In the absence of particular knowledge about an individual’s preferences or conception of their transition, my default assumption would be to refer to them with their current preferred terminology, even if that wasn’t how they presented at that time. Or, rather, I wouldn’t think of it as “he was a she when he did the thing”, instead it’s closer to “he was always a he, even if he didn’t know he wasn’t a she at the time”.
However, I’m a cis male, so maybe don’t accept my default behaviors as gospel truth in this arena lol. If I were to transition, it’s how I’d think of the process. However, a gal I used to bartend with absolutely divides her life into her Chad phase and then her Callie phase. For whatever reason, that’s what works for her, and I’ll work within that context if it comes up.
In the absence of particular knowledge about an individual’s preferences or conception of their transition, my default assumption would be to refer to them with their current preferred terminology, even if that wasn’t how they presented at that time. Or, rather, I wouldn’t think of it as “he was a she when he did the thing”, instead it’s closer to “he was always a he, even if he didn’t know he wasn’t a she at the time”.
However, I’m a cis male, so maybe don’t accept my default behaviors as gospel truth in this arena lol. If I were to transition, it’s how I’d think of the process. However, a gal I used to bartend with absolutely divides her life into her Chad phase and then her Callie phase. For whatever reason, that’s what works for her, and I’ll work within that context if it comes up.