I. INTRODUCTION Members of the transgender (1) community often face difficult psychological and emotional challenges before and after their transition to the opposite sex. (2) Pre-transition, transgender individuals feel an enormous split between how they feel inside and how their body represents them. (3) Post-transition, transgender individuals are often surrounded by hate and ignorance within society. (4) As Stephen Whittle, a noted transgender author, characterized this struggle, "[a]lways falling outside of the 'norm,' our lives become less, our humanity is questioned, and our oppression is legitimised." (5) Transgender persons find that "[t]heir lives and issues are frequently misunderstood and derided." (6) Furthermore, they are often told that their gender identity is part of a mental illness. (7) Members of the transgender community often find themselves without recourse when violent and discriminatory acts are committed against them. (8) Eventually, the cumulative effect of the tension within them and the hate and ignorance surrounding them, compounded by the fact that they are often excluded from legislative and judicial protections--or even common understandings of what it means to be human--creates a profoundly negative psychological effect within them.
