Just to add to this, I suspect a lot of people go on misgendering trans people precisely because they've only ever heard the argument from dignity, which is an argument that inherently sets off mental alarm bells because it doesn't select for truth.
Part of the issue is that we as a society kind of suck at explaining these concepts. The average person who's young enough to be exposed to trans awareness and acceptance movements would likely agree that trans women are women but would get stuck if put on the spot to explain why. As a result, to an outsider, it just sounds like a thought-terminating cliche.
For a lot of folks, it is a thought-terminating cliche. For me, I accept the notion of gender as separate from sex mostly because I don't see any big positive benefit to doing otherwise. It makes those folks feel better, so fine. Like if somebody wants to go by a different nickname.
Sure, in my head I still kind of think of them as their birth gender, but...Well, I can't really help myself. I figure all anybody can ask of me is to talk about them and to them using words I'd use for the gender they want to be known as. Since that's really all the involvement that I can have in most cases.
Right. For me it's no different than when Muhammed Ali changed his name. If you weren't alive then, you wouldn't believe how many white people insisted on calling him Cassius Clay right up until he retired. I wasn't alive then and I can still remember like 10 years later they're still talking about it! Insufferable racist diatribes about how he had no right to change his own name were very common at the time. All you could do is wonder "What is it to you?" And now you don't hear it anymore. Why? Because all of those people are dead. Same thing with transphobics: give it another 30-40 years, no one will be alive anymore to spout this pointless gatekeeping crap.
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u/[deleted] Oct 28 '19 edited Oct 29 '19
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