Tuesday, March 15, 2011

New online discussion forum for transgender crossdreamers

An online forum for crossdreamers

A group of trangender people have established a new online forum for crossdreamers, men and women who dream about having the body of the opposite sex.

The founder, organizer and administrator of the site, Jason Ikeda, says that there is no lack of transgender discussion forums out there, being that for crossdressers, transsexual men and women and various gender variant people:

"We have to face that discussing transgender sexual fantasies remain difficult in many of these forums, though, partly because there are a lot of transgender people who do not have such dreams and partly because sexuality remains a taboo in many circles."

Autogynephilia and autoandrophilia

Jack Molay, the man behind the blog Crossdreamers, adds that some of the scientific discussions on this topic have led to further stigmatization:

"The scientific terms that are used are 'autogynephilia' - the love of one self as a woman -- and 'autoandrophilia' -- the love of oneself as a man. The scientists behind these terms have made crossdreamers visible -- which is helpful. Unfortunately, they try as hard as they can to include these terms in the American Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, labeling all crossdreamers as perverts. This makes it hard for crossdreamers to get a voice, even in transgender circles."

Sharing life stories

The idea behind the new forum, which is called Crossdream Life, is therefore to provide transgender crossdreamers with a place where they can discuss their lives, share coping strategies, inform each others about on- and offline resources, make friends and vent their sorrows and frustrations.

There is also a chat function, which makes it possible for member to continue their discussions in private.

"We do not expect the participants to agree on one explanation for what crossdreaming is, what it should be or what causes it," Jason says. "One objective of the forum is to provide an open-minded and tolerant place for exploring what crossdreaming is about. But we do expect everyone to treat each other with respect and empathy."

A little known transgender group

No one knows how many crossdreamers there are in the world.

""There are no world wide mappings of crossdreamers as such," Jack Molay says. "There are some guesstimates for the number of transsexuals, but not all transwomen or transmen have been crossdreamers, and only a minority of crossdreamers transition. Still, I believe there are far more of them that most of us realize. I have seen some site statistics for some transgender fiction sites that leads me to believe there are many millions in the English speaking world alone."

Lately several new blogs devoted to crossdreaming and related transgender themes have appeared online, which indicates that this group is finding its voice.

Does Jason expect millions of participants over at Crossdream Life?

"No," he says. "But I do hope we can reach the kind of critical mass that leads to interesting, useful and liberating discussions."

The forum can be found over at http://www.crossdreamlife.com

For more information contact: jason.ikeda@gmail.com

A safe place for discussing gender variance!

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