Tag: transamorous men

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Freedom for Trans People Demands A New Perspective

TL;DR: In this post the author reframes the trans experience through their mirror consciousness lens which shifts causality inward and away from blame narratives. Releasing blame, the author writes, restores agency, transforms relationships, and invites freedom through lived awareness rather than living a life constrained by seeking external validation or control.

If there is a common reaction I receive when I write from the mirror-based perspective, which is fundamental to the life approach I advocate, it is this: people hear blame where none is being offered. What’s meant as empowerment is received as accusation. While I’m offering liberation it is often interpreted as dismissal of lived pain. That interpretation comes exclusively from trans women.

And that reveals just how deeply blame narratives are woven into our collective understanding of harm, justice, and identity—especially within marginalized communities. Pretty much every marginalized community expresses the same narratives. These days, even majority communities often share those narratives.

Some Christians, for example, claim they are being persecuted. Even white men these days blame woke culture for their pain. But the focus I’m bringing in this post is to the trans community, which, of course, includes trans-attracted men like me. This is my audience. And so I’m offering an opportunity for liberation from a narrative that imprisons more than it liberates.

I’m not arguing against anyone’s experience. What I am doing is this: I’m offering a different framework altogether, one that doesn’t rely on blame to create change and doesn’t require anyone to be “wrong” for someone else to be free.

What a Blame Narrative Actually Does

Blame narratives arise for understandable reasons. People feel hurt. Some feel marginalized. Those same people are experiencing mistreatment for sure. Naming injustice, therefore, can be clarifying and necessary.

But blame narratives do something very specific: they locate causality outside the self. In a blame-based framework, healing depends on other people changing. Safety depends on the world becoming different. Self-empowerment and opportunity are something granted—or withheld—by external forces.

That orientation may feel morally solid, but it comes with a huge cost. When causality lives outside of us, so does agency. What’s more, externalizing causality makes the future conditional. It slows growth and advancement. Familiar unsatisfying patterns keep repeating and for good reason. Those patterns are offering feedback we can use to get out of those very patterns. But we can’t get out of them when we blame others for what’s happening to us.

Blame, therefore, can be accurate and still be limiting. It can also create repetitive patterns that unwittingly lock those doing the blaming in unsatisfactory lives.

Blame can be accurate. But it also creates repetitive patterns that lock those blaming into unsatisfying lives.

Mirror Consciousness: Not Blame, Not Bypass

Mirror consciousness, on the other hand, offers a radically different orientation. It does not say “this is your fault.” Nor does excuse harm. It also does not deny social realities. Instead, it asks a totally different question: What is this experience showing me about what is active within me right now?

The mirror does not assign guilt. What it does is it reveals information. From a non-dual perspective, life is not happening to us. It is happening with us—responding to our beliefs, expectations, fears, and unintegrated parts. Life reflects our stories in other words.

It’s reflecting back to us persistent stories we tell ourselves on many, many subjects. Again, it’s doing this so that we can do something about these stories, stories from which our reality springs. The mirror, therefore, is not punishing us. It’s not rewarding us either. It’s just giving feedback. What we do with that feedback is pivotal.

And if we do nothing, usually the feedback intensifies. Why? Because All That Is is intelligent and it wants us all to enjoy the blissful, joyful state of being that is the natural state of All That Is. It therefore lovingly offers this feedback, this mirror, so we can tune in.

There’s no morality involved in mirror consciousness. In fact, we could say that this process is mechanical, not moral. And that’s why it’s so powerful.

So why do so many in the trans community refuse to accept this perspective? Why do so many trans women push back when I tell them they are creating their experiences, particularly in relationships? And why do they blame men for their relationship experiences?

Why This Perspective Often Feels Unacceptable

Simply put, it’s because owning that we are the Source of our experience can be emotionally painful at first because it supposes that perhaps the problem is within us, not “out there”. Mirror consciousness threatens something many people, especially those in the trans community, rely on for stability: righteous positioning.

