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Attraction to transgender people has been the subject of scientific study and social commentary. Psychologists have researchedsexual attraction towardtrans women,trans men,cross dressers,non-binary people, and a combination of these. Publications in the field oftransgender studies have investigated the attraction transgender individuals can feel for each other. The people who feel this attraction to transgender people name their attraction in different ways.
Cisgender men attracted to transgender women primarily have asexual identity that isheterosexual if they are exclusivelygynephilic (meaning "attraction towomen and/orfemininity"). Others may instead have abisexual orpansexual identity, or may regard their attraction as a distinct sexual orientation. Transgender individuals often call their attraction to other transgender peopleT4T and may sometimes consider it a sexual identity and/or a form ofpolitical identity.
In a 2018 study byKinsey Institute fellowJustin Lehmiller of 4,175 Americans' sexual fantasies, he found that "about one in three men and one in four women" reported they had "fantasized about sex with a transsexual partner."[1][2]
A 2019 study asked 958 online participants, mostly young adults in Canada and the United States, which gender identities they would be interested in dating. In the sample, 3.3% of heterosexual men, 1.8% of heterosexual women, 11.5% of gay men, 28.8% of lesbian women, and 51.7% of bisexual,queer, and non-binary people (grouped together for analysis) reported they would be interested in dating a transgender person, and the remainder were not interested.[3][4] In contrast, a 2025vignette study found that heterosexual women reacted more positively to an other-gender trans person makingflirtatious advances, compared to how positively that heterosexual men reacted to this scenario on average.[5]
Some commentators have discussed romantic or sexual attraction towardstrans people as portrayed in media, such as in film or television series. TheHBO drama series,Euphoria (2019), was one prominent example, and depicted the romantic relationships ofJules Vaughn, a trans woman character.[6][7][8] Vaughn, portrayed byHunter Schafer, had relationships with both men and women,[9][10] including the main character,Rue Bennett.[11]IndieWire said the series had a "trans-amorousgaze".[8]Zackary Drucker praisedEuphoria as the result of trans creators' grassroots campaigns for film and television to create "more complex representations of trans people … 'Euphoria' is a measure of our progress and a successful outcome deserving of celebration."[8]
As representation and awareness about attraction to trans people as portrayed in other genres of media have been described, so has the relevance oftransgender erotica. Some people have "discovered … attraction to trans women through pornography."[12][13] Worldwide viewership for transgender erotica began to grow significantly in the 1990s,[14] sometimes credited to the introduction ofpersonal computers and theWorld Wide Web, thus enabling the sharing of media.[15] This growth in viewership has continued since,[14][16] with some studios "dedicated specifically to trans porn, in addition to independent and amateur productions".[14] However, this genre existed prior to the 1990s, emerging at least by the 1960s. At that time, "an increasingly unapologetic generation of trans people … began to consciously reject the middle-classpolitics of respectability ofChristine Jorgensen and prior generations".[17]: 12 It is reported there is a hinted demand for "enduring centrality of the erect penis in trans porn", however, some trans women in the genre "have a successful career post-GCS"; actresses such asAjita Wilson and Jill Monro appeared in films after GCS as early as the 1970s and 1980s.[17]: 12–13 Trans men have also been portrayed in the genre,[18] including in its earlier years as pioneered by "independent, small studios … situated within the broader lesbian,queer, and trans porn scene in theBay Area, dating back toOn Our Backs and Fatale Video in the 1980s".[17]: 11
Some commentary criticizes trans-focused erotica that contains "fetishization", "oversexualization", and similar themes.[19][20] In a 2021 article byInternet Group, clinician Adilon Harley referenced the relatively high viewership of transgender-focused erotic content inBrazil,[21] only lower than inArgentina.[22][23] Relating it to trans people's experiences in Brazil's context, Harley said, "due to prejudice, [they] may have their body restricted to hiddendesire, in which sex will only be carried outanonymously, in a fetishized way. A body as an object of therepressed and unprocessed desires of the other person, and exempt from the possibility of growing in the relationship and feeling."[21] Most of the 142 transgender and non-binary people, in a 2021 survey providing a spectrum of responses, described fetishization in this regard as "a negative experience ofsexual objectification", particularly when it crosses "the line between attraction and fetish".[19] (See:§ Terminology.)
In a 2024review article, it was found the "largest consumers of pornography featuring trans women are heterosexual cisgender men. In contrast, with regard to porn featuring trans men as protagonists, the largest consumers are cisgender women and gay men."[14]
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In their sociological study,Martin S. Weinberg andColin J. Williams interviewed 26men sexually interested in trans women (MSTW).[24] 13 identified themselves as heterosexual, and 13 as "bisexual or probably bisexual". The authors opined "These labels only superficially describe their sexual interest,"[24]: 378 and noted that the expressed interest in trans women was sometimes used as a basis for denying a more stigmatized self-identity. As an example, they described a case who "said that he was 'bisexual' rather than 'gay' because he was able to think of the trans women as women".[24]: 381
As part of HIV prevention research in 2004, Operario et al. interviewed 46 men in the San Francisco area who had sex with transgender women, but found "no consistent patterns between how men described their sexual orientation identity versus their sexual behavior and attraction to transgender women".[25] Of the sample, 20 of them described themselves as being straight or heterosexual. Some men were definitive about this declaration, while others were hesitant and wondered if they should consider themselves bisexual.
