What is ...

[Nigella]

... Transition? TS identified members responses only please :)

I don't want to start a debate on each members definition of transition, I just thought it would be a good idea to find out the varying degrees of what transition means to the varied membership of this forum.

Please NO comments on any of the posts, this is not a "trannier than thou" thread.

I will add my own comments later, once I have my thoughts in order :)

[LeaP]

Closest facsimile for the individual, as long as it minimally includes being full-time. Even so, that is measured versus my personal definition (or perhaps standard) of hormones, full-time, and SRS.

[I Am Paula]

I think we all agree were it begins, and where it ends. I think what a lot of girls (guys) forget- It's supposed to be a temporary state.

[PaulaQ]

Not in this order - that will vary based on needs and circumstances, but, to me, transition is quite a number of steps:
1. Medical transition

HRT
Electrolysis / Laser hair removal
Hair replacement / restoration / transplant
Facial Feminization
Trach shave
Breast Augmentation
GRS
Orchiectomy
So many other possibilities


2. Social transition

Coming out
Going fulltime
Voice feminization


3. Psychological / emotional transition

Gender therapy
Support groups
Unlearning male socialization
Finding yourself as a woman, what type of woman you are, how you present, etc.


4. Transition on the job (really social transition - but with super high stakes)

Coming out to HR
Coming out to your boss
Coming out to your coworkers
Going fulltime
Change employee information
Change retirement accounts, etc.



5. Legal transition

Court order for name / gender marker change
Driver's license
Social Security
Passport
Birth Certificate
... and a zillion other things...


Not everyone will need or want all these steps. And unfortunately, local laws interact on this stuff in weird ways, so that sometimes we have to do medical stuff we don't need to do legal stuff so that we aren't treated poorly.

To me, the bare minimum one does for transition is:
social transition - going fulltime
job transition - going fulltime
Someone doing only this much is going to face tough sledding in many places.

A more realistic definition to me is:
Medical transition - HRT, if possible. Other things as needed
social transition - going fulltime
job transition - going fulltime
psychological / emotional transition - at least attending a support group once in a while, but preferably some therapy

Obviously we're in transition while we're working on these goals, and arguably we're done when we feel we're done, but to my mind, HRT (provided it's medically possible), living and working as a woman, is really the core of transition for most of us. Of course the more medical things many of us can avail ourselves of, the more comfortable we'll be. And the legal parts of transition should be easy and straight-forward and affordable, but in most places, they are not, which is why I didn't include them. I don't think it's fair to say "you aren't in transition" because someone is missing a step like that, when it isn't realistically available to them. (In particular, requiring GRS for legal transition is just cruel, in my opinion.)

By the way, the above only applies to binary aligned identities like those of us on the TS forum. For non-binary people, transition may well be rather different. (And quite personal and not so well defined as ours tends to be.)

[ClaraKay]

"Transition" is a process by which one changes his/her physical appearance, gender expression and/or gender role to match one's natural gender identity.

[STACY B]

I wish I knew where it all goes,, But we don't until we get there? Most of all being able to find the inner peace and interact as one of the other girls an be treated a such,, Not all the clothes and shoes and makeup or hormones or surgery and anything else that gets us there. All are a state being to a level of acceptance to be treated as one of them in a Normal way. Not a freak and politicly correct way,, Just the normal everyday way they would treat a cis woman. Not a Trans chic,, A regular chic, That's what transition means to me.

To feel normal and not to feel as though I don't belong, Even though I could make being a man look easy and would and could and did fool everyone around me to the point of being looked up to by family members such as male relatives younger or maybe even older than me . When all I wanted was to fit in with the ladies and talk and be one of them without all of them feeling like I was flirting and not being nice for the sake of getting along as one of them. Just being look at and accepted to the point of a normal woman . That's transition,, From one being to the next.

[arbon]

somewhere between saving my ass and hell.....

but I do think it means at least living and identifying yourself in all aspects of your life as female for mtf.

[stefan37]

Transition to me is moving from one gender to the other.
The intent to live full-time, legally and socially as the opposite of your birth gender. Taking hormones and continuing to live as your birth gender with no intention of living legally and socially is taking steps to mitigate whatever GD intensity. But is not transition.

