The Chicago Gender Society is a social and educational non-profit organization for crossdressers, transsexuals, and their supporters. Its goal is to provide social and educational opportunities, as well as peer support, for its members. It seeks to promote a positive self-image for crossdressers and transsexuals in the business community, the media, and the general public. It supports legislation which protects the rights of all minorities. CGS is not a dating service or a therapy group. Each member is responsible for his or her own conduct, and is expected to conduct himself in an appropriate manner.
CGS exists to serve its membership by offering safe, semi-public activities for members so that they may meet others with similar interests, build their confidence, perfect their presentation, and help them to become comfortable in the gender role which they prefer. CGS also provides programs to assist and support all of its members, to educate the general public and the medical and psychiatric communities, in order to dispel fear and ignorance and to promote acceptance of transgendered lifestyles. CGS also works to develop a growing leadership that will carry on and expand this work. Chicago Gender Society also provides assistance to spouses, significant others, family, and friends in coping with and understanding crossdressing and transexualism. It can provide information and professional referrals for those who are seeking them or are interested in finding out =re about crossgender behavior and transexualism.
Membership in Chicago Gender Society is open to crossdressers, transsexuals, spouses, significant others, and supportive families who are of legal age, regardless of gender, race, creed, or sexual orientation. CGS meetings are held on the second Tuesday of each month, as well as social evenings which are held on the fourth Tuesday and on one weekend each month. Other activities and services include picnics each summer, a Ms. CGS Pageant, a book and video lending library, and a monthly newsletter, the Primrose.
The gender community can be seen as a continuum, beginning with mild fetishistic behavior and concluding with the post-operative transsexual. At the risk of oversimplifying, there are two main groups within the gender community itself: Crossdressers (transvestites) and Transsexuals. The largest of these two groups is the crossdressers. Crossdressing can mean anything from wearing articles of women's clothing under the male clothing (usually lingerie) to the constant living and dressing as a member of the opposite gender. The transsexual is a person who comes into severe conflict with his gender identity at an early age, and seeks to eventually obtain gender reassignment surgery in order to alter his body to conform with his inner identity.
Most crossdressers find an attraction to the clothing of the opposite gender at an early age, usually between 5 and 9, and this attraction can often reach an obsessive level with sexual overtones as the crossdresser reaches puberty. As the crossdresser progresses through his teen years and into adulthood, this attraction and accompanying sexual release (usually through masturbation) creates a situation where the crossdresser is tom between the realities of his real gender and lifestyle and the gender which he sometimes fantasizes being. This in turn leads to overwhelming feelings of guilt, paranoia, secretiveness, isolation, and confusion, and causes the crossdresser to attempt to deny his cross-gender identification through suppressive behavior and purges. I.e., destruction or disposal of the crossgender wardrobe. Many crossdressers will attempt to overcome their desires by overcompensating in their masculine lives, and often voluntarily will enter military service, and pursue occupations which would be considered ultramasculine (policeman, truck driver, etc.) Most crossdressers are otherwise normal, heterosexual males, and will marry and father children. Sometimes they believe that marriage will 'cure' their crossdressing, but they soon find that the desire to crossdress returns and they must deal with their crossdressing within their marriage. Many crossdressers continue to hide their behavior from their spouses, leading to continuing unhappiness and irritability, and possibly a broken marriage. For the crossdresser who chooses to deal honestly with his crossdressing in relation to his spouse, the reaction is initially one of revulsion and non-acceptance. The wife will often assume that her husband is gay, or wishes to seek reassignment surgery and become a woman. This is usually not the case, and with honest discussion and possibly professional counseling, the spouse can often learn to deal with and perhaps toler ate her partner's crossdressing, and will participate and assist in their husband’s presentation as a member of tlit.3 opposite gender. They will also counsel and assist other spouses who wish to understand and tolerate their husband's behavior. Not all crossdressers are heterosexual, of course. The percentage of gay crossdressers is probably reflective of the gay population of society as a whole, in the neighborhood of 10%. Most gay crossdressers (in fact, most crossdressers, both gay and straight) are portrayed as drag queens, who utilize crossdressing as a means of attracting men. While this is the case with some, most gay crossdressers enjoy dressing as the opposite gender for the same reasons as straight ones do. Sexual orientation and crossdressing are two completely separate facets of an individuals personality.
