Creating Realistic Transgendered Characters with Terri Main

In the past two years, many have been introduced to the word "Transgendered." Caitlin Jenner, Orange is the New Black, Bathroom Bans, Transgendered military personnel have all featured in the news, social media, and entertainment world. Yet, few understand the variety of experiences covered by the word. Transgender is an umbrella term covering everyone from the man who crossdresses as part of sex play with his wife to those who strive toward androgyny to the quiet postoperative transsexual who just lives an ordinary life with few people even knowing they began life in the "opposite" gender.

Writing transgendered characters is challenging because there is a great deal of misinformation out there, and even advocates for the transgendered don't always do a good job of educating the public about the range of transgendered experience. This three-week course will help you create realistic, compelling, and accurate transgendered characters of different types. It will dispel some myths and help you understand some of the less sexy aspects of the real life of transgendereds like dealing with name changes, family relations, and dealing with government records.

Please Note: While most of this course deals with the social and emotional side of the subject, some lessons will deal with sensitive subject matter and references will be made to human anatomy using clinical terminology. Profanity and vulgar terms will not be used, but some clinical reference to sexual matters may be part of some of those lessons. Those lessons will be clearly identified so you can decide whether or not you wish to read them.