I'm finding this conversation very interesting, particularly because my experiences have been pretty different to emisaurs. For me, and most other trans*folk I know, gender identity is a huge deal. I'm starting to identify myself as trans* a lot more because I see it less as a medical condition (though it is, for sure) and more a part of who I am. It's something that I'm - proud isn't the right word, but it's a similar sort of feeling - of. It shapes so many of my experiences, the good ones far outweighing the bad. I think the other huge impact on this for me is my gender identity itself and that I don't feel entirely female. I feel trans* and nonbinary is part of my gender identity and that most of the time I can't introduce myself as a woman (or a man, for that matter). I dunno. This was going somewhere when I started but I'm all over the place today. I think, speaking entirely personally here, trans* as an identity has formed a better community for me than trans* as a medical condition.