Transition refers to the process of changing one's sex characteristics, gender expression and/or lifestyle in order to better align with one's gender identity. Any transgender person may wish to transition, including those with non-binary identities. However, transition is not necessary to be transgender, and some transgender people prefer not to transition for a variety of reasons.
There are three major kinds of transition:
- Medical transition: Changing one's sex characteristics through medical procedures, including surgery and hormone therapy. This may require a diagnosis of Gender Identity Disorder and/or Social transition.
- Social transition: Changing how one is viewed by others by making one's gender identity public, which may also include changing names and asking others to use different pronouns, such as changing from she/her pronouns to he/him pronouns. Being stealth is a form of social transition in which one's gender identity is the only gender one is known as.
- Legal transition: Changing one's legal gender. Depending one where one lives, this may require proof that a medical and/or social transition has already taken place. However, many places adopted self-identification laws allowing anyone to change one's gender in documents, or even abolish gender in documents, except for passports.[2]
- Sartorial transition: Changing one's clothing gender. This might be seen as cross-dressing or transvesting, however some see this as a form of transition, especially of a trans* person, such as a transvestite folk. Not necessarily leading to corporeal or physical changes in one's body, however some use it in addition to accessories and wardrobe, their hairstyle or to change the usual amount of hair.[3]
- Linguistic transition: Going through a different form of experiencing gender language, typically in grammar, syntax, lexical metaphor, or semantics. The most known forms of linguistic transition are name change, new titles, and pronoun change, but can be beyond those things, depending the language one is speaking, reading, or writing.[4]
- Psychological transition: Changing the gender within one's mind and adapting oneself to that way of thinking. It can be a new gender that was unusual to you before and that becomes your gender, without necessarily telling anyone else. This may also include finding out that you experience your natally assigned gender or sex, after questioning or feeling a void about it, not just transitioning to the other side or beyond a specific AGAB.[4]
Each of these types can involve many separate steps, and every person will have different desires for their individual transition - some may only want to transition socially, others may wish to take hormones but not have surgery, etc. Depending on the kind of transition desired, the process can take several years to complete.