They're similar in the sense that they have long been ostracized by conservative-minded people, and chosen suitable alliances.
By orientation in the transgender sense, I did mean gender identity. My bad. But I don't think transgenders are any more confused about their mental gender identity than gays or straight people are about their own sexual orientation. How do you get to decide who is "confused" and who is legitimate? What makes you the arbiter for people whom you have never even met? Come on.
Are you kidding me? How many gay (and possibly trans) people were shamed into all kinds of interventions to become "normal," and how many of them legitimately "converted?" And the "pray away the gay" conversion therapy was, and perhaps in some circles still is, a very big thing among fundamentalist Christian groups. Cheap shot? No, bull's eye. None of that shit works. People are who they are.
You continue to miss the point. There is no choice here. You think people choose their gender identity and sexual orientation? Are you kidding me?! Did you choose yours? Do you know the suicide rate among transgenders?
https://www.google.com/search?q=ransgender suicide rate&cad=h
And you think these people actually
choose to go down the gender identity road? Come on, man.