Oo, that term! It's the one that I wanted to avoid at all costs. Even though I was a 'sensitive man,' I did not consider myself effeminate, which always seemed like a very derogatory term. Yet if I had behaved as I really felt, I would have been getting into that territory. As a woman, for instance, I almost immediately begin to gently touch people. As a man, I never allowed myself to even think about this. That's just one example of something that perhaps an effeminate man could do, but I couldn't.It's not that the label fits me any better that any of the others, it's just that in the conservative mindset I am confronted with in my everyday working environment, effeminate is pretty much the bottom of the barrel.
It was much easier to present the image of a woman; as an OK-appearing CD, I was higher up on the food chain than an effeminate man would be. This may seem strange at first glance, but effeminate behavior does indeed seem to be judged even more harshly than TG. I respect the courage it must take to act out that part of the gay/trans spectrum.