I find the term a little awkward, too, and hardly ever use it these days. Except when I'm trying to interest someone in this site. But often I'm talking to transitioning women or transmen or even vanilla friends and so have to go on with the explanation that our family here also encompasses trans folks of all flavors gender and sexuality wise, (transmen, transitioning folks, genderqueer, asexual, fetishists, etc., etc. ...).
Because the media has tended to pick up the term and seems to use it interchangeably with the dreaded "transvestite" ("Crossdressing Thief Caught on Security Camera"), it appears to be acquiring the same kinda somewhat derogatory connotations as the t-word.
I'm more than likely to use 'transgendered' these days. The word has a more positive connotation, I'm thinking, as it appears most often in the more serious and sympathetic articles and programs about us, and is readily understood these days by the general public. 'Gender Variant' is becoming a favorite for me, too, but often needs a little explanation.
"Words, like Nature, half reveal and half conceal the Soul within..." Tennyson
