Socio-Demographic Correlates of Stress and Anxiety among Transgenders in Coimbatore, Tamilnadu - a Micro Study

AbstractTransgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviours, and groups involving tendencies to vary from the usual roles. A person is an individual of any age or who manifests characteristics, behaviours or self-expression, which in their own or someone else's perception is typical of or commonly associated with persons of another gender.The medical professionals, criminal justice systems and various other service providers along with family members, friends and society at large should be made aware and sensitized about transgender's and provide a support group.Key Words:Transgender. Stress. State-Trait AnxietyIntroduction:Sex is a reality and gift of God. It signifies our gender. At the instant of conception, our physical maleness and femaleness - our body shape and organs - were already determined. is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviours, and groups involving tendencies to vary from the usual roles. A person is an individual of any age or who manifests characteristics, behaviours or self-expression, which in their own or someone else's perception is typical of or commonly associated with persons of another gender.Transgender are stigmatized in many parts of the world but has become more widely known in Western culture in the mid to late 20th century, concurrently with the sexual revolution and the development of sexual reassignment surgeries. Discrimination and negative attitudes towards transgender often accompany certain religious beliefs or cultural values. The issue of transgender is considered as a psycho-social disorder in most of the countries. In India it is seen as unnatural, wilful, vice and perversion. A transgender in India face many problems which even threat their fundamental right to live. This transphobia among the common population has made the existence of a transgender in struggle. As the issue of transgender is gaining wider attention and the attitude of the society towards the transgender remains unchanged, the problems faced by transgenders increases. In such a scenario, the social workers have a major role in improving the social status of transgender through various measures.Transgender is the state of one's gender identity (self-identification as women, man, or neither) not matching ones assigned sex (identification by others as male or female based on physical/genetic sex). Transgender does not imply any specific as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, pansexual, polysexual, or asexual.A transgender individual may have characteristics that are normally associated with a particular gender, identify elsewhere on the traditional continuum, or exit outside of it as other, agender, Gender queer , or third . people may also identify as bi-gender, or along several places on either the traditional transgender continuum, or the more encompassing continuums, which have been developed in response to the significantly more detailed studies done in recent years.In Tamil Nadu the equivalent term is Thirunangai (Daughter of god), Aravanni, Aravani, or Aruvani, Kothi and Double-deckers. A male who takes a receptive or feminine role in with a man will often identify as a Kothi (or the local equivalent term). They often dress as women and act in a feminine manner in public spaces, even using feminine languages to refer to themselves and each other. The usual partners of are masculine men, whose identity is as a 'normal' male who penetrates. These male partners are often married, and any relationship or with Kothis are usually kept secret from the community at large. Some Kothis may form relationship with men and even marry, although their marriages are not usually recognised by law or religion. Aravani is an equivalent term for transsexual, which refers the transgender who has undergone reassignment surgery. …