WOW, Elwood, trapthavok, its good to know others are on the fence about this too. For me, its like sometimes i say to myself "hell yeah, i'm a guy" and other times i say "I think I'm ok in this body". As a kid I don't remember wanting to wake up a boy or even really paying attention to genitalia (but I was pretty sheltered

). I DO remember pretending to shave with a popsicle stick though LOL, probably around age 5.
It was middle school when I tried to look more girly, though I didn't dress sexy or anything. Bad bad memories from that time, and I'm not even sure why - the only thing I can think of was that I was trying to be something I wasn't (gender only being part of that equation). Even through high school I was really shy. I also had a tendency to get obsessed with fictional characters (always male) and be kinda sad or annoyed when i knew that I couldn't be like them. Heck, I still do that sometimes.
After high school, I also started online roleplaying and played various male characters, until one sort of developed himself out of my personality, which is actually my username here as well. It just felt so right, like I knew what it would be like to be male, etc. I should have realized something then, but I didn't think much of it.
My ex gf volunteered for Pride a lot, so she sort of introduced me to the idea of TS, genderqueer, etc and since then I've been trying to figure myself out. my gender ID is androgynous to male, and I don't see that changing if i do end up transitioning. Ever since I can remember, when i think of myself in the future, I see myself as male, too , and correct myself. I....have completely forgotten the point of this post.
I guess in response to "how do you know...?" I don't. I'd like to find out and I guess I'm on the right track to do that (should still get my butt into therapy though). I keep asking myself things like why not just be butch? Why not do everything you want anyway and be a good role model for some little girl? what if god/universe/spirit/fate/karma/whatever put your male-ish spirit in this body as a learning experience? What if being on Susan's so much is making you think about it too much? Will superman be able to fight off the hordes of evil axe-weilding mutant chipmunks from Excelon 5?!
you know, the usual.
there was probably a lot more i was going to say in this, but i forgot.
(this pointless post brought to you by Drain Needs Therapy™)