True Transsexualism? Bwah?

I'll admit for a blog about "gender variance and other things", I seem to write a lot more about the latter than the former. But then I come across something like this LiveJournal post on HBS elitism (HBS being Harry Benjamin Syndrome - something of a bad word in certain trans circles because it politicises transsexualism). I'm sorry, in my current mode of edgy testostaggression, I just can't pass this one up... I mean, "true transsexuals"? Seriously? Whither gender variance?

Okay, so transsexualism may be a medical condition, but given that the post in question is so concerned about social legitimisation, how about first dealing with the fact that transgenderism - in all its forms, transsexualism and otherwise - faces social challenges? How does it help anyone to pander to the idea that medical conditions are somehow more legitimate than other things which are nevertheless problems for society? Are we (being transsexual) really that mired in insecurity about what we are that we have to nervously distance ourselves from that there fake transsexuals and pray that one day there will actually be conclusive scientific evidence that transsexualism is in fact biological in nature? Well here's a news flash: there's no conclusive evidence either way so far, and you "true transsexuals" are precariously close to being lumped in with the "faddish" cross-dressers and "fetishistic" non-ops.

To say this kind of attitude is separatist is a gross understatement; it's a sheer denial of gender variance, and a nod toward the idea that society ought to be perfectly male/female, bows and curtseys, ties and dresses.

"I KNOW what I AM and have since the age of six," declares the author. Really? How wonderful! Cos I had no idea what the fruit I was when I was six, only that something was wrong. And as I've often said, I can't speak for anyone else's experiences - I only know how I feel. If there's something magical which makes someone a True Transsexual but excludes me, then please enlighten me, because I'm surely doing something wrong. Is it my hair? My eye shadow? My unwomanly desire to have a career? What?