go through to even begin to transition genders, driven by a deep and real force, that it's painful to have someone ignore all that and continue addressing you as how you were born. It hurts. I think that questions like when gender identity disorder develops and what went wrong is irrelevant from a social standpoint, and frankly there's no scientific consensus anyway. Just remember that Rule Number 1 still stands: don't be a dick.

-People are born with a biology sex. -Male and female. -There is a gender role attached to each sex. -Some people associate their gender with the opposite sex. -You should call them by the other pronoun because it's an empathic thing to do.

They are people who are sub human. An inferior species. They are what will be used to justify the next holocaust.

PM Engrapadora

[quote]why I should think of them as their new gender/sex instead of their original one.[/quote]Because they want you to, lol. Should there be some other reason? If someone changed their name from Barry to Larry, people would be expected to call him Larry from then onwards. This is no different, except there's a few more things to remember than just a different name. What you are called is up to you, not anyone else. If you want to be called Ursa Minor the Great Space Unicorn then you have the right to be called that.

ITT: Either trolls or ignorant people - I can't tell which.

Why not ask one or go to the various trans sites on the web to find out? Odds are you'll find a better explanation than anyone here can give. Edit: damnit. Now I feel I need to give my two cents. A trans person is someone who doesn't accept the gender they were assigned at birth and switches.* I don't know if it's possible to make someone understand what it is like to be trans. You either choose to understand or you don't. I didn't personally understand what it was to be trans until I talked to quite a few transmen and women so honestly that really is your best bet if you actually want to find out. As for why you should treat a trans person with respect and dignity by using proper names and pronouns? Idk. We're all human, I believe everyone deserves an equal amount of respect just because. I don't see a reason to hurt and treat others horribly just because of a lack of understanding or stubbornness. *[spoiler]one thing that I have a problem with is that if you don't accept the gender you've been assigned to at birth, why try to fit into another gender? I don't mean this discouragingly, I mean it like if I tried my best to live up to being a female in today's society but it was tearing me apart and I hated the expectations, not to mention I felt restricted in my own body, why would I want to slide into another set of expectations and norms? Why not take the opportunity to become the man or woman of my own definition instead? I'd much rather break the barriers of genders and wear, act, sleep with, and just [i]be[/i] however I'd like to, instead of being expected to be one way because that's how guys/girls are supposed to be. [/spoiler]