Blame narratives provide clarity. They establish heroes and villains. Such narratives demarcate the difference between us (those who share our pain) and them (those we blame for our pain). Mirror consciousness removes that scaffolding. Instead of asking “Who is responsible for this?” it asks “What is this preparing me to see?”

That shift can feel destabilizing, and, as I wrote above, emotionally painful. Especially for people whose identities have been forged through rejection, fear, struggle and survival. It’s also why this framework cannot be adopted through intelligence alone.

One cannot think their way into mirror consciousness. It can only be lived into. And this is another reason why many trans women reject this approach. They think they’re right about their life and won’t accept another has a better approach. Especially a cis-appearing trans-attracted man, someone who represents the very people trans people blame for their experiences.

That’s unfortunate for such women. For they attack the messenger instead of trying on a message that can radically transform their experiences for the better.

Some of my readers, mostly trans women, attack the messenger instead of trying on a message that can radically transform their experiences for the better.

Relationships Are Not Tests of Readiness

One of the most persistent myths in modern relational thinking is the idea that people must become “emotionally ready” before entering relationships. “He’s not ready for a relationship with a trans woman” some say. Or, “He’s fetishizing me in secret because he’s not ready to be with me in the open.” From a mirror-based perspective, however, this is backwards.

We are ready for every relationship we enter—because we entered it. Relationships are not rewards for emotional maturity; they are the mechanism through which maturity develops. Every relationship, therefore, is real and on purpose. Each connection serves everyone involved. That’s especially true for painful relationships. Not all relationships are meant to last after all. Many, nearly all of them, are meant instead to teach. And the teaching goes both ways.

But many people who feel righteous in their pain believe they must hold on to that righteousness, especially in relationship, in order to survive. It served them in the past, they say. Some even say holding onto this righteousness is an act of self love.

And here’s where we must make a distinction. This distinction matters deeply. There’s a big difference between “self love” and self preservation. Self-preservation is survival-based. It says, “I must do this or I will not make it.” Self-love is expansive. It says, “I trust who I am becoming.” Many courageous acts—coming out, transitioning, leaving unsafe situations—can be rooted in either. Both are valid. But they do not produce the same results.

Self-preservation stabilizes life. Self-love changes what shows up next. Confusing the two keeps people stuck repeating similar relational patterns while believing they have already “done the work” when they haven’t actually. And if the same relationship patterns keep happening there’s still work to do.

Why I Don’t Center Blame—On Anyone

My work does not blame trans women. It does not excuse men. It does not reduce complex dynamics to psychology or pathology. What I do with clients also does not place empowerment “out there.” Blame—no matter how justified—keeps power external. Mirror consciousness returns it inward, where it can actually be used.

My approach is about being free. Not “right.”

Freedom requires something deeper than insight and intellectual understanding. It requires confirmation—moments where life responds differently because you are different. That’s when this framework stops being theory and becomes evidence in life experience, especially relationship experience. When someone embraces the mirror consciousness approach, their life experiences change immediately. The change first shows up in themselves. Then, since life is a mirror, their external experiences change too.

My work with clients isn’t about assigning or validating blame narratives. It’s about creating satisfying lives by centering empowerment within the individual.

In time life changes so profoundly, the person changing want’s more and more. Amidst all that evidence they become convinced they create their reality. And in that state, they step into an immense amount of empowerment. When they do, they are ready to meet the relationship that mirrors that empowerment.

In the meantime, relationships prior to making that internal change keep reflecting the distortion that people outside of us are to blame for experiences we have.

Making such a switch takes a while for many reasons. For one, life is not magic. We cannot create a life we want without first doing something about the one we have, the reflection we’ve persistently created. We must first retire that life and that takes a while. But along the way, we get glimmers of our new lives. The lives that contain everything we want, including better lovers.

This Framework Is Not for Everyone

All that said, mirror consciousness is not a universal solution, and it is not appropriate for every stage of healing. It is for people who are tired of repeating the same relational dynamics. This approach is for those willing to feel destabilized before feeling sovereign. It’s for those ready to experiment with causality rather than argue about it or being right about why their life is the way it is.

