Again, there has not been many studies between heterosexual men and transgender women. Of the few performed, they have had some enlightening conclusions; chief among them, some men don’t consider themselves to be gay if they sleep with a transgender woman, even if she hasn’t completed the surgical side of the transformation.
Anecdotal evidence abounds, with men more and more likely to come out in regards to their attraction to transgender women. For a more scientific approach, studies have shown that the only thing that really matters to some men is that they outwardly look “feminine”. In one study, most of the men admitted to simply pretending their sexual partner didn’t have a penis, usually performing acts which kept it hidden from view.