One of the main problems I always see within alternative communities is that whoever is the most popular or in the public eye is usually the one who of course gets the most public attention. And anything that person says or does is highly scrutinized and the public also uses that person as an example of the entire community. Without getting into a argument with anyone about how much "good" the LGBT movement does, it's reasons like this - that the most vocal are often the poorest examples of "average" - is why I never have and never want to be involved with "the community". I just want to quietly live my life, how I want to live it and I don't need to belong to a minority movement to make that happen. Some do, some don't. I'm just one of the ones who don't.
And lets face it, a lot more people know about "being trans" than they used to simply because of celebrity transsexuals and hot tv shows - however, what kind of picture does that paint for the average trans person in the eyes of someone who's just finding out about it? The person who is just being introduced to it, is being introduced to sensationalism. I really don't believe that making people aware in this way is of benefit to the community at large.
I was in the grocery line the other day and there was the National Enquirer with Chaz's photo and some headline about 4 years to live. It so happened that I chose the line with the longest delay once again and ended up standing there for about 10 minutes while 2 people in front of me had some sort of issues with gift cards and checks. Anyway, I'm casually overhearing conversations from the two people behind me, who were looking at the tabloid. One said, "That's just sick", while the other chimed in and said, "I don't even want to see that sort of thing. That's their business but it shouldn't be in the news." Their convo continued touching on topics such as, "that sort of thing goes against nature" (coming from the 1st speaker) to, "yeah but why would anyone want to do that to themselves?" (coming from the second speaker.
The majority of people out there do not accept trans. Hell they really don't even accept gay yet. So to me, public figures in the spotlight are not "educating" they're turning even more people off to the idea. And while we can read an article such as this and formulate thoughtful opinions on it, most everyone else is still going along thinking it's "sick" and "goes against nature" no matter what is said in the article.