A Northwestern University study recruited 205 men interested in trans women. In that online survey, 52.9% identified as straight, 37.3% as bisexual, and 2.6% as gay, and 7% as something else. Also, 55.9% said their ideal partner would be a cisgender woman, and 34.7% said it would be a trans woman. The study authors concluded that "The interest in trans women appears to be a distinct sexual interest separate from heterosexual men's attraction to women for the majority of men, but there is a substantial minority who may experience it as their sexual orientation."[26]
A 2016 study that used aphallometry device demonstrated that the arousal patterns, genital and subjective, ofcisgender men who report attraction to transgender women who have "female-typical physical characteristics (e.g. breasts) while retaining a penis" are similar to those of straight men and different from those of gay men. The study showed that these men are much more aroused to female than to male stimuli. They differed from both the groups of straight and gay men, however, in also displaying strong arousal to stimuli featuring trans women, to which they responded as much as to the cisgender female stimuli. Of the men attracted to trans women, 41.7% identified as bisexual, with the remainder identifying as straight. The bisexuals among them did not display significantly more arousal to male stimuli than their heterosexual counterparts, though they did report a higher number of male sex partners.[27]
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In 2015,ThePalgrave Handbook of the Psychology of Sexuality and Gender described a lack of research exploring others' attraction to trans men or nonbinary FTM persons.[29] This is because much of sexual research often centers the "experiences and perspectives of heterosexual males," who generally have sex with trans women rather than trans men.[29]
The traditional understanding of lesbian does not convey attraction to trans men.[30] A lesbian whose partner transitions to a trans man generally identifies asqueer rather than lesbian. Similarly, a heterosexual man whose partner transitions to male would generally use the "queer" label as well.[30]
Erotic materials created for people attracted to trans men have become more visible, especially due to pornographic actorBuck Angel.[18] Trans activistJamison Green writes that cisgender gay men who are partnered with trans men "are often surprised to find that a penis is not what defines a man, that the lack of a penis does not mean a lack of masculinity, manliness, or male sexuality".[31] Gay authorAndrew Sullivan has criticized the idea that gay men should necessarily be attracted to trans men, arguing thatsexual orientation is based on biological sex, not gender identity.[32]
A variety of casual terms have developed to refer to people who are attracted to transgender people. These terms includetrans-attracted,[33]transamorous,[34][12] trans-oriented,[33]transfan,[35]trans admirer,[33] andtrans catcher.[35] The termstransromantic,transamorous andtranssensual have also emerged, but have not seen much usage.[36]
The termstranny chaser[36][35] (often shortened tochaser)[33] andtranny hawk[35] have been used, althoughtranny is considered a slur by many.[37][38] The termchaser is predominantly used to describe cisgender men who are solely sexually interested intrans women,[33] but the term is sometimes used to refer to others, such as cisgender women, and/or those interested intrans men.[36][33] Transgender people often use the term in a pejorative sense, because they considerchasers as referring to those who value them for their trans status alone, rather than being attracted to them as a whole person.[36] However, some instead claim this term in an affirming manner.[39] Sociologist Avery Tompkins ofTransylvania University inKentucky argued in an article in theJournal of Homosexuality that sex-positive trans politics cannot emerge if terms such as "tranny chaser" inform discussion of attraction to transgender people.[36]
In some literature, the termsgynandromorphophilic (noun:gynandromorphophilia)[27][40][41] andgynemimetophilic (noun:gynemimetophilia)[42][40] are used for men who are attracted to trans women who possess a combination of male and female physical characteristics. The termandromimetophilic (noun:andromimetophilia) describes an attraction to trans men.[43]
The termsskoliosexual andceterosexual have been used to describe attraction tonon-binary people.[44][45][46] The termspansexual andpolysexual (as well asbisexual) may be used by some people to indicate thatgender variant people are among the types of people to which one is attracted.[47]
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Transgender people may experience sexual and romantic attraction to other transgender people. This attraction is sometimes called "trans for trans"[48] or T4T attraction. The word T4T comes fromCraigslistpersonals andforums transgender people used to find other transgender people to date and have sex with.[49] Another term for T4T is "transromantic," though it is rarely used.[50]
There are a variety of reasons why transgender people might date or prefer dating other transgender people. Some transgender people prefer dating and having sex with other transgender people for both emotional and physical safety reasons, as cisgender people are more likely to enactgender-based violence.[51] Others feel that dating and having sex with other transgender people is "liberating", as it allows more gender euphoria, emotional safety, and freedom to explore gender presentation without the need to prove or explain the validity of their identity.[52] Others may simply find other transgender people more attractive than cisgender people. Lastly, T4T dating can also be a form of political identity, i.e., a form ofseparatism focused on advocating for transgender people within a society that maydiscriminate against them.[53][54]
As an example of a T4T couple, in 2022, Canadian actorsElliot Page andMae Martin attended theLACMA Art + Film Gala as a couple. Martin captioned their photograph with "My King" and "#t4t."[55][56]
In the context of FTM for FTM relationships, aDaddy/boy dynamic can be part of thegender affirmation process, as it may lead to experiences ofgender euphoria. In 2022,Transgender Studies Quarterly studied the correlation claimed that a Daddy/boy dynamic between trans people "can be read as gender labor; affective and intersubjective work that produces gender".[57][58]
GAMP is best considered an unusual form of heterosexuality rather than a separate sexual orientation. ... By this understanding of 'sexual orientation,' GAMP does not qualify. GAMP men in this study were indifferent between their self-reported sexual arousal by women and by GAMs; both were highly arousing to them.
