it isn't unusual at all for me to do some every day thing and have no problem with it, and remember how the very same action would have earned me scorn before transition.
For example, I just redid my bathroom in a theme of black with red roses. If I had done that before, people would have done the usual of assuming either that i was gay, or that there was a wife or gf hiding in the closet someplace. The freedom to simply express myself naturally is priceless.
One Christmas shortly before transition, I bought a Victorian style doll for someone. Even though it actually WAS for someone else (as opposed to lying through my teeth, saying oh, this is for my sister/gf/fairy godmother), the (female) clerk gave me loads of silent attitude. I never forgot it. Today, if I bought the very same item, that wouldn't happen.
It's unfair, but that's how it is. For me, transition was the only way.