Are Transgender people attracted (romantically/sexually) to people of the sex they were born with (as Gay / Lesbian) or the opposite sex (heterosexual)?

What a person identifies as does not necessarily determine what they are attracted to. Transgender people, like everyone else, can have any social orientation.

However I think it is most common that transgender people are generally attracted to the opposite sex from the one they identify as, and/or are queer/bisexual.

When I was in my pre/early teens, I often passed as being a girl. I probably was more androgynous than female, however—but there were several times I pretended to be a girl in some settings and I was actually quite good at it. I also got beaten up severely for it, several times, and embarrassed those who claimed me as a family member or relative or friend.

Truth is, I really didn’t TRY that hard. It seemed and felt perfectly “right” though forbidden.

I liked doing this and sometimes wished I was a girl in an odd way—but I was always heterosexual. In fact, I found the male/masculine body kind of repulsive. In no way was I gay. Girls were all I was interested in. Men seemed hairy and kind of aggressive.

At some point, however, I had to deal with the fact that girls—REAL girls, were attracted to manly features. In order to get a girlfriend, you had to be manly and masculine.

Even so, men could also be nurturing and considerate—as long as they were confident and could make people feel secure.

I was just wondering if Transgender folks felt like I did, or if they instead liked men and found them their object of desire.

^I would think that there are some, who feel/felt like you. I think being transgender is more about personal identity, rather than sexual orientation…

As @Zaku says, gender identity and sexual orientation are two different things. Transgender people can be attracted to their own sex, the opposite sex or both just as cisgender people can.

I can see why someone might choose to identify with the other sex. To me, females seemed more into harmonious things and were less having to prove one’s self with physical aggression, Furthermore, if the other sex is attractive to you, it kinda makes sense someone might want to ‘be’ that.

When I discovered that confidence and inner strength were attractive to women—and even made women attractive to a man—I sort of settled into keeping to my male gender. However, dogs and other companion animals are loyal, faithful, often passive—yet will defend us and their young to their death—seems like animals, which are androgynous, are a good model for all of us.

If the transgender person was gay, they would be attracted to the sex they see themselves as and vise-versa.

So, if a person was heterosexual (male seeking female) identified himself as female himself, this transgender male who identifies with female would be considered lesbian?

I guess it is true but gets complicated.

^I’m an atheist. When I asked a question here about it, I learned that there are many variations of atheism. I’m sure there are categories of trasngender thinking.

There certainly ARE many subcategories of atheism. That’s an interesting subject on its own,

An Atheist is someone who has decided or defined themselves as holding the position that God does not exist, or that there is no God. That is, no intelligent “supreme being” that is deliberately and intentionally involved in the design of the universe or human affairs or our personal morality

Agnostics believe there is room for the possibility of God’s existence, but there is no evidence, or not enough evidence, to know if God exists or not—but does not necessarily hold the position that there is no God.

The “grey area” between agnosticism and atheism is the possibility that there is an intelligence or supreme being or plan—but that it is well beyond human comprehension and not relevant to our happiness or affairs here—and that we do not acknowledge unless more evidence is given.

I can certainly relate to such a position and could certainly respect, also, the position that all human consciousness is conformed to acknowledge and attempt to manifest some of this incomprehensible ‘out there’ consciousness, plan, or supreme being. Unreachable as it may be, But I don’t think atheism permits such (agnosticism might) and I admit I am a Christian because I hold the position that Christ has revealed God through Himself.

I recognize that Jews, even atheist Jews who keep cultural traditions—and many teachers and other religions—have some ‘tapping in’ to the nature and paradigms of the divine—

and that Atheists should even have a moral compass or definite sense that some things are basically right and basically wrong. It isn’t just everyone for themselves. There is a pattern where everything works as its supposed to—and a wrongness when things disrupt this pattern or wrongly conform to a false sense of right and wrong.

Everyone has aspects of them that are masculine, feminine, strong, confident, sensitive, etc. Unfortunately they can get neglected, avoided, or tied up in shame complexes when we mistakenly over-associate qualities as good or proper for one sex and negative or improper for another.

The sex or gender of one’s person is very essential to who they are. I always take the middle ground that if a male wants to model traits he finds attractive in women then he needs to be himself—but probably NOT (there are exceptions, but generally NOT) identify as a woman. If you like the way women behave and like the things they stereotypically like, its okay to BE that as a male or androgynous or an effeminate male.

Now, if someone genuinely FEELS or BELIEVES themselves to BE the other gender and in a wrong body, and that is a conviction they have had since they first became aware of gender differences, that is a different matter and Transgender and where ever it leads is a valid choice.

Men who “get their jollies’ (no disrespect intended, just making the point), that is, get sexual satisfaction out of being the other sex—probably should not forfeit their penis over this in sexual reassignment surgery. I hate to even divulge this on Twitter but someone in his early 20s divulged to me once that he wanted a sex change operation (this was after I once revealed in a group setting that I passed for being a girl a lot in my early teens and liked it—was good at it , and considered it a compliment back then if someone were to ask me, rudely, if I was a boy or girl) — this young twentysomething revealed to me that he fantasized about being a girl or turning into one while masturbating. And I thought, egad! He masturbates but wants a SEX CHANGE operation?

Inasmuch as Transgender means someone BELIEVES they are the OTHER GENDER, I think there are also those who BELIEVE they are TRANSGENDER but ARE NOT.

I validate the validity of true Transgenderism—but I question whether or not every so-called transgender IS that. I think (for what it matters) that being or becoming the other sex may be tied to some people’s sexuality in a complicated way, but if they truly underwent the knife, they might loose that fantasy which gave them the feelings they hope to sate by becoming the other gender. If someone masturbates while “fantasizing” about being the other gender, then surgery is a BIG MISTAKE.

The reason I asked this question, then, I am trying to understand the sexuality or orientation of someone who believes they belong as a member of the gender other than the sex of their birth.

I have no idea. The whole situation confuses me so much I can’t think.