A transsexual is a person who usually has felt from as far back as he can remember an overwhelming impression that he was born with the wrong genitalia and gender. With these feelings often come a manifestation in early years for gender-inappropriate behavior, usually to the dismay of the parents, and suppression and 'unlearning' of the natural tendencies to behave as a member of the opposite gender. Much like the crossdresser, the transsexual will attempt to overcome their feelings through overcompensative behavior, including marriage and children. Unlike the crossdresser, however, the transsexual will come to realize that he is living a lie, and in spite of many outward appearances of happiness and fulfillment, will become more and more dissatisfied with his life in time. The transsexual who wishes to deal with this conflict (called gender dysphoria) must make the decision to go on living in the gender to which they were assigned at birth, or to pursue sex reassignment surgery. This is usually a long, expensive, and often heartbreaking process, in which the transsexual often loses family, friends, home, job, etc. This is not always the case. but anyone considering reassignment surgery must face the possibilities of all of the above. Many will weigh the advantages and disadvantages and decide to continue with their unhappy lives. For many others, however, the prospect of becoming a complete and congruous human being will lead them to pursue reassignment surgery. This process includes hormone and psychiatric therapy and full-time living and working as a member of their now gander for. a period of at least one year, although this is usually a longer period of time, sometimes much longer. After this process has been completed, a transsexual may be approved for reassignment surgery by one of the few medical centers that perform the necessary operations. So far, this has been proven to be the only method of relieving the overwhelming unhappiness in the lives of transsexuals.
So far, we have been talking only about people who are male and desire to cross over gender boundaries in some way to become more feminine. The female to male crossdresser is a relatively unknown species; in fact, some say that they probably don't exist at all. This can be attributed mainly to the fact that it is much more permissible in our society for the female to take on the trappings and attitudes of the male, and the female to male crossdresser would be able to function unnoticed for the most part. There are, however. many female to male transsexuals. Until recently, most candidates for sex reassignment surgery have been male to female. In the recent past, however, gender clinics are beginning to note that the number of female to male patients who wish to apply for reassignment surgery are nearly equal to that of the male to female. This can be attributed to great Improvement in recent years by surgeons in their techniques for this series of operations. In fact, for the male to female, the creation of a functioning vagina has been accomplished and nearly perfected. For the female to male, however, there has been no such development of a fully functioning penis. On the other hand, a female to male transsexual will become masculinized through hormone therapy much more rapidly and readily, and their ability to pass in public as males comes much more easily than for the male to female transsexual.
Despite the fact that crossgendered behavior has been observed since the beginnings of recorded history, the psychiatric and medical communities are at a loss to explain the causes. There are many theories on the origins of cross-gendered behavior, but there Is no conclusive evidence that any one of them, either psychiatric or biological, can be pinpointed as causing crossgender identification. It is more probable that a combination of circumstances contributes to an individual’s desire to identify with or become a person of the opposite gender. Because the psychiatric community as a whole knows so little about transgendered behavior, there are limited resources within the professional community available to deal with patients seeking assistance. Transgendered behavior is often considered to be abnormal, immoral, psychotic, neurotic, compulsive, and a mental illness. Out of the ordinary, perhaps, but these other descriptions are mostly a reflection of a society and a professional community which need to throw labels on something they don't understand and which they consider 'wrong' behavior. A professional studies on transgendered behavior have estimated that between 2 and 5 percent of people are attracted to crossgender behavior In some form, there has yet to be found a cure for such behavior. The best way to deal with the problem from a professional standpoint is to assist the crossdresser to become comfortable and at peace with himself, or for the transsexual to achieve ultimate congruity of the mind and body through reassignment surgery.
In the past 10 years, the gender community has organized and grown around the world, and is quickly becoming a self-contained force on its own behalf within the psychiatric community and the world at large. In the United States today, there can be found a non-sexually oriented organization of crossdressers and transsexuals in every major city, and many smaller ones. Often, there are two or more such groups in one area. The membership in these organizations can number between 50 and several hundred. Leaders within the community have made themselves available as speakers and lecturers for college classes, psychiatric and medical seminars, and radio, television, and newspaper interviews and features in an attempt to dispel rumors and misinformation about the gender community and to allow us to be seen as otherwise normal, everyday people who function for the most part in society without notice and lead happy, fulfilled lives.
Chicago Gender Society
PO Box 578005
Chicago, IL60657
or call our HOTLINE at (708)863-7714 The best time is after 5 on weekdays, or anytime on weekends, our answering machine is secure.