Gender dysphoria is an actual mental/emotional illness
True, but that is not the same same as Gender Identity - and signifies the depression caused by the stigmatisation described above.
Gender Dysphoria: DSM-5 Reflects Shift In Perspective On Gender Identity | HuffPost
"......This shift reflects recognition that the disagreement between birth gender and identity may not necessarily be pathological if it does not cause the individual distress, said Robin Rosenberg, a clinical psychologist and co-author of the psychology textbook “Abnormal Psychology” (Worth Publishers, 2009). For instance, many transgender people — those who identify with a gender different than the one they were assigned at birth — are not distressed by their cross-gender identification and should not be diagnosed with gender dysphoria, Rosenberg said.
Transgender people and their allies have pointed out that distress in gender dysphoria is not an inherent part of being transgender. This sets it apart from many other disorders in the DSM, because if someone is depressed, for example, he or she is, almost by definition, distressed as part of depression. In contrast, the distress that accompanies gender dysphoria arises as a result of a culture that stigmatizes people who do not conform to gender norms, Rosenberg said.
In this regard, the change resembles the elimination of homosexuality from the manual 40 years ago........."