Physician's Commentary

 

The societal barriers to everything sexual having to do with "trans" are manifest. The terms trans sexual, trans gender, transvestite and other similar words and phrases still, even though this is the 21^st century, do not sit well with most cultures. While great progress has been made in softening the issues of homosexuality, those men and women who seek to dramatically alter their gender or their gender identification/appearance still find a lack of acceptance in the public arena. In many countries, the employment prospects for those attempting to switch their sex, temporarily or permanently, are still extremely limited and political and religious resistance to such concepts remains strong.

Thus, the "trans" people find themselves in one of three situations:

1. Under cover - They remain essentially a closet case and will never be able to reveal or resolve their desires in public, or

2. Testing - They may be experimental. On some occasions and with a limited audience, they may cross dress and test their psychological and physiological needs with family, friends or others. This group also may initiate the transition only to find that a variety of obstacles prevents them from reaching their final goal. Often, these individuals become TS, pre-op persons who essentially have altered or partial sex organs, having given up some part of one gender and not yet gained enough of the other to become a member of the third group.

3. Trans - These people may somehow manage to execute the change completely and thus become total transits from one sex to another. This group is extremely small and is made up of those who are able, mentally, financially and physically to make a complete sexual transfer. They are the total trans group. For all of the above categories, sexual activity, (if there is any), and other interaction with the same or opposite genders, depending on their preferences, may greatly complicate their already frustrating lives. Acceptance of the transition, regardless of the degree to level of success, is perhaps the most onerous challenge.

This story is fictitious, but has many true elements to it. Don begins as a closet TV, doesn't understand why he has these needs and ends up, unwillingly, as a trans person, having partly crossed over from male to female, at least physically. The story illustrates the old cliché "Be careful what you ask for".

 

J. V. St.Claire MD, PhD

Prologue

 

The stunning young woman turned several heads as she strolled along the Singapore River Promenade walkway on the bright and warm springtime morning. No one who glanced at her or checked out her remarkably good looks and superb figure would have ever guessed that she hadn't always been the lovely woman they now saw.

No one would have guessed that a few long and painful years before, she had been a he, and not an especially attractive or notable one at that. Observers would have been shocked to know even a few details of what she had experienced during this remarkable transformation and no one would have guessed that someone looking not at all like her, but with the same fingerprints and DNA, was being sought by police for questioning in the disappearance of two local VIP's. Even if they knew this, those same observers would probably state unequivocally that this could not be the person who was wanted for such heinous deeds.

Charlene Morton Stockton, whose passport and other documents showed her to be native of Silvermine, Connecticut, USA, walked to the edge of the stone breakwater wall and threw a small package as far out into the harbor as she could. The wire bound object made a small splash when it hit the water and sank instantly. No one except Charlene saw this. And no one would ever find the package because a combination of chemicals inside activated as soon as it hit the water. The reaction was already destroying the package and its contents.

Charlene gazed at the slowly rising sun in the distant east, pulled the black cotton sweater more tightly around her shapely body and walked back down the quay. In a few more hours, she would be, like the package thrown into the harbor, gone forever and no one would ever connect her to the disappearance of Mr. M and his faithful partner and girl friend, Mavis Hennessy.