That’s an interesting podcast. You do have a very nice voice and I was interested in how you related that encounter with somebody who suggested the same. I would guess that most people are quite precious about gender identity and carry the idea that they are able to divine differences between transexuals and the rest of us. And might even feel deceived when they can’t.

Thought provoking. Thank you.

Thank you @Praguetory.

That idea that some people would LIKE to be able to tell up-front that someone is trans is a really insidious one. I’m sure you’ll appreciate where it can lead.

To use an analogy, it would be handy for women to be able to tell which men are abusers before going near them. Some abusers pass as ordinary men and this bears the unfortunate risk that we might get into a relationships with one of them without realising it. On finding out, we might even feel we were deceived. However, I don’t think it would be thought acceptable to expect such men to have easily discernable markings, no matter how strong our personal feelings might be that we are being deceived.

All of us have things which we don’t reveal up front to strangers. Do any of us perform full disclosure to every stranger we encounter? Which things ought to be on the required list?

Most relationships are a process of gradually getting to know more about each other, in a process involving increasing levels of trust. It requires an exceptional level of trust for trans people to reveal their background to strangers. The evidence indicates that people can’t behave responsibly with the information.