For me, I've always felt changing my voice would be an essential part of going out en femme in public. As an adult male, since puberty my vocal range, particularly when singing, had been from a deep bass to high tenor. My speaking voice was either a smooth baritone or deep bass. Think your classical radio station announcer with a smooth, deep voice. That was me. So even if I could perfect my outward appearance, my voice would have given me away in an instant. And my first attempts didn't look half bad, visually. So me ordering a drink at a bar with my old voice would have sounded like I had a deep voiced boyfriend standing behind me, playing ventriloquist tricks to fool the bartender. And from day one, I definitely wanted to 'pass' as female if I was going to walk out that door looking female.
For four years, I was gender fluid, going out socially as Ceera, and coming home to resume my former male role. When out as Ceera, I always did my best to use feminine speech mannerisms and to alter my pitch and resonance to sound female. My singing experience helped a lot with my success. By the time I committed to full transition, in mid-2018, I could sound quite passably female with very little effort on my part.
