Yeah the whole voice thing is something that confuses me because I consider it be one of the most important factors when it comes to passing, people notice it straight away.. second to the physical. I do accept those that choose to not work on their voices and just say "this is who I am and people can like it or not", if that makes them happy then great! But for me I much prefer a voice that matches the look ..it's just makes me feel more whole.
I kind of consider the voice to be an extension of the voice that we use in our heads, even though when we talk it's passing through our vocal chords which is of the body/physical I still consider the voice we use in our head to be the voice we general speak with from a young age. The fact that we can control and manipulate our voices to sound like more or less anything suggests we'd match it to something and I consider that to be usually the voice in our heads.
Of course when growing up it's easy to let it drop when trying to fit in with others expectations of us.. I hated that idea and I consider it one thing I refused to do.. it did result in people thinking I was soft or gay etc but meh that was just something that made it that much easier to come out "I'm not gay I'm ....", "what?....", "I'm.... not a boy".
Nothing should be considered compulsory in transition as we all have unique goals that make us as individuals feel happy and content within our own selves before anyone else. There have been people who I've met that have voices that don't always match their looks and I can say that when I first met them I noticed it a lot but the more time I spent around them I forget about it and just considered it as part of who they are. Yet I still know that for people that are only meeting them for the first time and don't know much of the topic it could be noticeable to them similar to how it was for me. Some may not be able to get over it and feel awkward about it and I can understand that.
The voice is one of those tricky parts as it's to me right between being physical and beyond physical, like the voice in our head is not physical and could be considered closer to our self-identity and/or gender-identity. We may not have much control over secondary sex characteristics but the voice is something though physical can be reshaped, it's just something that the individual has to decide for themselves.
When friends accept that you may look female but sound closer to a male it could be a way of them saying "I consider you transgendered more than I consider you female". Or if they suggest for you to just use your old voice it could be a way of them holding on to that pervious you.
Personally I wouldn't like that so for me it's something I consider important.
