Thanks for the thoughtful response. I won't deny for a second that this affliction is agonizing for those affected.
The following isn't directly targeting you:
I'm not going to shy away from the suicide and self-harm statistics – along with the universal stories of alienation and disownment from friends and family – and pretend that brushing off this social schism is something which can be safely ignored and called "bigoted" until it disappears. Trans is simply too radical to be accepted, and there are far, far too many skeptics out there (myself included.)
As with depression, there is no simply "getting over it" through force of willpower. This is the end result of positive reinforcement from productive behaviors which grant a sense of fulfillment.
I can see DBT therapy being drawn from to great effect here, but unfortunately, as has also been stated, there's been no real silver bullet treatment. However, people truly are deluding themselves if they think the self-harm and self-loathing stop after "transitioning."
The LGBT community online doesn't help matters at all. Lashing out at any kind of criticism or suggestion other than simply continuing behavior like homosexuality (this shit isn't like polyamory, where obviously people are attracted to multiple people but destroys any hope of a stable family unit, fags can raise kids without observable negative consequence based on the studies I've seen,) results in by-the-books cult-like behavior where people are actively ENCOURAGED to cut anyone out of their lives who doesn't support the decision to transition.
I don't know how this translates into reality, but campus politics and the things people protest about tells me this still has, at least, a substantive presence in meatspace, extending this roadblock as these are naturally the first those suffering from this will reach out to.
But seriously, this shit isn't like hetero and homosexual behavior.
Accusations of degeneracy aside, and yes, I've been unpleasantly shocked to see the flagrant hedonism gays engage in in major cities. This shit is not a myth, heroin and unprotected sex spread like fucking wildfire with this demographic, but they stay fags. The reason bis have the reputation they have is because they fail to secure longstanding relationships and often still display definite preferences, generally settling down later on.
Trans is a problem in that it can affect effeminate heterosexual men AND effeminate homosexual men after-the-fact by taking these behaviors to an extreme and manifesting themselves in neurotic behavior, and the gravest symptom, EMOTIONAL DISCONNECTION.
Shutting off when you see your body is no fucking bueno, and just because gays are getting more recognition doesn't mean this mental illness should be able to ride on its coat-tails and be legitimized as an extension.
Nobody CHOOSES to possess a mental disorder (faking just means they don't have it), and since there's no burden of proof for a biological cause along with blanket enabling behavior, it goes untreated until it's too late and/or they receive access to hormones which doesn't remove genitalia and I'd love to see stats showing the long-term efficacy of.
If the science is still out there for effective treatment, it's still out there. I doubt this is receiving much funding or attention in the scientific community as it's so fringe, but the festering rage and feelings of disenfranchisement as well as being legitimized in "LGBT" is actively harmful.