The response was overwhelmingly positive. Unfortunately, perceptions about gender regressed when television talk shows began inviting transsexuals to discuss their sex change operations. Such discussions boosted ratings and revenue for television shows but left the public and the medical community with the belief that the only way for a man to become a woman was through surgery. Sudddenly, being transgendered was no different from being a cross dresser or a drag queen or king. The next thing to happen was that surgeons and psychiatrists began deciding who could and could not be a woman.
Psychological problems suggest the services of a psychiatrist or a psychologist.
Self-determination along with individuality were deemed less important than a scientific perspective. And this philosophy was in step with the social and political movements of the time. America had had enough of civil rights movements, feminist movements, and free loving hippies. What America wanted was law and order. It wanted to regress to the security of the good old days.