I first knew when I was 14. The year was 1965 and I had just completed the biography of Christine Jorgensen. It took another 50 years, but I finally accepted my true identity and could not be happier. If I had said anything at the time, the odds are that I would’ve been institutionalized or given potent antipsychotic meds. There was no way that anyone would have agreed with who I thought I was, so I hid my inner girl in a very deep closet. At times I almost forgot she was there, but she would not be denied. I had to let her out eventually. The people panicking over the transgender epidemic do not understand how difficult it was for most of us decades ago. As you said, we have always been around, but we have not always been allowed to be ourselves.