Is "shemale" a derogatory term?

[Cleo]

Hmmm… I am shooting shemales this evening…

My shemale friends (see FoxyAngel in sig) are perfectly happy with the label shemale but then again they make their living off of being in porn or escorting. They like the label tranny less and really dislike the label heshe but the worst thing you can do is refer to them as males. If you want to be really politicly correct and not also offend others who may be in some part of transition but not making their living off of being shemales then Tgirl is probably your best bet with transgendered being a close second.