I agree that the major media outlets and blogs are becoming a lot more accepting and careful not to be homophobic or transphobic in their writings and that the commenters are starting to call out blatantly homophobic or transphobic pieces much more readily. With the great strides the "LGB" have been making, I sincerely hope that the "T" will be hot on it's heels in terms of acceptance in society. As you pointed out, I think a lot of people still put transgendered people in a different group, which is unfortunate as the "all humans are equal and should have equal rights" shouldn't be different between widely-discriminated groups.

The transgendered community still has a lot of ignorance, misunderstanding, hate, and stereotypes to battle, but I am seeing progress, slowly but surely, on a lot of fronts.