Welcome
This is the site for the research project Transgender & Personal Identity. This investigation is concerned with the relationship between the movement from one gender and/or sex to another. What sort of experiences does an individual who begins life birth-designated as a female, but becomes a male have? If a natal male (someone born a boy) becomes a cross-dresser, what psychological, if any, changes occur when he “crosses over”? What can trans folks, those people born into one sex but who sometimes or all the time live in the other, tell us about life on the other side?
These are just a few of the questions this project will address. The project will seek out trans people who have changed gender at some point in their lives after reaching maturity. If you think you are one of those people and are interested in being interviewed, please click on our Interview Me! page. (It has not been activated yet.) If you think you are not the right person for an interview or it is not convenient, you can still fill out our Tell a Story page. There you can share one or more experiences you have had in your current gender.
This web site has number of distinct parts. Here is a brief guide to them
- Brief Overview describes, in lay terms, the goals and outline of the project. If you are interested in our work, might be a good candidate for an interview, or are just curious, this page will help you.
- Full Overview is, as the name implies, a thorough presentation of the project, complete with background, motivation, goals, and bibliography.
- Interview Me! This page is the preamble to the questionnaire, and will help you decide if you can, ought, or want to be interviewed.
- Questionnaire is the instrument created for this project. It is through the questionnaire that we ultimately decide who will be most useful for our purposes.
- Tell a Story allows all trans persons and those connected to them to tell a tale about a cross-gender experience they have had. These are anecdotes that show how one can experience life from the other side, thereby gaining insight and understanding. All stories, serious and funny, are invited.
- Links contains just a few web sites that are relevant to the project.