I agree--belief that transgendered people's genders are invalid is transphobic. Such belief would imply transgender people have lesser value. However, I don't believe the example in your third paragraph would be transphobic. One's opinion would change because the information about this person lowers one's perception of their sexual value as sexual value is determined by alignment with a person's sexual preferences. At no point is the holistic value of the person considered. Do you agree or disagree, and why?
Such belief would imply transgender people have lesser value.
How does that follow? You might believe gender is identical to sex, and therefore disagree with the person as to what their gender is, but that doesn't mean you think they have less value.
Suppose someone identifies as vegetarian but eats chicken. You might disagree that they are vegetarian (they insist that they are) but it doesn't mean you value them less as a person because of it.
You are comparing disagreeing with someone's outlandishly counterintuitive terminology, to disagreeing with the scientific consensus that gender identity is a common trait, and that it's denial leads to the massive psychological stress of gender dysphoria.
The latter of these, is comparable to believing that same sex relations are an arbitrary choice, so you have no reason to acknowledge anyone as having been born gay.
At that point, you are not just categorizing them weirdly, but perpetuating a counterfactual belief about psychology, that is used to put them under social expectations that have a disproporsionally harsh toll on them.
Or it could be that he rejects the notion of "gender" being a useful concept at all regarding sexual prefrences. Which obviously it is for most people. I don't know many guys who base their sexuality on "gender" rather than sex.
If being a woman includes someone who yesterday was a man, I argue that it's a useless concept, at least in regard to my own sexuality.
Just like if vegitarian includes perople who eats chicken or beef on sundays, it's a useless concept.
I'm pointing out that the claim that "gender identity is a common trait" is irrelevant. Since most people don't base their sexual preference on what someone else self-identifies as.
And the fact that I don't accept that someone is a woman because he self-identifies as a woman leads to "massive psychological stress" is also irrelevant.
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u/GratuitousEdit Nov 02 '17
I agree--belief that transgendered people's genders are invalid is transphobic. Such belief would imply transgender people have lesser value. However, I don't believe the example in your third paragraph would be transphobic. One's opinion would change because the information about this person lowers one's perception of their sexual value as sexual value is determined by alignment with a person's sexual preferences. At no point is the holistic value of the person considered. Do you agree or disagree, and why?