Transgender Sexuality - Classifying Transsexual People By Sexual Orientation

Classifying Transsexual People By Sexual Orientation

Sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld first suggested a distinction based on sexual orientation in 1923. A number of two-type taxonomies based on sexuality have subsequently been proposed by clinicians, though some clinicians believe that other factors are more clinically useful categories, or that two types are insufficient. Some researchers have distinguished trans men attracted to women and trans men attracted to men.

The Benjamin Scale proposed by endocrinologist Harry Benjamin in 1966 uses sexual orientation as one of several factors to distinguish between transvestites, "non-surgical" transsexuals, and "true transsexuals".

In 1974, Person and Ovesey proposed dividing transsexual women into "primary" and "secondary" transsexuals. They defined primary transsexuals as asexual persons with little or no interest in partnered sexual activity and with no history of sexual arousal to cross-dressing or cross-gender fantasy. They defined both homosexual and transvestic transsexuals to be secondary transsexuals. Later uses of this terminology often defined primary transsexualism as attracted to males, and secondary transsexualism as attracted to females.

In the DSM-III-R, released in 1987, "transsexualism" was divided into "homosexual" and "heterosexual" subtypes.