The term transgender is applied in a number of different instances to individuals, behaviors, and groups in which tendencies divergent from the normative gender role are common (Landen, Walinder, & Lundstrom, 1996). Transgendered individuals may exhibit characteristics that are normally associated with a gender other than their own and may or may not choose to live their lives as a member of the gender which most accurately describes them to themselves. Transgendered individuals have many identities, including drag kings and queens, transsexuals, transvestites, and androgynes. At issue in this report is an overview of the history of transgender culture, the mental health status and disparities among transgendered groups, and the primary characteristics of transgender culture.
Historically, individuals identified as transgendered have long been a part of most cultures in both the Western and Eastern worlds. Among Native American people, transgendered individuals were common, as they were in early Medina, ancient Rome, and the Middle Eastern Akkadian people. They have long been found throughout the countries of the East, including Thailand, Laos, and India (Ekins & King, 1997).
In some societies, transgendered individuals were recognized as a third gender. For example, Raymond (1980) pointed out that the Code of Hammurabi identified individuals who appeared to be female but had district male traits as a third gender. More recently, Ekins and King (1997) stated that transgendered individuals have often presented as cross-dressing transvestites rather than transsexuals, who tend to consist of individuals who have undergone medical procedures to alter their physiology so that it conforms to the genital and other attributes of the opposite sex. In any event, transgendered individuals have been regarded in most Western societies as those presenting with mental disorders and treated as deviants more often than not until r...