Audrey Mbugua, 12 November 2009The term 'transgender people'
refers to those who identify with a gender identity and role
different from the one assigned by birth. Among transgender
people is a group referred to as 'transsexual people' which
consists of individuals suffering from severe dysphoria and
social and occupational functioning as a result of their
assigned sex at birth. This dysphoria, which some refer to as
'transsexualism', is the most severe form of gender-identity
disorder.It is also crucial to note that transgender people can
identify themselves as transsexual people.Transsexualism is a
highly misunderstood subject in Kenya. Some conflate it with
inter-sexuality and hermaphroditism. Inter-sexuality consists of
an array of conditions in which an individual is born with
ambiguous genitalia or with atypical karyotype. Hermaphroditism
on the other hand denotes the existence of both testicular and
ovarian tissues in an individual. Inter-sexuality and
hermaphroditism are an array of atypical sex devel