I am... bothered that "transition" is often equated with "HRT"

The title mostly says it all, and I don't want to make this into a wall of text, but let me elaborate a little.

When people talk about transition on trans-related subreddits, they often (more often than not? I didn't hand-count, but it often seems that way) mean getting on HRT. And I mean - it makes some amount of sense. A lot of questions and discussions are HRT-specific, HRT is like one thing most trans people pursue or at least consider, and few cis people are on hormonal therapy. So it's a very trans-specific issue.

And it's certainly, other than the notion of passing, something a lot of people would want feedback or help or information or discussion about.

At the same time, it rubs me the wrong way that in a LOT of discussions, "HRT" and "transition" almost feel like they are used - by some people, by no means all of us! - interchangeably.

Transition is more than just adjusting hormones to be correct. There are a lot of ways to transition, some big and some small. Transitioning the way I understand it is, by definition, ANY action or effort to better align with one's gender as a trans and/or non-binary person.

In fact, realising that a lot of things "count" as transition and that trans life does not begin and end at HRT gave me a HUGE push to become more at ease with both my plans and my identity.

In fact, I stopped thinking in terms of "transition", I started thinking in terms of "transitions". Coming out as trans was a transition. Changing my official work e-mail and the name I use at work (in all but the legal document) was a transition. Buying clothes gendered as "women's" was a transition. Heck, looking UP women's clothes was a tiny transition.

Heck, in my pre-HRT case a concerted effort to lose weight is a kind of transition. But I'm weird that way.

Maybe it's personal bias, but I think framing it this way - there's a million transitions to take, and a million ways to transition, and a small token effort, or a conversation, or even forming a plan ay count as a transition - that's much less intimidating and approachable and motivating.

And besides - I get that HRT is one of the Holy Grails, especially for a young person. It's a Holy Grail for me. I am very excited about how much it can change. But implicitly treating HRT as a be-all, end-all can be both disheartening when HRT is not (yet) an option, and can draw attention from things that require no doctors, no appointments, possibly not even any expenditure.

Maybe it's my standing on a soapbox and ranting about a pet peeve, but I think we'd be better off if we started emphasising that voice training - that's a transition. Coming out to a friend - that's a transition. Looking up names gendered to our preference - that's a transition, even if a small one.

And those add up, and in aggregate, I'd say they're at least as important as correcting the hormonal nonsense our genetics saddled us with.

Just felt I needed to get this off my chest.