I like Misty's definition transitioner. That to me defines the process we undergo towards our target gender. The time frame is variable and many get stuck and some never make it. I know many girls that for live full time socially as woman. But can't for medical or financial, or even personal reasons take hormones, have SRS, or other surgical procedures. They are transitioning or have
Transitioned. Those individuals are to me TS and are living their lives as woman. Those that live as their birth gender or part-time middlers are gender variant.

My opinion and only mine. And yes I personally know an individual that identifies as female but doesn't take hormones, and lives as a male. I don't get it but ehh who am I to judge.

[Frances]

Externalizing or making visible your gender identity in a real and tangible way so that the world responds to that previously hidden gender and not to the manifest sexual identity that was obvious until then.

Gender does not change in my conceptualization of transition, only the sex and attributes related to it.

[Donnagirl]

Transition is the process of change... Everyone is in some form of transition, young to old, poor to rich, trainee to boss, it's just for us we have another form to consider, boy to girl. Just like all the other 'transitions' it's a personal process, each may have varying start points, different paths and our own ideas of end state, but there is much we all share.
The process starts with that serendipitous moment of realisation, the casting off of the last shards of denial, a deep self acceptance and the identification of the journey ahead, whether or not the destination is clear. There is no fixed routine, no checkpoints to pass, no 'to do' list to cross off. It's not a race, it's not contest... There's no right way, no wrong way.
I do think we spend a little to long in pointless comparisons, judgements and criticisms. I'm on this path, but I'm in the slow lane, enjoying the view. I certainly got to the start point at Mach 2 but that was just the way I was... I managed to get what I needed, what I wanted after an uncomfortable period of denial, anger, mood swings and refusal. From here, well I just want to enjoy the journey.

[Persephone]

To me transition is a state of motion, like transportation, it is a process that gets you from one place to another. Kinda like the transition from adolescence to adulthood, it can involve changes to your body, your mind, and your social situation.

PaulaQ hs done a wonderful job of listing the possible steps and paths for transition, but it seems to me that the big question is how to know when you are done, when your transition is over. Personally, I suspect it is over when you feel comfortable that it is over, and/or perhaps it is over when others see you as being at the other end of the journey; like when they stopped asking for your ID when you ordered a drink.

Long ago there was an incredible breakthough software program for its day, Lotus 1-2-3. The genius behind it, Mitch Kapor, went on to fame and fortune. The programmers were constantly working on Lotus 1-2-3- before it came out, honing this and polishing that, and I believe that at some point Kapor said, "What is on my desk at midnight tonight IS Lotus 1-2-3 Version 1.0. What you work on tomorrow will be Version 2.0."

To me transition is like that. If you don't call it done it will never be done.


I think what a lot of girls (guys) forget- It's supposed to be a temporary state.

Amen!

Hugs,
Persephone.

[PaulaQ]

To answer the question "when are we done", I think that is a very personal thing. For me, I expect that it will be when the nightmares I have finally stop.

[becky77]

Transition is the period of external change from one gender to another.
For me Hormones, fulltime, legal changes, GRS.

[Megan G]

In my eyes transition is the process of abandoning your birth gender with the intentions of 110% living, working and socializing full time as your target gender. As others have already mentioned transition is meant to be a temporary state with a beginning point and an end point, how long you spend in this phase is up to the individual.

[Frances]

The answers are very interesting. It seems that for most on this forum and in this thread, it's about the process not the end result. The process is quite consuming, but it is only a means to an end.

[Zooey]

To me it's a set of actions taken with an eventual end goal of living and publicly presenting full-time as the individual's gender identity. That may or may not involve HRT, surgery, etc., and I could care less what you're wearing, but it certainly involves the eventual end of hiding your true identity from anybody.

If your goal is not full-time in the end, I don't think you're transitioning.

I don't see a need for a set plan or some checklist of requirements beyond that. To me, the process starts when you decide you're going to go full-time at some point, and can take as much or as little time as you want. The steps you take in the middle and the way you take them are up to you, so long as you're making some kind of progress. My definition of progress is pretty wide open though...


Therapy and getting your head straight? Progress.
Living more authentically more often than you were before? Progress.
"Stalling" for a month because you're questioning everything again (a good sign that you're sane) and deciding to keep moving forward when you run out of thoughts? Big time progress.

