interviewed 46 men in the San Francisco area who had sex with transgender women, but found 'no consistent patterns between how men described their sexual orientation identity versus their sexual behavior and attraction to transgender women'. : 381Īs part of HIV prevention research in 2004, Operario et al. As an example, they described a case who 'said that he was 'bisexual' rather than 'gay' because he was able to think of the transwomen as women'. Thirteen identified themselves as heterosexual, and 13 as 'bisexual or probably bisexual.' The authors opined 'These labels only superficially describe their sexual interest,' : 378 and noted that the expressed interest in trans women was sometimes used as a basis for denying a more stigmatized self-identity. Williams interviewed 26 men sexually interested in transwomen (MSTW). Despite being referred to as a paraphilia by several researchers, having a sexual preference for transgender people is neither diagnosable as a mental illness nor as a paraphilic disorder.
