Welcome to Gendertreff e.V.
Self-help organization for Transgenders, Relatives and interested People
The platform for transgender people, relatives and interested parties.
The Gendertreff is a meeting place for information and exchange platform for transgender people. This includes many offers that are complemented by self-support groups in different cities. What we provide here is a place for networking and exchange with other transgender people and organizations to set common thematic priorities or to initiate cross-border offers.
We invite you to take advantage of the many opportunities here, and engage in a dialogue with us. We look forward to interesting conversations! We are also grateful for constructive feedback and always open to suggestions and requests.
The Gendertreff - Self-help organization for transgender people, relatives and interested parties exists in this form since July 2008 (founded in 2004). The Gendertreff is a non-profit organization, led and supported voluntarily by a team of transgendered individuals and their partners. We share experiences, advice and self-help, and have no financial interests. Everyone here is called upon to share their experiences and their acquired help with each other.The Gendertreff is not only a self-help organization for transgender people, but also for their relatives, friends and colleagues - which is very important. Our experience has shown that there is a lot of support, discussion and information needed. Interested parties are also warmly welcome to our platform to provide advice or to contribute information. By the general term "transgender" we want to address the various facets of transgender people. Among them are: "transsexuals", "transvestites" and "cross dressers", whether male-to-female or female-to-male. We don’t think in categories, because someone who calls her/himself a transvestite, may well be transsexual or vice versa.This platform includes, among other things, a blog / magazine, a forum and a detailed collection of links and addresses. They will provide information and exchange on the subject of what it means to be transgendered. In addition, we maintain self-help groups in different cities, where we offer the possibility of personal meetins and exchanges. For us, it’s important that these meetings take place in public places, because we want to convey to the society that we do exist. The Gendertreff tries to give assistance to anyone who hasn’t dared to get out; to give the necessary assistance and courage to take the first step out. Visiting our self-help groups is a good start; there you can appear in your desired or innate gender.
We take the view that any transgender should gather his / her personal experiences in everyday life and should acquire a healthy self-confidence in order to see how far he / she wants to go. Hormone therapy or even a sex-reassignment surgery may not be the desirable solution for anyone. It is important for us to make it clear that everyone has to find his / her individual way to deal with his / her trans-identity. The hormones and the doctors already provide a great deal to come very close to the desired sex, but it must be clear, that it can’t quite hide completely in what body we grew up. We can never entirely avoid being recognized as transgender. Therefore, we are working to be accepted in our otherness. Only those who can say, "I am a transman / transwoman", is on the right track. We want to avoid quick fixes, only to have a rude awakening afterwards. It is important to include the environment and the own ego into the "journey"; to take it slow and not to spring it on everyone around.
The Gendertreff forum is mostly public - that is, the public sector and some informations can be read by guests. With the free registration you can access the complete site, except for the protected group areas, set aside in respect of their privacy. You can be activated for these group areas by request. For example, there is an exclusive area for the internal exchange between the partners of transgendered people, but also pure TS-areas (MtW/WtM) and young TS-people can be found there. After being validated by the admin, you have the opportunity to introduce yourself, with postings to share and profit from experience and other informations.
There are many stories about transgendered people on the Internet, but we pay close attention to make sure that the stories in our blog / magazine are real and not imaginary. Also, we emphasize that we don’t only publish nice and positive stories, but also the negative experiences in our blog / magazine. Despite the euphoria, it mustn’t be forgotten that there is still much educational work to be done, but we are on right track. We use our various flyers or even the song "Zwei Seelen” (Two Souls) as a tool. It is also important that all reports in our blog / magazine are first-hand information, coming from transgendered individuals or their relatives.
The Gendertreff links and addressess collection is constantly updated and is clearly structured. Among other things, auxiliary services such as other self-help groups, forums and blogs are listed because we attach great importance to a nation- and world-wide collaboration and networking. We are happy to support the creation of new meetings and self-help groups. In addition, we look forward to contacts abroad, such as Netherlands, Ireland, Austria, Switzerland and USA.
In addition to the wide range of information on the Gendetreff platform, we offer a contact form and a guestbook. We welcome not only comments in our guest book, but information, assistance and cooperation through our contact form is welcome. Through the contact form, the whole Gendertreff team can be reached.
This in-depth and comprehensive offer is a lot of work and we look forward to your help and support. Gendertreff is financially independent and should remain so. You can support the Gendertreff by making your online purchases through our shopping portal. This will take you only two more clicks and not a penny extra; it will help us to fund this voluntary offer. Thank you for your help!
If you have any question, don`t hesitate to contact us.
Your Gendertreff Team