SEXUAL ABUSE AND CHILDHOOD TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCE: A CASE STUDY ON THE PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH OF TRANSSEXUALS IN MALAYSIA

Some studies suggested that transsexuals are suffering Gender Identity Disorder resulted from traumatic experience of sexual abuse during childhood. These traumatic experiences are kept as personal secrets and influenced their upbringing. Their sexual orientation changed towards the opposite sex, and sexual attraction towards the same-sex persons is stronger than towards the opposite sex. Consequently, this sexual orientation undermined their psychological health in the long term. The objective of this paper is to examine the ways in which sexual abuse during childhood causes male victims to change their sexual orientation towards homosexual transsexuals. This study adopted qualitative method using informal, in-depth interviews on five (5) homosexual transsexuals living in Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. Four respondents had lived through the time of forcible sexual abuse of oral sex since childhood, while one respondent had sexually abused in his early adulthood. They reported as feeling traumatized and later turn into this behavior as a way of releasing anger and resentment against those who victimized them. This paper concludes that sexual abuse affected psychological health of a person, which may change one's sexual orientation even though he/she is aware that the behavior contradicts the values that he/she and the Malaysian society holds. This study may implicates as a guide for responsible bodies such as the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development, the Ministry of Health, and researchers, in finding alternative intervention that help transsexuals to recognize their true gender identity, via medical, psychological, spiritual and moral support from the society at large.