For others, validation and advocacy may be the medicine they need right now. I see that as a timing issue. When someone is ready for the medicine they need, that medicine often shows up at the right time. Not before.

Where we place causality determines where power lives. When power lives outside us, life feels adversarial. It looks that way too. When power lives within us, life becomes responsive. Mirror consciousness doesn’t ask anyone to deny harm. It asks us to notice what changes when we stop organizing our future around harm. It asks “can life be better if we are willing to let go of putting our identity on the harm we have experienced?”

That noticing, that questioning — tested, lived, and confirmed — is where real transformation begins. For those ready to explore this framework experientially, The Transamorous Network exists as a space for inquiry, not doctrine. A place to test ideas against lived reality.

Understanding isn’t enough. Only lived confirmation makes the life my clients and I know is possible real. It’s available for anyone willing to try something they perhaps haven’t before: letting go of blaming the world for the world they experience.

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How This Trans Woman Manifested a Better Lover

I manage the this blog as well as another, called Positively Focused. Positively Focused also has a YouTube channel. On that channel I dive deep into the Positively Focused practice, which is the same practice I talk about on this blog.

A transgender client recently created for herself a remarkable series of events using the practice I walk clients through. It was worthy of a YouTube video celebrating the experience because she thought what happened was impossible….until it happened. I thought it so good I would share it here with my readers of this blog. I think you’ll find it remarkable. Definitely worth watching…

Trans women, like all people, are powerful creators. The best way to express that creative ability is by telling better stories. Like Samira has done, you can do the same thing. Nothing stands between you and getting what you want but you. Samira figured this out (pretty quickly). You can too.

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When The Honeymoon Ends, Powerful Truths Work Magic

TL;DR: In this post the author explores how a trans-attracted client learns that emotional alignment, not reassurance, determines relationship outcomes, revealing why practicing telling better-feeling stories transforms conflict, stabilizes love, and changes relationships for the better.

Last night, a man left an anonymous comment on one of my The Transamorous Network articles. The gist was: If a man is attracted to a penis, he must be gay. Trans women aren’t real women.

It wasn’t an honest question or a reach for understanding. What it was was the old cultural reflex—a stunted, fear-based assertion from someone absolutely certain they already know everything.

I deleted the message.

I deleted it because I’m not interested in hosting dead-end consciousness in a space meant for expansion, which this blog is absolutely about: expansion.

The irony, of course, is that the very belief expressed in that comment is exactly what causes so many trans-attracted men to deny themselves, hide, sabotage, and settle for relationships that never fit. It also creates trans women who hate themselves and, as a result of that self-hate, project that self-hatred on to trans-attracted men.

And that brings me to “Bob.”

Bob is a Transamorous Network client. He’s a good guy. A sincere guy. He’s also in a relationship that could become the relationship of his life… if he learns what most people never do: That Bob is the common denominator in every relationship he’s ever had.

Learning that opens a doorway to everything everybody wants in relationships. And in everything else.

The Honeymoon Begins

Bob met a trans woman I’ll call “Maria.” When he met her, she was doing sex work. She’s been doing that for a very long time, here in the U.S. and abroad. She also transitioned young.

So yes: Maria carries a lot of negative momentum – disempowering beliefs about many subjects. These subjects include men, relationships, sex, safety, worthiness, power and what love costs. Most of all, however, she holds disempowering beliefs about what she, herself, deserves. In other words, she, like many trans women, and trans-attracted men, has self-worth issues.

And Bob? Bob has his own negative momentum too—years of painful relational patterning with unsavory cis gender partners, repeated betrayals, repeated instability, repeated “here we go again” endings. Bob’s disempowering beliefs drive all of that. And all of that is exactly what drew Bob and Maria together. For Bob and Maria are perfect matches. Just like any two people in any relationship.

So when they met, the honeymoon hit hard. It hit so hard, Bob only saw the perfect in Maria. He saw her beauty, her focus. Bob appreciated the straightforwardness and determination Maria possessed, which was born of her many years of having to fend for herself. He embraced how unusually self-possessed Maria seemed compared to women of his past. Part of his astonishment was Maria is the first trans woman he’s ever met, let alone dated.

