Your statement is contradictory. You say it doesn't matter what CraigThompson feels, but the whole world should all care what a trans feel.
Should we care what people feel or not?
If you don't like the word pretending how about we use delusional, fantasy, deception, or hallucination?
I vote for delusion since it is a term used to describe a symptom of this type of mental illness that is related to schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia - Any of a group of psychotic disorders usually characterized by withdrawal from reality, illogical patterns of thinking, delusions, and hallucinations, and accompanied in varying degrees by other emotional, behavioral, or intellectual disturbances.