[karenpayneoregon]

For me, Transition is a continual journey with many twist and turns in all aspects of one's life to gain some semblance of what the mind strives for to be "normal".

[LeaP]

"Transition" was originally a noun only, referring to an intermediate state. It's also in current use as a verb, where it refers to engaging in, or making a transition.

Technically, and consistent with either part of speech, I suppose I should say that MtF or FTM gender/sex transition (noun, and note the adjectives) consists of the gender and/or sex state during the period when it is neither sufficiently (another qualifier) male nor female. Thus qualified, transition can only refer to a binary-binary change.

To transition gender/sex (verb) is to engage in the medical processes and social conventions to make the binary switch. In similar fashion to the noun, one has to specify the start and end states as well as define "sufficiently" (or as I put it earlier - closest facsimile) and the procedures and processes that go along with same. Fully qualified, to transition might be "transition from male to female such that I change to living full time in the female role as conventionally understood, take medications to change my hormonal makeup to current medical standards for gender/sex transition, and undergo SRS." That's bad enough.

But it gets worse. We now turn the verb into a verbal noun! So now transition (noun) can refer to the intermediate state, the period of change, and the collection of changes themselves. THAT results in horrible, loaded shorthand usages like "my transition," "transition is terrible," and so on. The lack of precision that would make sense of the nounification only leads to arguments over the qualifiers that should have been there to begin with.

Yet people DO get by with the contracted usage in some circumstances! Why and where? Where commonality lends sufficient convention To obviate the qualifications. Plain English - transsexuals have far fewer issues among themselves understanding each other's use of the word, even when nuanced, than when in mixed (transgender non-TS) company. Oddly enough, there are also few problems with the general public, as they simply assume "sex change."

I rather like Frances' conceptualization. "Externalization" covers full-time, hormonal change, and SRS for me quite nicely.

And maybe it's best to avoid using "transition" entirely with the transgender, non-TSs. Even though it IS the transsexual forum ...

[Melissa_Rose]

To me, transition isn't so much as me changing as it is the perception of the people interact with changing from a perceived male to female. After all, in my mind the whole point of doing this is so I can finally be myself and stop acting.. I am not trying to audition for a new role. The path that I cause that change in perception is thr u hrt, selected surgery, legal paperwork, etc.
I make steps towards this daily. Some areas progress slowly, some areas in my life are moving along nicely. But every day I am more and more myself.
So what is transition, a phasing out of the acting I have to in my life!.

Melissa

[Badtranny]

Well for me, a gender transition means the process of change from one social construct to another.

I was born a man and have recently transitioned into a woman. My name is changed, my physical appearance has totally changed, ...my life has changed. The rest of the world may see me as a trans woman or something else, but they definitely won't label me or interact with me as a man. Even the most virulent 'phobe wouldn't be able to 'man' me no matter what he says. I'm just too far removed from anything masculine.

I have transitioned.

[Rianna Humble]

For me, transition (in the context of what we discuss in these forums) is the process that allowed me to shed my old identity as a male and move towards living authentically as the woman that I truly am. It has a definite start point (when I stopped struggling against the knowledge of who I am) and will have an end-point when I am finally whole.

I do not believe that a "transition" from Male to "Male Plus" (e.g. bloke with boobs) or from Female to "Female Minus" is a sustainable end point even though I respect the right of someone to try to end their transition half way.

[Angela Campbell]

I would guess that the term is dependent on the person using it. To me it was a change from my old life to my new one. It was a complete change from male to female and it was a process. I am now complete with mine, legally, medically, and socially.

[Michelle.M]

Transition is the process of change...

This.

When you go on a trip, when does it begin? When you arrive at the destination? When you begin driving? Or when you simply decide that you're going?

My transition began when I decided not to live the life I had been living, although in a tangible sense nothing had changed. Transition was the catalyst for change and the vehicle by which all the visible and physical changes were made possible.

[Kaitlyn Michele]

In the case of a mtf ts person, to transition means to change your gender role to live as a female

Live as a female means different things to different people but at a bare minimum the standard is permanent, social and legal change..

