no one can decide who you are but you.

• it is arrogant for cisgender people to believe they dictate how others do or should identify.

• it benefits no-one to disrespect someone's identity and costs nothing to be considerate.

• the cost of purposefully invalidating someone's identity or misgendering them etc can be their life. it is simply not worth possibly triggering someone's dysphoria and making them feel hopeless just to declare your bigotry to the world.

• the trevor project back up the fact that an individual has the right to declare how they identify by stating "you don’t have to go through all of these things to be “officially” transgender, or to have your gender identity be valid. It’s all up to you, and what feels safe and comfortable."

I agree that gender and sex are two different things, whether this is a new development in terms of the word itself or not. Therefore, yes, it doesn’t matter what gender a person identifies as, and nor should anyone be bothered about it either. It’s a choice on that persons behalf that doesn’t effect anyone else. However, it can be seen by others as taken too far when we express an unrealistic and ever growing amount of genders that seemingly are used based on mood rather than an identity as such. Whilst personally, I don’t care what people wish to identify as, others may be confused. And I think whilst it gets beyond the male, female, and trans spectrum this confusion is justified. The issue which then arises is the cold, harsh attacks on those people who are confused. People are quick to label them as misogynistic bigots and all kinds of unjustified terms. What this does is cause a further divide fuelled by the passions and emotions on both perspectives creating an unnecessary conflict that harms society’s progression. It is not the issue at hand most people take issue with, but the methods used when dealing with the issue. which to an extent i can certainly understand.

Provided the person's being sincere (is chopping your dick off convincing enough? Yeah? Good), pretty much. If you want something tied to objective facts and biology, you're looking for the word sex, not gender.

Gender has everything to do with identity, and all identity is self-identified.

Btw, your identity in general is essentially what you say it is. I can not grant this to transgendered people without granting it to transracial people and trans-animal (otherkin) people. These groups are nothing alike but they are all about identity, and you just don't get to tell other people how they feel.

Gender is a social construct and everyone has the freedom to make the choice of what gender they identify as.

Gender refers to the characteristics of women and men that have been socially constructed. Therefore, while your sex is biological, gender is a personal choice. While society has dictated for a long while what being female or male should look like, this is no longer the case. People can decide themselves what gender they are or whether they are cisgender or bigender or another idenitiy – your gender is what you say it is.

XX, XY, prostate, overies, testicles, uterus, funtional mammary glands - these are the things that define gender