Rather than explaining it myself, I'll simply repost here a question I was asked on another board, with the identifying info edited out:

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I just had a quick question because I was writing a post and it struck me I didn't know what the best way is of referring to transsexuals in the past tense.

Using yourself as an example, my first instinct is to use feminine descriptors when referring to current events, but when referring to posts you may have made years ago I found myself writing <old handle> and using male descriptors as it does seem like two separate identities.

That is obviously flawed however as you have said yourself that who you fundamentally are has not changed, rather you have just removed the mask you were forced to wear.

I started to think about it more but then realized there would have to be a standard for this so it would be easier to just ask

So, sisters, I had to tell my friend that I was unaware if there was a specific etiquette about this, but I knew who to ask.

so what say ye? Is there an accepted convention?

Personally, I would use the pronoun that's being used for present events. I've heard a few people say that sometimes when they imagine themselves as children, they remember themselves as the gender they are now even though they know that's not how it was then.

It also makes things way simpler, which is another reason why I like it. If you respond to 'she' and 'her' now, why not use them to refer to the younger version? It's easier to keep the stories straight when there's only one to deal with.

I would agree to use only the current pronoun. Doing otherwise may out a person who doesn't want to be outed or would prefer to do so themselves than have others do it to them.

always use the current pronoun. If someone identifies as a certain gender then it's not only polite to be consistent, but to do otherwise infers that that the person is forever "transsexual".

You also have to remember that there are a few of us even among the old timers who effectively transitioned in childhood.

It's the one time I actually get quite stroppy with people - personally I really wouldn't worry if the got they present tense pronoun wrong. No one really ever does but a few used to get it consistently right and then refer to me in childhood as HE and I was like NO NO NO NO NO! you are making a huge and at least partially incorrect assumption there.

I at least partially transitioned at age 5 - yeah OK weirdly, I also got put through a reparative therapy in my late teens, but really from the age of 5 onwards I was not strictly a he... I was actually probably strictly speaking a zhe... but like to think I was female and therefore she.

So I would say current gender throughout please, or you are apt to get a rather frosty reception.

My 10 cents worth is the pronoun of gender. In the past I was the same gender as today. In the future I will be the same gender as today. The confusion isn't in my mind. I refer to myself as with female pronouns  even I have to present as non-female. I still tell people that when I was growing up as a girl I was on the footy team  etc.  Seems to work for me

Cindy

this is much as I expected, just figured i didn't have the experience to speak from...