Things like hormones and surgeries are things we do to enhance our quality of life as women. They are not our transition, nor do they make us women.

Transition is totally independent of clothes.. As a woman, i can wear whatever i want and still be a woman (just like a man but a man is more socially judged for wearing feminine clothes)

[LeaP]

I would have to be a little bit more precise than that, Kaitlyn. While I would agree that gender role transition is the minimum to meet a shorthand use of "transition" for a transsexual, surgeries and hormones are more than quality-of-life issues. They are physical transition in their own right.

I think it best to avoid the use of "transition" in any case in which there is not a role transition. So ( MTF and cross-sex identified only context):


SRS (or gonadectomy) only: "sex change"
Hormones only: "on cross sex hormones"
FFS and/or cosmetics only: "surgical feminization"
Role change only: "transition"
Transition as defined plus a subset of procedures: "transition" (still)
Transition as defined plus all possible and needed procedures: "full transition"


I've made a distinction between transition and full transition. I would not invert that, however, to call 4 or 5 partial transitions, or anything like that.

[Janice Ashton]

Transition is a pathway for change,
Taking a person who holds an Intrinsic, inherent and fundamental feeling different to that which is generally conceived through a conversion, to create a new and Extrinsic emergence of the real ‘Person’ we know we should be to align our body and mind.

[Nigella]

Transition is the journey, for me at least, of changing from male to female. The methods used have been listed most ably by Paula Q, although not all of them.

This thread does show that whilst there are many differing definitions of transition there is quite a common theme. It is a journey, a process of change.

[Kathryn Martin]

For me transition begins after all of the external issues are resolved such as: Living full time, presenting sex appropriate, surgery and hormones. It is the full integration socially into the class "women" as witnessed by others.

[Frances]

I feel like Kathryn that there is no transition in a vacuum. It has to be witnessed or reflected back to the transitioner or it did not happen. Kind of like the tree in the empty forest.

[KellyJameson]

For me once I transitioned out of fear and ignorance, I was compelled to be able to stand naked in front of anyone or mirror without leaving any doubt to my gender. I could not fully believe in my gender or experience it fully without this.

To never again feel that experience of being trapped between the two sexes. The in-between state of gender dysphoria that I was born into.

I left behind gender and concerned myself only with the sex of my body so that my gender became unquestionable.

For me anything less would have continued the torment I had lived with since childhood.

[Lorileah]

I have transitioned in my idea of transitioning. It constantly changes. For me it is a goal that I have refined and corrected over several years. Will I ever finish transitioning? That would mean, to me, an end. I will only get better and more comfortable being who I am.

[Michelle789]

PaulaQ laid it out nicely what are the various steps and paths to transition. There is no right or wrong way to transition, and any combination of steps from Paula's list can constitute transition.

Transition begins and ends when you feel it has. There is no hard rule that starting HRT begins transition. Starting HRT is a huge deal for many of us, and it certainly was for me. However, my transition started months before I started HRT. For me, my transition started the very first time I ventured outside the house as a woman, which was six months before starting HRT. The start of transition is very personal and only you can define what the start (or end) of your transition is.

Your transition is very personal and only you can decide what steps you need to take, and in what order to take them.

I do believe that some sort of social transition is a good idea before going on HRT, coming out to your job or going full time. This is that phase where you live part-time as a woman, say on weekends outside of your job. You might even start with attending a support group once a week as a woman and build up to living on weekends, and then to "128". "128" means full-time outside of work. The purpose of this is to get you out of the house and in public so you can feel comfortable presenting as a woman. You probably won't pass, and you might get mis-gendered a lot, and it sucks to be mis-gendered. You might do or say a lot of awkward things. But this phase is really necessary to build your confidence in presenting publicly as a woman. It gives you an opportunity to make friends in the trans community. It gives you a chance to let yourself come out and to start the process of freeing yourself.

Even if you start with TG events, you'll eventually want to start presenting outside the TG world. Going grocery shopping, to the mall, running errands, going to the post office, the mechanic, a doctor's appointment are all things I would recommend doing during the later part of this phase. Because you'll need it. After all, these are activities you'll do in real life. You may want to come out to some friends, preferably female. If you can socialize with a cis female friend who is accepting, this can help you with some of your social transition. After all, unless you want to spend the rest of your life in trannyland, you'll probably want to learn to socialize with cisgendered women.