So all this swept both Bob and Maria up in a whirlwind nearly everyone finds themselves caught up in during the honeymoon stage of a fresh relationship.

When The Bubble Pops

I knew that stage wouldn’t last and tried to warn Bob what lay beyond that temporary phase so he could get ahead of it. But Bob couldn’t hear me over the din of strong momentum about what he thought was a perfect match. It IS a perfect match. But not in the romantic, almost fairy-tale way Bob perceived it.

But Bob would have nothing other than what he perceived. As a result, in a little over 6 months in, Bob proposed. Then he bought a ring. He promised to financially support Maria so she could stop the sex work. His commitment to Maria was total.

Again, he did all of this while the relationship was still suspended in that intoxicating early bubble—when both people are mostly projecting their highest hopes onto the other person and interpreting everything through the lens of it’s meant to be.

Bob and Maria can have the love they see the potential of. But at least one of them must take matters into their spiritual hands.

That’s precisely when the honeymoon ended. Just as it always does. When the honeymoon ends, what surfaces is not “the truth” about the other person. What surfaces is more illusion, only this time born of dominant negative momentum. It’s our dominant negative momentum of beliefs, born of past experience we interpret negatively. Those negative interpretations dictate how our future life goes, how relationships go and how people we meet show up in our lives.

And since that momentum is negative, we begin seeing those things which confirm our negative beliefs in our current relationship. That is where Bob is now. Maria too. And last night, for the first time in a long time (35 sessions) Bob actually saw the value of what I offer clients.

A Vicious Pattern of Momentum

One of the most destabilizing moments for Bob has been realizing something I’ve been saying for months: Maria hasn’t changed. She hasn’t gone from this perfect, ideal lover and potential wife to something less than that. Not really. What’s changing is Bob’s interpretation of Maria—because his own negative belief momentum is now active enough to hijack his perception. That’s what happens when “the honeymoon is over”.

We meet someone. We project our ideals onto the other person. Then we attach to them and in doing so lose ourselves. Then we try building a future with that person, the person we’ve created from our idealized ideations. Typically we try building that future fast.

But then the idealized projection collapses. And it collapses because the belief momentum built on idealized ideation can’t prevail against decades of negative momentum born of past experience. When that collapse happens, self-incrimination, blame and anger surfaces. Bob sees it as an entire different version of him. “Dark Bob” he calls it.

Dark Bob wants to say to Bob things like “Maria is not who I thought she was.” “She tricked me.” “I was wrong about her.” “She’s a threat.” “I can’t trust her.” “Love isn’t real.”

But none of that needs to drive Bob’s experience. What did happen, however, is typical of most people in relationships. Especially cis-trans relationships. Here’s the thing: unless Bob (and you, dear reader) does something about his disempowering, negative beliefs on a number of subjects, beliefs born of decades of feeding them, any perceived negative act Maria displays will trigger those old beliefs. Those old beliefs generate an emotion. And that belief/emotion construct becomes the lens through which Bob perceives Maria and acts in response to her.

Bob isn’t alone in this.

The Mirror Doesn’t Need Blame

The exact same thing is happening in Maria. When she allows old habitual beliefs, beliefs based on survival, threat and insecurity, to dominate, she too feels emotions, then perceives Bob through her distortion. When that happens, she acts from that distortion.

Now both people are blaming each other for what the mirror is showing them. That’s right. In every relationship, but particularly romantic ones, each partner reflects back to the other, whatever beliefs are dominant in that person. This is a constant, fundamental principle of how the Universe works. Life experience is a reflection of what emanates from within us.

Where else do you think life experience comes from?

And because of this, we each possess tremendous potential to deliberately create life experiences filled with nothing but what we want. Including ideal lovers. Doing that, however, requires knowing the people (and events and circumstances) are mirrors. And knowing that criticizing, blaming, attacking, or belittling a partner is totally missing the point.

It’s like blaming your reflection for having spinach in your teeth.

In every relationship, your partner is reflecting back to you what you carry in yourself.

