At first glance, it may seem like there isn't a difference between homosexuality and transgenderism, but they're actually separate things. Transgenderism is more about gender identification. For instance, a transgender man who has interest in normal men would not see himself as gay. Of course, with gender correction surgery still not perfect, not that many people can express themselves in the way they would want to.
This was why Project Hermaphroditus was a double-edged sword for the people joining it. Yes, they were having their bodies changed better than what the black-market surgeons attempted to do with them. They didn't completely change sexes, but being both sexes was acceptable for them. What was unaccounted for was the way their preferences would change. As it was known by then, uplifted Animalians are invariably heterosexual, with only converted Animalians possibly being homosexual. But eventually, the mating instincts of the animals they spliced with alters their preferences to be more bisexual. And herm Animalians inevitably became bisexual.
As such, some consideration had to be taken into account regarding the psychological states of the first volunteers for Project Hermaphroditus. After they've been given time to accumulate to their new Animalian bodies, Dr. Jones had them brought in for a bit of a group therapy session. The horses and hyenas were all gathered in a circle of chairs. There were the first two who were converted; Kicheko and Daffodil. Then there were the two other volunteers for each group. Buddy and Louise had both become hyenas while Hiroshi and Xenophon were now stallions/mares.
"Thank you all for coming here," said Dr. Jones, "I'm sure you've had quite a lot to get adjusted to."
"Well, I never imagined I'd miss meat that much," said Hiroshi.
"I know," said Louise, "I'm craving a salad but I have no appetite for one."
"I know your species changes are a lot to get used to, but we're here to talk about your current sexual orientations," said Dr. Jones.
There was a bit of quietness before Buddy said, "It's not really so bad."
"How so?" asked Dr. Jones.
"Well, me and Louise were already in love before we tried to have our sexes changed," said Buddy, holding the other hyena's hand.
"It's hard to imagine," said Louise, "Two transsexuals falling in love. Sounds like one of those transgender stories you read on the internet."
"Of course, in those stories, we'd have swap sexes through some magic artifact or alien experiment," said Buddy, "Those hackjobs didn't even come close to making things smooth."
"The ironic thing is that we were planning on adopting kids after getting married," said Louise, "Now we can have our own kids. The only question is who's going to carry them."
"Those anacondas seem to be able to have their pregnacies together," said Kicheko.
"Yeah, but they're being sponsored by a big corporation," said Louise, "Somebody's gotta to be the breadwinner in this relationship."
"Hiroshi, what are your feelings?" asked Dr. Jones.
Hiroshi may have been Japanese-American before being converted, but shi had very dark brown hair, even for hir ethnicity. Hir fur coat was also a rich chocolatey color, which made hir think about shortening hir name to 'Hirshi'. "I was been very androgynous even before the attempted sex change," shi said, "I was also gender-fluid."
"What's that?" asked Daffodil.
"It means my sexual identity tended to shift a lot," said Hiroshi, "Sometimes I feel like I should have been born a woman, but then I change my opinion. I thought maybe if I had a bit of hormone therapy, I'd be able to decide. But things...didn't work out that way. I went to the wrong people...and they butchered me."
"And how do you feel now?" asked Dr. Jones.
"I actually feel more...stable. Now that I'm both male and female, I don't need to decide what I am," said Hiroshi, "I'm not sure if it's the answer most gender-fluid people would do, but it feels right to me."
"And Xenophon?" asked Dr. Jones, "Is this what you want?"
Xenophon was easily the largest of the horses. In addition to trying to change hir sex to a man's, shi had been trying to bulk up with steroids. That would have earned her a place in Project White Lily, but shi wanted to be in Project Hermaphroditus. Shi was now a very impressive black steed with a white spot on hir nose. Out of all of them, shi was the most disappointed to not be a part of the A-BC, though hir libido was a good reason why shi couldn't participate.
"I definitely felt like I should have been a man," said Xenophon, "I come from a long line of big men and I feel like it was a fluke that I was born a girl. I tried to fix that, but it didn't work out. Now I really am a man."
"You're half-man," said Dr. Jones, "You're still part woman. And are you comfortable with being like that?"
Xenophon would have blushed if hir fur wasn't so dark. "Well, I'm a lot more comfortable with giving dick than taking dick. I'm just not used to looking at other men like I look at women."
"I have the exact opposite problem," said Daffodil, "I never felt right as a man. I'm glad I'm a woman now, but I don't feel so comfortable with other women."
"You make a pretty cute woman if that's any comfort," said Xenophon. Dr. Jones had noticed that Daffodil and Xenophon had gravitated more towards each other after their conversions. There weren't any rules about herms only being with herms, but it seems those two were as likely to be together as Buddy and Louise.
"And what about you, Kicheko?" asked Dr. Jones.
Kicheko just shrugged and said, "I've always been bisexual. I guess I kinda always saw myself as a bit of a herm, though I gravitate a bit more to the male side. That's why I like hyenas so much. Maybe I should have just waited for this project to have started before even trying with that sex change surgery. But then, I wouldn't have been able to help bring that black market operating circle down."
Dr. Jones nodded at that. Kicheko was obviously the one best adapting to hir new gender and orientation. Though at least to hir, shi was already like that. It was unlikely there'd be other transsexual people who have the same self-image shi has, but shi would at least be helpful for others.