Oh, and you'll certainly need to gain the confidence to walk into a women's restroom in public. And learn how to use it properly. Never even think of exercising the male privilege of standing while doing your business. Always sit.

This step also can help you decide whether or not transition is for you, especially if you're not certain if you're TS, CD, gender fluid, or somewhere else on the spectrum. You may decide that you are still comfortable as a man and that a gender fluid life may be better for you rather than transition. You may quickly discover that you really dread going back to male mode and might feel a heightened state of anxiety when in male mode - which is a good indication you'll need to transition.

For me personally, after 4 months of going back and forth and a 9 day stretch of presenting as a woman made me quickly realize that I cannot go back to male mode. When that 9 day stretch came to an end and I had to return to work in male mode, I was completely miserable. Thankfully, I got laid off from my job within a week and could go full-time. I ended up getting re-hired at the same company and I came out and I still work that job as a woman.

By living part-time as a woman initially, you get a chance to get some social transition before you make permanent changes to your body, and you get a chance to get some social transition before you take the high risk step of coming out at work - a step that can cost you your job. The downside of going back and forth between male and female modes is it's very stressful. You face a number of hurdles.

1. Remembering which name to refer to yourself in public.

2. Remembering which name to answer to in public. I remember before I came out at AA or at work I had to be careful not to introduce myself as Michelle or answer to someone calling Michelle - that would out me.

3. Remembering to switch between male and female behaviors.

4. Switching your ID, credit cards, and cash between male and female wallets. Yes this is such a tedious step, and I hated it. But it was a necessary evil.

5. If you've tried to feminize your voice in female mode, remembering to revert back to male voice in male mode.

6. Going back and forth can have an emotional and psychological toll, especially if you're TS. If you're gender fluid, you will never be able to settle for long stretches in either male or female mode. It becomes necessary to live as both at different times. If you're a CD, you'll need that necessary girl time, but once you go back to male mode, you'll be comfortable being a man again. If you're TS presenting as male can be exhausting as presenting as female will feel liberating.

7. Eliminating traces of perfume, makeup, and nail polish when going back to male mode.

8. Having to re-paint your nails every time you go back to female mode.

9. If you wax, shave, or epilate, which is highly recommended when in female mode, worrying about being outed if someone sees you in male mode with no hair on your arms or legs.

This list can go on and on.

So yes, if you're TS, this awkward phase, which was my first step towards transition, while stressful and awkward, was truly necessary to give me enough confidence to go out in public as a woman. By the time I had started on hormones and was full-time, and out at AA and work, there was no going back for me. I am grateful I got to experience that most awkward part of my transition, because those few awkward months were the building blocks I needed for going full-time and to be able to transition successfully.

And finally, my awkward going back and forth phase lasted only for 4 months before I went mostly full-time. I say mostly because I would attend my AA meeting once every other Friday for two more months in male mode before coming out. So I guess it was really six months before I was 100% full-time. This phase for me lasted six months before I started hormones. Plenty of transwomen for whom this phase lasted a lot longer. Many transwomen will go back and forth for years, even thinking they're a crossdresser, before starting hormones or going full time. Not all transwomen go through this phase either. I know of some who just one day switched from full-time male mode to living full-time as a woman. Other transwomen may go on hormones for a year or so before going out as a woman, or before going full time. There is no right or wrong way to do this.

[PretzelGirl]

I am thinking outside of the Transsexual forum. I have a friend, identified as female at birth, stated identity of genderqueer, that is now transitioning to male. I have another that just transitioned from a presentation and legal identity of male to female all while identifying as genderqueer. So to me the definition needs to encompass all, which always complicates wording.

So, if I hit this right, transition is the process of changing from a current state of gender presentation, physical attributes, and all legal and social accompaniments to align those elements as much as desired or possible with your true gender identity. The part I don't like about that is some of those things require financial elements that many don't have, so I added "or possible" after typing it out.

[Rianna Humble]

Just to clarify, when I stated that I was answering in the context of what we discuss in these forums, it was to differentiate it from (for example) slide transitions in a presentation and other uses of the term transition that are not related to gender