Bob described moments where Maria would get internally activated. She’d be jealous, express anger (the flip side of powerlessness), or frustrated at Bob. These are all emotions. He also described moments where he would get internally activated. He’d get defensive, self-critical, fearful or feel disrespected. These are emotions too. And here’s the part that matters: Both of them are bringing the capacity to “snap” into this relationship.

Snapping at one’s partner doesn’t mean we’re bad people. It’s just a pattern we’ve practiced. A pattern born of amplifying negative belief momentum. It happens when very strong negative beliefs take us over. When they do, we have no other alternative but to act in ways consistent with the emotion (anger, fear, threat, insecurity) we feel. That’s what “snapping” is.

You Can’t “Manage” Your Partner’s Triggers

That snapping—whether it becomes arguments, accusations, emotional withdrawal, or dramatic escalation—exists both in Bob’s and Maria’s past. That’s why their previous relationships went the way they went. So now, they’re meeting these behaviors again…together.

And if they don’t understand what is happening, they’ll do the usual human thing: react, blame, justify, and repeat. But if even one person in the relationship learns how reality works—if one person learns how to stay in empowerment, sovereignty and love—then the relationship becomes something else entirely.

It becomes what I call the pearl-maker. The grit in the oyster becomes the pearl because the oyster doesn’t treat grit as an enemy. Negative experiences in relationships are the grit in this case. These experiences offer tremendous opportunity for everyone involved. Most people miss the opportunity though.

One of the most subtle traps Bob fell into is one that looks like love, but isn’t. It’s the trap of emotional responsibility. He described trying to behave in ways that would keep Maria from getting triggered. For example, Maria’s insecurity is so strong, even if she perceives Bob looking at a trans prostitute, she gets on his case. She accuses him of wanting more than she can offer. She expresses fear that she can’t satisfy him. This, of course, drives Bob crazy. That’s because he’s not feeling any of that. And no matter what words he uses, he can’t convince Maria otherwise.

So instead, he’s beginning to box himself in. He’s very careful to not even glance in the general direction of a prostitute, in hopes of keeping Maria’s mental finger off her trigger.

This is common in all relationships because people often carry social pressure and internalized shame—so the instinct becomes: “Let me be careful so I don’t rock the boat.” But that carefulness is poison. Because now we’re not relating as two sovereign adults. Instead we’re relating as two disempowered people trying to control outcomes. Outcomes born in vibration (thought, belief, focus, stories). Outcomes that have manifested already.

And no one can control those.

Finding and Holding the Center

What I offer clients is ruthless on this matter. You cannot be responsible for how your partner feels. And they cannot be responsible for how you feel. If Maria is insecure, Bob cannot “fix” that insecurity. He can’t do it by shrinking himself, censoring himself, or contorting himself into a performance of safety. No can he fix it through words.

If he tries those routes they just teach Maria that her insecurity is valid and that Bob is dangerous unless managed or controlled. And there is nothing humans like less than being controlled. Controlling Bob is not empowering for Maria. And it’s not authentic for Bob.

So what’s the alternative? Bob must become the one who holds the center of their relationship. Not by controlling Maria. Nor by forcing her to change. Not by changing himself either. Instead, he must refuse to collapse into interpretations alive in him that rise to the level of conscious awareness whenever Maria collapses into interpretations alive in her when they rise to her conscious awareness.

This is where the practice becomes real. After all, anyone can be loving when everything is easy. But can you be loving when your partner is projecting? Can you stay in clarity when your partner is chaotic? Can you stay open when your partner is defensive? How about when your partner is showing you they’re “ugly”? This is what I show clients how to do.

And when they do, they become a stabilizing field. And when they become that stabilizing field, reality reorganizes around them. Including other people.

In order for Bob to get what he wants with Maria, he’s got to stabilize his field and rest in his sovereign power. That comes from refusing to collapse into Maria’s insecurities.

The Equation That Changes Everything

Here is the equation I gave Bob—an equation I’ll keep giving him until it becomes muscle memory: When you feel negative emotion, you are allowing thoughts that will create more reality experiences that include what you’re feeling negative about. Nothing else is responsible for that negative emotion, or for what you experience. Period.

