[smc]

Psychologists generally agree that guilt is the state where you experience some sort of conflict at having either done something you believe you shouldn't have done, or having failed to do something you believe you should have done. In the former, the "shouldn't have done" may be related to a moral standard, which can be established at any level from individual to societal. In Western society, particularly in the United States (with its abhorrent Puritan history), morality is all too often associated with matters sexual, as opposed to truly immoral things that are prevalent in U.S. society, such as poverty, the absence of social safety nets, and so on.

In my view, an examination of feelings of guilt about having had sex with a transsexual ought to begin with an assessment of whether the "guilty" party feels that she or he has done something wrong. If the answer is yes, the next step ought to be to assess whether "wrong" is an external imposition that can be ignored (for instance, a church's admonition against premarital sex) or one that the person genuinely believes to be true. If not, the guilt is most likely about violating some arbitrary, and unnecessary, "moral standard" that involves others telling us what we can and cannot enjoy. The guilt may, though, be about violating trust. For instance, having sex with a transsexual may make one feel guilty, but not because it involves a transsexual but because it involves "cheating" on, say, a spouse.

In all of this it is worth keeping the differrences in mind. Freud wrote of guilt as being the result of internal conflicts. Buber wrote of guilt resulting from the harm we do to others. In either case, guilt is a miserable feeling, and one is advised to address it head on, first and foremost by uncovering its roots.

Whatever one does, one should not allow society to dictate that we feel guilty for enjoying any aspect of life, so long as no one gets hurt!