Why there are more trans and gender diverse people now

Back in the 90s and early2000s when I was involved in advocacy for TGD rights, I had a prediction that the statistical numbers of trans people (around 1 in 50,000) were way too low, and that we were likely to see numbers of >1% once society’s social conditioning on gender identity had been reversed and it was safe to be TGD. 

I got pounced on by a lot of people - including other TGD advocates, which annoys me to this day, but I was right: we’re now seeing numbers of TGD people consistently around 3% - and conservatives in society who didn’t see this coming are coming up with arrant rubbish to try to “explain” that ... see here (from Aeon) for an excellent assessment of the rubbish by a psychologist. 

Maybe if we had had more advocates talking about the fact that numbers were likely to increase - and why - the backlash would not have been so severe?

The reasons for the discomfort in doing so should be considered. My opinion is that they include: 

• a very real and justified fear that talk of higher numbers to come could adversely affect legal reforms we were working for - and if those didn’t happen, there would not have been any increase - or, at least, not where I live, or possibly not asd soon; 
• a real reluctance to admit to the existence of social conditioning (and I note the article I linked to above, which triggered this post, is also silent of social conditioning), possibly because: 
• it is not fashionable any more in psychological circles (I have not seen any good argument for discontinuing the use of the term); 
• a perception that to admit to the existence of social conditioning would be to admit that gender roles are, to quite an extent constructs ...