I feel like transgendered makes the most sense for me because there’s always going to be parts of my physical sex I can’t change. While I wouldn’t say I’ve switched genders, I’d say I’m transgendered in that I transitioned away from my assigned gender.

People can call themselves what they want and that should be respected, but the most commonly preferred term is transgendered, or just trans if you want to be safer.

I think we should be careful, however, not to let cishets weaponize that difference against us. Using different labels for people who’ve had medical intervention feels like it could be used as a way to validate transmedicalism, which would be gross.

Though at that same time if gender where to be abolished there would still be people who have dysphoria. Would the term transsexual even make sense in a world without gender, where we don’t refer to or treat anyone differently based on either their presentation, or sex characteristics?

Like if all gender identities and sexual orientations went, and we just had traits we liked, would it make sense to call someone a transsexual, or just call them someone with body dysphoria?

Again, obviously we should respect labels, and under the current regime gender exists and is enforced, so were all just trying our best to live under that. More than anything else words are only what the majority of people agree them to mean. So you should probably base your general usage of the word on that, unless your describing yourself, or someone else who personally identifies with what many might consider an out of date label.

Then again I’ve only been trying to transition for a month or two, and I’m taking baby steps. You might want to ask someone who’s been around longer, and read more theory :P