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Notes -
Disclaimer: I'm not pro-trans.
Sex is defined in biological terms. Gender is defined as the social role and performance of being a man/women. A dress, or stoicism, or makeup, or such and such do not have much to do with the physical sex in a strict sense, playing instead a social role and one of identity.
These social roles are distilled from but divorced from our biological reality. A "feminine" man or a "masculine" woman typically experiences much strife and social conflict because of their inclinations. Which is a bit silly, because the expectations, behaviors, and treatment of the genders is largely separate from a biological basis. A woman must cook and clean and raise the children because she is a woman, which has little to do with being female, yet society insists that a female is a woman and a woman must be female.
A transgender individual is thus a male who desires to take on the role of a woman, or a female who desires to take on the role of a man. To take the former case: not the role of a man acting out a woman (cross-dressing,etc) but as a woman. The need for sexual reassignment surgery and for transgender individuals to act out stereotypical behaviors is resultant from the reality that as a social role, it only exists as it is recognized by the collective. The recognition of the identity is just as much a part of a social role as the identity itself.
It sounds like you more or less agree with my summary. Is that correct? If not, what did I leave out? Or what did I include that's incorrect?
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