I think the major reason we are having all these issues with definitions & rights etc. is because of the change in language. I think it'd be a lot more difficult to convince the average person that a transexual is a woman than a "trans-woman".

The slogan "trans-womxyn are women" sounds logical to our lizard brains. It causes a domino effect. If they are women attracted to women then they get to be called lesbians, & so on.

You can still find the word 'transexual' in the dictionary. And the definition sounds too trans-friendly for people to reject it as hateful (though nothing seems to deter them on that front).

If necessary one can even add helpful qualifiers: 'male transexual', 'heterosexual transexual'

EDIT

Transexual is a more accurate term anyway, since according to queer theory 'transgender' is a very broad term which, despite activist claims to the contrary, includes GNC people & even butch lesbians:

"I have argued against stable and coherent definitions of sexual identity and tried to suggest the ways in which the lines between the transsexual and the gender-deviant lesbian inevitably crisscross each other and intersect, even producing a new category: transgender."

Halberstam, Judith. Female Masculinity (S.164). Duke University Press. Kindle-Version.

"The harassment suffered by those who are “read” as trans or discovered to be trans cannot be underestimated. They are part of a continuum of the gender violence that took the lives of Brandon Teena, Mathew Shephard, and Gwen Araujo."

Butler, Judith. Undoing Gender (S.6). Taylor and Francis. Kindle-Version.

On a separate note the above suggests that Brandon Teen & Gwen Araujo were not trans (as far as Butler's understanding at the time), despite the revisionist way they are talked about now, as they are grouped together with Matthew Shephard who was simply a guy guy.

From the Wiki on 'transgender':

"The term transgender may be defined very broadly to include cross-dressers"

"Transgender was defined broadly to cover those who transition from one gender to another as well as those who may not choose to socially, medically, or legally fully transition, including cross-dressers, people who consider themselves to be genderqueer, androgynous, and..."

(Reisner, Sari L; Conron, Kerith; Scout, Nfn; Mimiaga, Matthew J; Haneuse, Sebastien; Austin, S Bryn (2014). Comparing In-Person and Online Survey Respondents in the U.S. National Transgender Discrimination Survey: Implications for Transgender Health Research)