Now that gay rights are much more commonly accepted and widespread, transgender rights have become the recent progressive movement in politics. Things such as recognizing them as the gender they identify as, bathroom privilege, etc.
I feel that I'm biased on this issue since I have close friends who are transgender. I think the issue has been diluted a lot by people who are jumping on a "trend", as I feel some people who claim to be transgender aren't genuine about their feelings. However, I think those who actually feel like they identify as the opposite gender should be recognized as such. Aside from just offering them basic respect (the biggest reason, IMO), it makes the most sense to do so from a societal point of view.
Some claim that calling transgender people by the gender they identify with destroys the meaning of what it is to be a man or a woman. However, I argue that it's actually the opposite way around; that is, calling transgender people by their birth gender bases the meaning of what it is to be a man or a woman on arbitrary terms that don't make sense from a societal point of view. A trans man or woman, who outwardly presents as the gender they identify with and has undergone sex reassignment surgery, is practically indistinguishable from someone who has been that gender from birth. Brain structures in trans people have been shown to be "closer" to the gender they identify with than their birth gender, and physically they are outwardly indistinguishable. People against transgender rights claim biological bases, such as trans women being unable to give birth to children or trans people in general having a different genetic makeup from people who were born male/female. However, infertile women aren't considered to not be women, and there are rare genetic disorders where women are born with a set of male chromosomes, but those women are rarely considered to "actually" be men. With these in mind, it seems that people against trans rights base their definition of "men" and "women" on someone looking like a man or woman, with a specific exclusion for transgender people. I feel that calling people by the gender they outwardly express themselves as and identify with, trans or not, makes much more sense in everyday interaction.
With regards to the bathroom issue, I feel it's a non-issue as it conflates transgender people with pedophiles or sexual predators. In fact, transgender people are more likely to be the victim of sexual violence than the general public, and rates of pedophilia/sexual violence among trans people are at the same level as the general public. Also, forcing transgender people to use the bathroom of their birth gender means that dudes like this will have to use the same bathroom as your daughter, which I doubt is the intent:
What are your thoughts? pls be civil pls