Thought creates the emotion. It’s really vibration, but hardly anyone has access to the frequency they’re vibrating. My advance clients learn to access that, but that level of mastery isn’t necessary to radically change relationships (and the potential for having fulfilling relationships).

If you’re up to speed with what you’re reading this should be obvious. Clients who’ve been with me a while find it obvious: Your negative emotion is not evidence that your partner is wrong, nor is it evidence that they did anything to you.

What your negative emotion tells you is you are interpreting the moment through distortion. When Bob feels defensive, it’s because he is telling himself a story in which Maria is an attacker. But Maria is not attacking him. Not ever. She might be projecting her fear. She might be expressing her insecurity in a clunky way. Or she might be reacting from a lifetime of survival momentum, blaming Bob in the process and making a mess of their relationship. But that is not an attack.

What is it? It’s a mirror showing what’s inside Bob.

And if Bob uses the mirror correctly, he can do something extraordinary: He can tell a better-feeling story. Not a fake story, not a delusional story. A better-feeling story—one that aligns with love, clarity, and empowerment. When he does that consistently, he becomes unconditionally in love. Love is an emotion. In other words, he doesn’t need his external conditions to be a certain way in order for him to feel a certain way.

That is creative power.

Freedom Found in Love

Because when Bob stays in love, he stops reacting to Maria’s defenses born of her negative belief momentum. He stops feeding her insecurity. Bob stops reinforcing her old story about men, relationships, and about herself. And as he changes, as he remains sovereign from her negative momentum, something else remarkable must happen: the version of Maria he experiences must change. She must change to match his higher vibrational stability in love as his mirror.

This won’t happen because Bob pressured her. It will happen because Bob stopped practicing aligning to the reality in which he rendezvous with the Maria who feels unstable, unsafe, or unworthy.

There’s a lot at stake for Bob. They’ve exchanged engagement rings. He’s planning to relocate to Mexico permanently. There’s a future on the line. And for the first time since engaging with the practice I offer, Bob is waking up to a new reality. One that asserts this practice isn’t a philosophical luxury. It’s a relational necessity.

That’s why he recently asked to see me more than just once a week. Now that he’s ready, I’m starting him on a daily appreciation practice in the morning—when things are calm—so he can build the muscle memory before the “shit hits the fan” with Maria. Because when the fan gets hit, he won’t rise to the occasion. He’ll default to what he’s practiced. And if Bob defaults to his old, practiced momentum, this relationship will become another painful chapter.

But if Bob defaults to deliberate alignment—if he becomes the one who holds the center—then Maria does not have to be “fixed” for this relationship to become a pearl. She only has to be met. Met with unconditional love. If all trans-attracted men and trans women could offer this real, powerful unconditional love, every cis-trans relationship would be glorious.

That’s the path I offer my clients. It’s the power inherent in better-feeling stories. And it’s based on the one constant of the Universe. A constant every major spiritual path outlines: Being 100% in love—on purpose—no matter what, leads to fulfillment, joy and expansion.

If you recognize yourself in Bob, or perhaps as a trans woman see yourself in Maria, you could benefit from learning what I offer my clients.

It makes a world of difference. Every one of my clients know this. You can too. Reach out if this resonates. I’d be happen to talk with you initially for free.

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The Hidden Truth of Trans-Attraction and Real Love

TL;DR: The author dismantles the myth that trans-attraction is fetishization, showing how authentic attraction to transgender women is distinct, deeply human, spiritually aligned and leaves trans-attracted men free to love themselves.

For years, one of the most common misconceptions I’ve encountered in my work with trans-attracted men and the women who love them is this: that being drawn to transgender women is just another form of fetishization. I used to hear this often in comments on my blog, and recently, a thoughtful reply raised the same point—comparing trans-attraction to a man preferring women of a certain race.

On the surface, that argument may sound convincing. Isn’t attraction just attraction? Isn’t trans-attraction simply one more “fixation,” no different from a preference for redheads or tall women? The truth, however, is far deeper. Reducing trans-attraction to fetishization not only misunderstands men’s lived experiences, it also undermines trans women’s authentic worth.

