Causes of transexuality. Suffice to say, it doesn't seem to be a mental illness. Keep in mind too that chromosomes are not the end all and be all. There are conditions, like
intersex.
Back in the day many thought it had to do with parenting, but the case of
David Reimer disproved that. (Now THAT was a depressing situation)
Let me be the first to say I genuinely do not care about transgender people. I cannot force myself to care. I've tried, it doesn't work. I don't give a fuck what bathroom they want to use, I don't give a fuck about their rights, I don't give a fuck about their quality of life. I want to hear, see, and acknowledge as little about them as is humanly possible in my day-to-day life.
This did not exist 10 years ago. When I was growing up there were no trannies. There were drag queens. There was Buffalo Bill. There was not an insignificant number of individuals causing 90% of political and Internet drama.
The first sex change operation was performed in
1931. There is definitely a long
history of people living their lives as the opposite sex. Some did so for convenience sakes, (and later dropped the charade), others kept it up and were only found out after they died.
Billy Tipton, is probably one of the most well-known.
All in all, I don't know why anyone would actually
choose to be transgender. It doesn't exactly sound like fun. So I'm guessing that phonies have other issues that they confuse for trans, or perhaps it's actually some form of Munchausens? Or someone like Chris, who goes about it all half-assed. Perhaps they confuse not being a stereotype of their sex (a boy who isn't particularly masculine, a tomboy, etc) as, "oh gee, I must be trans!" Nope, it doesn't work that way. There are butch trans women out there, and girly trans men.
To me, a real trans would be someone who's serious about seeing a doctor, probably has spent most of their life feeling that they're in the wrong body, or whatever. They care about passing, even if they're "out" (especially a lot of trans activists, who really don't have a choice).
Of course, there are real trans people out there who are also stupid attention whores. Caitlyn Jenner, for example.