thanks for sharing the article, that's a very well argued different world view to that being promulgated in certain circles.
One of the posters above has said this is a young/old issue - I would argue, from my experience of being with and around younger people that this is not the case and that they question it as much as some of us older people.
I have had the privilege of working in hospital environments where we have carried out trans surgery, mainly male to female. 20 years ago, all these people wanted was to be accepted as a female and to in all other respects be treated as a female. We now have 'trans' people celebrating that they are 'trans' and that has become more important than the fact that they are transitioning to a different sex - i'm all for people celebrating their lives, but the transition is to another gender - male or female.
Biologically there are only two genders - this has been agreed by the British Medical Association at their latest conference and to deny this makes providing healthcare to trans people - their underlying biology counts. And the article argues this very strongly.
As someone who has also taught high school, 11-18 year olds, the difference in attitudes, behaviours, thoughts, feelings between a 11 year old person to an 18 year old person is enormous - all of us who came out as gay/lesbian went through a huge process to arrive at knowing who we are. Changing gender, taking a concoction of hormones to change that whilst going through puberty, still trying to work out who we are, is a huge issue and not one that should be walked into blindly. We should support children (if we're still allowed to say that) with their issues for sure.
But the new movements have even blocked stalwart protectors of women - Germaine Greer for example - who has been viligated for saying that a transman's experience and a females experience cannot be compared and that a trans woman is not a 'real woman'. Whilst her language is unfortunate, her point, that a transwoman has not dealt with childbirth, periods, menopause and is unlikely to deal with issues such as osteoporosis does make a difference. It is not rejecting a transwoman, just saying that experiences are different. But she's been shouted down, not allowed to put her very intellectual point of view, stopped from talking at universities etc.
We have Martina Navratilova, sensibly saying that a transwoman has a significant advantage over a natural born woman in athletic endeavours being told that transwomen should be allowed to compete in women's athletics as a women, with the situation that a transwoman with a naturally higher testosterone level being allowed to compete, but a natural born woman with a naturally higher testosterone level being called out as a cheat. Where is the level playing field? Take it one step further and we have a 'man' self defining as a woman competing against women??? How ridiculous would that be?
But this all plays in with what we older people see as a serious deterioration in free speech - if we believe in free speech, we must be open to discussions that we don't like, or that are generally offensive - otherwise its not free speech?
This all came home to me as quite a shock when I joined a local community social group, which is very inclusive - great - but I blundered at the first gathering when I merely said 'hello guys and gals' as I would normally say, and was met with a barrage of looks and comments about my insensitivity. I have just said sorry and that I respect all people as people. The other gay men in the group - because it was 'women' who called me out - just said they'd made the same mistake, and one gay women telling me she loved being called a 'gal' .
I've also discussed with some of these opposing view holders that what they are doing by creating hundreds more 'boxes' 'categories' or whatever you want to call them is separating people not bringing them together. Its also means that vulnerable groups are spending more time arguing amongst themselves than dealing with the real ongoing issues we all face.
For me, I am proudly gay, a male (I hate the term 'cis' why denigrate male/female by having to call ourselves 'cis' ) and I date other men - bi or gay. The guy I last saw (as a fb) was 29 and he laughed at all the talk about being cis or whatever. My new guy is just 23 and finds it all as confusing as me, and classes himself as a 'potentially gay' male.