Transgender is an umbrella term which consists of all, transsexuals, cross-dressers, genderqueers, transvestites, drag kings and drag queens. Drag king is a person, usually females, who dress up like men mainly for public performance and drag queen is a male who dresses up like a female mainly for public performance. Transvestites are those people who adopt the dress, manner and sexual role of the opposite sex. Genderqueer are those people whose gender identity is a combination of both the genders male and female. Ellen Friedrichs defines transgender individual as those having “genitals of one sex but their gender identity associated with that of the other sex”. Transgender people can be traced in history in many different cultures, for instance in India Hijras are associated with fertility. Hijras in South Asia, are a member of the “third gender” neither male nor female, they are “physically intersex or male” but some are “physically female”. Also in Native American tribes there are “third gender” individuals who are called two spirited. Back in Shakespeare time in England men were allowed to play female roles. These third gender individuals are famous for negative and positive reasons. They have to face Legal issues like “legally changing one’s sex” and “without a legal sex change a transgender is not allowed to marry a partner of their birth sex”. People transform into transgender in their teenage or in twenties. Teenage transgender face a lot of “discrimination, harassment and violence” from school and family but nowadays they have many support networks. They also face issue regarding “surgery and the use of hormones”. Transgender people have been able to get treated earlier now due to “gender identity disorder”. There are some very famous transgender people like Sylvia Rivera an activist and Christine Jorgenson who was the first American who got sex-reassignment surgery. Transgender people are protected, supported and helped in many ways by various organizations.
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