My knowledge should certainly not be taken as the final word, but it is my understanding from those who should know such things that "transsexual" refers to a person who has had, or who is in the process of having gender reassignment surgery. "Transgender", on the other hand, as I understand it, refers to someone who may have issues with his or her genetic and/or genital gender but who may or may not be interested in surgery to bring his or her physical gender into conformity with his or her psychological gender identification. Transgender also covers, as I understand it, those born with ambiguous gender characteristics - hermaphrodites and those with physical gender characterstics that cannot be easily assigned to either male or female in a traditionally accepted sense.
Neither of these terms have much of anything to do with cross-dressing, or in other words, transvestites. Transvestites are those, gay or straight, who like to dress as someone of the opposite gender from their own. The fact of the matter is that studies have shown that most transvestites are in fact heterosexual (and, in the United States, the majority tend to be straight males whose political orientation is largely conservative and Republican - go figure!). These statistics come from a psychology instructor I had for a class one semester whose speciality was the study of transvestites, transsexuals, and the transgendered. I have also been acquainted, at various times, with a couple of transsexual/transgendered individuals and with both gay and straight male and female cross-dressers. Amazing the variety of individuals one can meet even in the conservative area of California where I live.
