Nigella, I know that you and others who post here regularly know what I'm about to say but bear with me. I'm offering detail for the benefit of others who read this thread.

In discussion forums, words are the only thing we have to convey our ideas. So I find it helpful to examine the literal meanings.

Transsexual: Crossing (trans) from one sex to another. Sex is physical, therefore it involves physical modifications in order to appear as a woman (for MtFs): beard removal, hormones, and if they are not sufficient, BAs, FFS, and optionally SRS (we'll leave the debate about this for another thread). I've taken it that MtF TSs have always been women and it is a matter of changing the male sexual characteristics to match one's sense of gender identity to the degree that medical science will allow.

Transgender: Crossing from one gender to another. The use of this term by transsexuals has always baffled me, since I take it that TSs do not change their gender. They change their sex to match their gender.

Transitioner: For MtFs, the act of transitioning from male to female: physically, socially, legally. For the physical transition, not everyone needs or can get all the surgeries, people come in all shapes, sizes with varying physiognomies. But if the result at the end of the transition period is the appearance of a woman such that people stop seeing a man when looking at a TS, this is a complete physical transition. Full social transition has occurred when everyone in a TSs life knows her as a woman, they do not assume she is a man based on her presentation if they do not know that she is TS. If a TS does not tell some people she is transitioning during the period when the body is undergoing changes, then a full social transition has not occurred. And legal transition is self-explanatory.

A transition is a process with a beginning and an end. If at the end of a transition, barring personal prejudice, everyone (family, friends, coworkers, government agencies) takes the MtF TS to be a woman, then she is no longer a transitioner; she is a woman. If the end point is partial transition (HRT while still maintaining the ability to portray the self as a man on occasion which also implies a partial social transition), then we can't say that the process results in a transition from male to female, no matter what is the sense of internal gender ID.


Discussion:

I've observed in some of the threads here that partial-transitioners want to be recognized as the full-fledged women they feel they are by other members of the community. It makes sense they would want this, since they do need validation and they are depriving themselves of full recognition from the people in their lives by not fully transitioning physically, socially and legally. I think that everyone, full and partial transitioners, will agree that full and partial transition are not the same. I also think that everyone will agree that full and partial transition are both difficult. I hope that most people will not want to say that full transition is more difficult than partial transition, since the degree of difficulty depends on too many variables to list.

Contention occurs, I believe, when it comes to assigning or defining a partial-transitioner's gender identity. Some people feel that partial-transitioners (the people whose end point it is to partially transition) are not the women they feel they are because they have chosen to not fully transition. While other people are happy to accept a person's stated gender ID no matter the appearance, presentation and legal markers.

So the question as to whether gender is defined by how one feels vs. what one chooses to do about it is fourfold:

1. Does the degree of transition indicate a person's internal sense of gender identity? The partial-transitioner will say no because she feels she is female no matter what she does physically, socially, or legally.

2. Among people in the know, namely the members of this community, does the degree (the end point, not a point in the middle of the process) of transition indicate someone's internal sense of gender identity? I fear there will continue to be debates about this.

3. Among people not in the know, namely the people in the partial-transitioner's life who do not know that she does not identify as a man, does partial transition indicate her gender identity? Yes. The unknowing people will continue to think of the partial-transitioner as a male because obviously they have no indication that she is transitioning.

4. Among the selected few who do see the partial-transitioner present as a female and again barring personal prejudice,
A) Strangers will likely take it that she is transitoning. Acquaintances and people on the street do not know the differences among community members and they generally do not stop to analyze this in great detail.
B) Some of her friends and family will take it she is a woman or they will respect her stated gender identity,
C) While other friends and family will persist is seeing her as a man because they know that she has not fully transitioned.