Sorry... As a post op transsexual/heterosexual woman I'm still trying to get over the shock of some of the comments I've seen on this thread, some of what I've read is genuinely disgusting and transphobic, other things I've read are just down to not being educated.
I think the first post I read really hit me hard and only reminds me of the time back in the 80's when we had the AIDS epidemic and the stories that went around like hell fire that all of this was down to gay people spreading it around. Truth is, you can get AIDS from anyone who is infected, it isn't spread around by gay, lesbian or even trans people - it's spread by those of the human race who are careless in their actions and would rather play a game of Russion Roulette than have safe sex, or at least inform their sexual partners that they are HIV.
The next thing that disgusted me is the assumption that transsexual or TS women are men, no we aren't. There were a few people that mentioned this, but one in particular stood out. "Lots of assumptions here, and I've a good idea more men than you know have sexual contact with other men"
Transvestites and Cross Dressers are men who dress up in women's clothes etc, Transsexuals or any other form of transgender women who go through the process of HRT and body corrections to align their bodies with their female gender identity are women. We go through agonising waits on the NHS just to prove ourselves to medical professionals that we are who we say we are before we even get an ounce of help, I could go on forever and discuss tons of horror stories, but I won't. There are many trans women out there who are legally recognised as women but who decide to keep their penis, it's their choice, but they're still women in the eyes of the law and in their gender identity.
Then there is this "In my private life I have transexual, bisexual and gay friends and I love them to bits. I believe Heterosexual womens brains are wired in "certain ways".
This implies that transsexual women aren't women because our brains are wired differently to heterosexual women. It's partly correct. My brain from conception in the womb was wired female, but I was born with male parts so my parents thought they had a son and raised me accordingly. But this post is laying claim that transsexual women can't be heterosexual, being trans has nothing at all to do with being straight or gay.
Having sex with someone because they had anal sex with someone else doesn't make them a higher risk. Not taking precautions makes it a high risk. Damn, there are lots of heterosexual women out there who have anal sex with men, does this imply that they at high risk too. How many men do we see every day have a female partner at home that they might have the occasional bit of anal sex with? I bet there may be a few. There is this stigma out there that if a guy sex with a trans women then the guy must be gay or that the trans woman is gay, no, neither of them are gay and both can be heterosexual at the same time. A trans woman is a woman, FULL STOP!
I'd like to say a big thank you to those of you who either remained neutral on this or defended trans women like myself by pointing out indescrepencies in posts. We need to remind ourselves of the industry we work in. It's high risk, but then is going to a bar one night and having a one night stand with some stud muffin because he looks hot an sexy, even more risky if the sex is unprotected.
We can't make assumptions that a trans woman has HIV/AIDS, is gay, is a man, is dirty or doing it as a fetish, isn't a real woman or anything else other than what we see. Just the same as the rest of society can't make assumptions that sex workers are dirty, carry sexually transmitted diseases, are low life gutter scum, or are worthless members of society who can't get real jobs and so resort to selling their bodies for sex because that's the only thing they're capable of doing.
In both instances these are negative stereotypes and as assumptions go, are very incorrect...