@bomerr Someone can be transgender without having taken any steps to change their physical gender characteristics. It simply means that the person identifies as a gender other than what they were born with. From Wikipedia: gender is the state of one’s gender identity or gender expression not matching one’s assigned sex.
The definition of transgender includes:
"Of, relating to, or designating a person whose identity does not conform unambiguously to conventional notions of male or female gender roles, but combines or moves between these."
"People who were assigned a sex, usually at birth and based on their genitals, but who feel that this is a false or incomplete description of themselves."
"Non-identification with, or non-presentation as, the sex (and assumed gender) one was assigned at birth."