Transsexuals' Odyssey Rudy Radu      We are close to the end of the last century of this millenium of the Christian Era and many things have been told about human rights and freedoms. Nevertheless, people tend to forget that the human rights also should apply to a less understood category of humans: the transgender people.       Who are we? What are we? How do we live?       First of all, we are women and men who have to face difficult inner and somatic problems. However, we are not abnormal, limited, or aberrant people.       Each of us have a civil sex that is mentioned in the ID. According to our civil sex, the society provides us with certain rights, obligations, and... judgements.       Undoubtedly, the civil sex comes regardless of our own will, it is nature's will: nobody asked us, when born, if we prefer to be women or men. Transsexuality occurs when the person is not satisfied with her or his civil sex and believes that she or he belongs to the opposite sex, which claims the surgical correction of the anatomy. Before transsexuals are born, their neural sub-cortical structure was formed format in disagreement with their genitals.       Why is that? How can this be so?

That is because the nervous system and the sub-cortical structure are genetically determined, by endocryne processes that work independently from the genitals, which appear in the fourth month of pregnancy. The child's burden is enormous. The child has, for instance, a penis, he is acknowledged as a boy, but he feels like he is a girl, or viceversa. One can talk of a psychological sex, though the issue of specific psychological features, as a direct expression of the genetic, hormonal, and somatic sex is subject of controversy. The psychological sex is directly related to the social sex, which is determined on the basis of the individual's social attitude, which, in the case of the transgender people, adopt the role of the opposite sex.

The transsexuals' problem is not a psychological one however, as one can easily misunderstand it. The disagreement can hardly be perceived from outside, it is rather an inadequacy that the transsexuals can only feel within themselves. No psychological treatment can change the nervous system, nor the neural structures. Nonetheless, the genital organs can be "corrected" by means of surgery, which is the only way to change the situation. Transsexuals need this surgery, as well as hormonal treatment, in order to obtain the somatic features of the opposite sex. They also need to be acknowledged as normal citizens, and lead a normal life in the society. This way, they can show that they are regular people.

The transsexuals, with all their inimaginable difficulties that are imposed by nature and especially by people's ignorance, can be found everywhere in the world, regardless of the cultural backgrounds. They are going through a permanent odyssey, in a quest for understanding, peace, and happiness.

I shall only mention several cases of former men who became widely-beloved women:
In Spain, Bibi Anderson was elected the most popular woman. In 1992, Miss Italy was a transsexual. In 1994, French is bewildered by Kim Harlow's beauty. In terms of music, everybody knows Dana International, the transsexual from Israel who won the Eurovision song contest in 1998. With this victory, Dana offered her country and the entire world the opportunity to be in touch with the transgender people, to understand and help them. After 19 years of exile, Bulent Ersoy became Turkey's most beloved female singer. In France, Amanda Lear is still a beloved singer too. All these examples of courage, intelligence, beauty, and dignity prove how wrong people are when judging transsexuals. We have our place in this human jungle, which is always trying to oppress us. This is a fight that we, the transgender people, have had to face for a long time.

I am waiting for your opinions and suggestions at accept@fx.ro or by regular mail at ACCEPT, C.P. 34-56, Bucharest, Romania, For Rudy.