Cocooning (silk, transgender slang): someone who is still in the process of “transitioning”; protectively casing/covering/wrapping yourself in the closet/closeted.

Useful for classical binary trans individuals who want a “binary” gender transcendence, or trans folx who just want being perceived as the gender they are (aka “passing”). It’s called casulo in Neo-Latin. 

This doesn’t give you a free pass to act like ‘oh just say a regular/normal trans” or “HsT(s)”. It’s very similar to “pre-op” and “pré-th” (additionally pre- everything), but less problematic I guess?

I may not be the coiner of this slang, but it’s been widely used without mentioning the right definition, acting like classical/typical trans(itioned) folks are butterflies, in a figurative scene. – AP