LIS many times, my oldest friend, Carol, since we were 5 years old, has a transgender son who was once her daughter, Leah. Scott is a man in every possible way that someone once a woman can be.

He's known he was a boy/man since he was about 9. He lived the life of a boy throughout the remainder of childhood/teen years growing up (beginning simple hormone treatment at 13 and had surgery at 22).

He is happily married to a lovely woman and you would definitely NEVER KNOW or even guess that Scott was born female. NEVER. He doesn't try to draw attention to himself. He simply wants to live his life.

The other one I know personally is the 14 year old child of my niece. (S)he still uses his/her legal birth name, Michael, because the school requires it and the courts won't change it due to transgenderism while still a minor. However, she goes by Michelle to her friends and family. This began at 7-8 years old and by age 11 her parents accepted that it is real for her and allowed hormone treatments to begin at 12.

Their agreement is that surgery won't happen until after age 21 just to be certain that she really is a girl through and through because surgery is permanent.

We'llsee how that goes when the time comes, but for now, it is what it is.

So, I'm quite certain that true transgenders DO exist in spite of the fact that some are just opportunistic and others are just mistaken for a variety of reasons.