What Fetishization Really Means

Fetishization is the act of reducing another person to a body part, identity marker, or sexual novelty. It happens everywhere: racial fetishization, disability fetishization, and yes, fixation on transgender women. None of this is new. Human beings often project their insecurities or curiosities into sexual desire.

Yet fetishization, by its very nature, dehumanizes. A fetishizer sees only the attribute, not the whole person. When men are genuinely trans-attracted however, this is not what’s happening. They aren’t chasing “a trans body” or “a trans novelty.” They are attracted to transgender women as complete, multifaceted human beings who also happen to be trans.

The distinction matters. To call every instance of trans-attraction “fetishization” not only insults the men who experience it, it insults the trans women whose humanity gets reduced to a label.

How Trans-Attraction Is Different

In my twelve years of coaching trans-attracted men and couples facing problems due to trans attraction, I’ve learned that authentic trans-attraction isn’t a curiosity or a passing fixation. For many of these men, cisgender women don’t register as partners at all. Their desire, affection, and long-term compatibility all point toward trans women.

That makes “trans-attraction” more than just a “preference.” It’s an orientation that sits outside gay/straight binaries. Unfortunately, society’s misunderstanding of this creates enormous turmoil. When a man discovers his attraction to trans women, shame quickly follows. He may believe this makes him gay, broken, or perverse. None of that is true.

Further, cheating with a cis woman doesn’t shake a man’s sense of identity. Attraction to a trans woman often does. That existential crisis — “Am I gay? Am I still a man? Am I lovable?” — is what makes trans-attraction uniquely different from the examples critics often bring up.

Why Labels Create Both Clarity and Confusion

It’s fair to ask: does identifying as “trans-attracted” or “transamorous” create a new orientation? In some ways, yes—it gives men a safe language to understand themselves. Labels like “trans-attracted” are helpful starting points because they validate an experience men often carry in silence.

But labels are also limited. They can box people into identities that don’t fully reflect the richness of who they are. “Transgender” does the exact same thing for trans women. That’s why my work goes beyond labels. The ultimate goal is freedom — living authentically without fear of what others might say, and without clinging to social categories for validation.

This paradox shows up in trans communities, too. Many trans women rightly reject the gender binary, yet insist on being seen exclusively as “women,” rejecting any nuance that distinguishes their journey from that of cis women. Some even accuse men who appreciate their trans-ness of fetishization. In truth, empowered trans women I’ve met embrace the wholeness of their identity, without fear of being reduced.

“Trans attraction” gives men a starting place to understand themselves. From there, they can let go of labels and simply love.

The Hypocrisy of the Fetish Trope

Accusing all trans-attracted men of fetishization often says more about the accuser than the accused. Trans women who haven’t fully accepted their own trans-ness may feel objectified when a man affirms it. If she sees her trans identity as shameful, then anyone who finds it attractive must be “fetishizing” her. This is projection at work — her unresolved self-acceptance mirrored back through his desire.

That doesn’t mean fetishization never exists. Of course it does. Some men (and women) reduce others to novelty. But collapsing all trans-attraction into that category silences the many men who are sincerely, holistically drawn to trans women. It also denies trans women the dignity of being loved for all of who they are.

A Spiritual Perspective on Trans-Attraction

From a spiritual perspective, the attraction between trans-attracted men and transgender women is not random. These men are vibrational matches for these women. They come together not to perpetuate shame, but to reveal authenticity. Trans-attracted men often carry the role of affirming trans women’s worth, just as trans women often catalyze men into deeper self-honesty.

This isn’t fetishization. It’s alignment, sovereignty in action. It’s the unfolding of two people stepping into authenticity, even when culture doesn’t understand them.

The real issue isn’t whether trans-attraction is a fetish. The issue is whether men and women are willing to live from their authenticity. That authenticity is what dissolves shame, heals relationships, and creates love that lasts.

