[Linkster]

To get back on subject here for a second:
From the people that run transsexual.org a Q&A session:
Q:We are a British-based TV production company. We are very interested in producing a documentary on shemales for the UK. Would you be interested in helping us to locate some subjects for the documentary, or being interviewed on transsexuality?

A: Hmmm, this is a little twisty. Let me explain.

Although we ostensibly both speak English, I know there are differences in usage between Great Britain and the US. In American english, 'Shemale' is a bit of a problem.

Here, a 'shemale' is equivalent to the proper definition of 'transgenderist', a person who uses hormones to partially transition, but who has no interest in being completely female. Instead, the 'shemale' enjoys a unique status, posessing the complete appearance and life of a woman, but the sexual organs of a male. This uniqueness is usually associated with prostitution as a career option, and the unsavory illegalities partnered to it.

Transsexuals, by and large, find this to be problematic for a number of reasons. One, they do not like to be associated conceptually by the public with shemales, because most transsexuals are trying desperately to integrate seamlessly into society and a culturally functional life. Such a mental association causes as much grief as does the common misconception of transvestites and transsexuals as being the same thing. This cultural confusion of definitions causes often serious problems for the majority of transsexuals, and thus there exists a certain amount of uncomfortableness and even disdain towards the shemale and transvestite both.

Indeed, the very term 'shemale' originated from within the sex industry, and -at least in American culture- is utterly and exclusively indicative of it. This is a stigma that the vast majority of transsexuals, ever struggling for mainstream acceptance, would find not merely a detriment, but a decided insult.

While a small number of transsexuals are drawn to the sex industry for various reasons, they are the fringe, if an over documented fringe. Even there, few transsexuals would want to be considered 'shemales', at least within American culture.

So, I am not sure if we have a misunderstanding here, with regard to language. I am knowledgeable about transsexual issues, from a transsexual perspective, but that perspective would have little or no connection with the life of the 'shemale' as the word is defined here

From http://transsexual.org/letters4.html