If attitudes have changed, that is due in part to the trans people in the mainstream media, and in part because of online social networks, but mainly because an increasing number of us now have people who identify as transgender in our real-life social networks; among our colleagues and extended families. While there are currently no official numbers for the UK’s transgender population, a Home Office-funded study estimated that around one per cent of the general population is “gender noncomforming” to some degree, with around 20 per cent of those likely to seek medical treatment at some stage.