Conclusion: Beyond Fetish, Into Freedom

Fetishization reduces people to objects. Trans-attraction elevates them into whole-person connections. While some men may indeed objectify, most of the men I work with are struggling not because they fetishize, but because they fear. They fear rejection, shame, and what their attraction “means” about who they are.

Sound familiar trans women?

Labeling them fetishizers adds another layer of stigma. Seeing them as authentically trans-attracted opens the door to healing — for them, for their partners, and for the trans women they love. So, is trans-attraction fetishization?

No.

It’s authenticity calling to be lived out loud.

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Enjoying Ass-Play Doesn’t Make You Gay

A man cheated on his wife. He came to me this week seeking help with his “trans-attraction.” The thing is—this guy isn’t trans-attracted. Sure, he’s in a powerful place of self-discovery. But he’s grasping for any definition that makes his desires okay. That’s because the definitions that come automatically to him are intolerable.

Those definitions tell him he’s gay. After all, any guy who likes taking it up the ass must be gay, right?

Never mind that all kinds of evidence—including the actual definition of gay—reveals that being gay has nothing to do with specific sexual acts. Gay means being “sexually or romantically attracted to members of one’s own sex.” Note: that definition has NOTHING to do with anal play.

In fact, many straight men enjoy anal stimulation. That’s why “pegging” is a thing. (Pegging, by the way, is when a WOMAN uses a strap-on to penetrate a man’s anus to provide him erotic pleasure.) So this man—let’s call him Romero—cheated on his wife because the dominant stories he held about his sexual proclivities told him he was gay.

And that’s also why he struggles with the label “trans-attracted.”

He Gave Her No Chance

Not being able to accept that he’s gay, Romero tried to find a better story: “I’m trans-attracted.” The problem is, he’s not. How do I know? Because he doesn’t find trans women attractive in a romantic sense. His brief experiences with trans escorts and prostitutes reveal the real reason he sought out such encounters: He wanted to take his ass-play to the next level—and didn’t think his wife would be okay with that.

In fact, he hadn’t told his wife—of over 20 years—about this important part of his sexuality. Why? For the same reason: shame and fear. That and a pile of inherited beliefs that negatively judged what he likes. Here’s the twist: when he did tell her, as part of admitting he cheated…She wasn’t bothered by the fact that he enjoys anal play. She was bothered that he didn’t give her a chance. A chance perhaps to be part of it. Maybe a chance to hear him. Perhaps a chance to respond before he decided to go outside the marriage.

Guys, some of you out there are on the down-low with trans women. But you’re not actually trans-attracted. I’ve met two men like this: Romero, and another I’ll call Cliff.

Let’s look briefly at Cliff’s story. I’ll share more about him in a future post.

Problem Marriages

Cliff loves his wife and has no real interest in trans women the way a truly trans-attracted man would. In other words, he doesn’t find them irresistible—as a step above cis women. Cliff falls somewhere between Romero’s experience and the experience of real trans-attracted men. A past sexual experience opened a curiosity in him—so now he’s exploring.

But he still wants to stay with his wife and kids. Because of this, I told him he’s likely on what I’d describe as a spectrum of trans-attraction. There’s a flicker of interest, but his love for his wife remains strong—and isn’t deeply threatened by his curiosity.

What matters most for both Cliff and Romero isn’t who they’re doing what with. It’s why they’re doing it. In both cases, like many marriages, there’s an opportunity for growth. A chance to explore deeper, richer experiences of what it means to love another. But fear, secrecy, and years of inauthentic relating have created a dynamic where authenticity doesn’t feel safe. That’s the problem.

It’s All About What You Believe

Romero, bless his heart—and Cliff—both believe they are something they’re not. And in the midst of that distortion, both damaged their marriages. But the wives aren’t off the hook.

This is a co-creation.

These women must look at how they’ve been being—especially around their husbands. They must unpack the beliefs inside their own belief constellations helping create both husbands who didn’t feel safe being who they really are and marriages that aren’t strong enough to handle each person’s expansion.

If you’re in a marriage where trans-attraction (or confusion around it) is present, talking with me could really help. Get in touch.