Joe, I've watched several documentaries and done some reading on gender identity and transgender issues, and it seems everyone's experience is unique, as with many other such issues.
Here's a great and pretty exhaustive resource (for a Wiki) to start you off:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgender
eta: I've read that Jenner plans to do a biopic or even a reality show about his transgender experience. Don't know if it's true, but I think it would be a good thing, if done tastefully. His status as an American icon may bring many folks to develop understanding and acceptance of the transgendered.
I was crushed on Bruce Jenner when I was just a little girl - he was so beautiful on the Wheaties box and my parents spoke so highly of him. I think that feeling exists for many, many people.
I do not agree that nobody would care but for the Kardashians - he's remained active in public life on his own terms, especially in celebrity sporting events for charity, etc. (a lot of golf). He would draw attention, for sure, on his own merit. Younger people may not think so, but anybody born in the 70s and before would.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan
