TransLiving International

Despite being regularly featured on television chat shows, in numerous adverts on the box and in the cinema, and in the press (especially female oriented magazines and agony columns), the transgendered are still amongst the most misunderstood people in our community, even though there has been much progress in the last two decades.
This valuable and interesting digest of writings gives in-depth insight into the discreet world of transvestites and transsexuals. It talks to everyone involved – we cross-dressers and transgenderists, our families and the people around us, plus the various people whom we work with and that have social intercourse with us – our colleagues, friends, work-mates, employers and other occasional contacts from people in authority, such as the police. 
This is a WHY book – and a WHAT to do about it volume. It is not basically a HOW to crossdress as a TV book, at least not in any great detail, although it contains much useful advise. Although it could well be considered a HOW to get to be a TS guide in it’s second half.
But it is the most valuable book on crossdressing and transsexualism that I have read recently. It ranks at the very top, alongside the Beaumont Trust’s TV oriented book – Towards and Understanding – Transvestism & Cross Dressing,  and Gendys’ TS-aimed A Guide to Transsexualism, Transgenderism and Gender Dysphoria – indeed the TLI book might almost replace both of them with a single purchase!
I was so impressed by the chapter on ‘A Transsexual Son – an informal guide for parents’ that I photocopied it immediately as guidance for the mother and step-father of just one such potential TS, whose life has become a serious mess. I was most pleased to find that the book pretty well confirmed everything I had told the parents to expect to happen – and I was grateful that it confirmed that I too had got it right!
Revealing the fear and guilt.
Its pages reveal the fears, the guilt and the compulsive nature of gender dysphoria in all its manifestations, and provide a much-needed dash of reality based on direct experiences and careful observations of the several important contributors.
In particular the last quarter of ‘Insight’ becomes an essential guide for anyone considering setting out on the transsexual path, with detailed chapters on what and how GRS can be progressed, practical advise on making it so, and what is likely to happen afterwards. Frankly, after studying the text, I am no longer amazed that so many TSs don’t last the course – but even more amazed by the tenacity of those that do, confirming my impressions formed from attending a couple of GENDYS conferences a few years back!
The book also looks at various aspects of gender, reveals many little known facts about the intersexed, considers the actions of hormones on the human body and outlines the dangers of their use and their abuse!  
The book is divided into four main sections, with a glossary of terms as they are in current use and an index to round it off.
The sections…
Section one is all about transvestism, and presents a series of articles concerning the syndrome and it’s impact on the TV and all those around him. It asks can TVism be cured and treated, offers guidance for those wives and family members discovering someone is a TV and coping with it, and takes a look at what parents should do when confronted by a transvestite child, of any age. Advise is offered on the effects and possible complications caused by TV fantasies, and ends with a piece about the potential loneliness of the single TV, and what to do about it.
Section two overviews TVism and TSism, and the various types of cross-dressing with their associated (and sometimes unusual) gender behaviours. It starts with an overview of how the various types of the transgendered present themselves, from TVs through to post-op TSs. Then the section works through specifics on discrimination, and (in a seemingly out of place chapter) on understanding the many (if a not greatly numerate part of the population) medical intersex states.
Section three is devoted to advisory articles or relevance to both TV’s and TS’s. Although it suggests some of the emphasis is very much for full-time CDs, its actually offers some practical advice on coming to terms with oneself; on fitting room protocol in shops; how to improve the female voice (a book in itself, in reality); about presenting yourself in public, and hiding that bane of all part- and full-time CDed females – that bothersome beard! In fact, most of this section is (in my view) relevant to all of us who venture out ‘dressed’.
Section four is much more specific to and for transsexuals. It includes the aforementioned excellent informal guide for parents; how and where to go for GRS; and Dr. Russell Reid answers the most frequently asked questions. Then the section goes more deeply into matters for those following the transsexual path, by offering advise for employers. There are chapters on TS vulnerability, transitioning, personal hygiene and the things that are said about TS ladies! Hormones and their effects – good and bad – are covered in considerable detail. 
Conclusion.
The book should be on your bookshelf. Read it thoroughly when you first get it, study those pages as applicable to your personal circumstances, and you will find it is a one-volume reference ‘library’ that can be dipped into at any time you seek help. A ‘must have in the book case’ tome for cross-dressers and transgenderists of every status.
Highly recommended