Since I Can't Seem to Let Go of That Bone

 

OK, since I just can't seem to let go of this one, let explain in different terms why transgenderism is engendering such resentment.

Suppose we concede two of transgender activists' main points:

1. Gender identity should always override biological sex in determining a person's gender (i.e., their status as male, female or other).
2. People are making much too big a deal of this, since only 0.6% of the population is transgender.

And yes, I get that both propositions are controversial,* but if we concede them for the sake of argument, it actually goes a long way toward explaining so many people's resentment of transgenderism.

Quite simply, the 99.4% of the population that is "cisgender" resents having to rework the language, and often more than the language, to accommodate the sensibilities of 0.6% of the population.  If gender identity and biological sex match 99.4% of the time, treating then as synonymous is a reasonably good working generalization and rare exceptions can be treated as, well, rare exceptions.

Consider current activist demands.  Activists object to the term "pregnant woman" because 0.6% of all pregnant persons may self-identify as male.**  They object to treating abortion as a women's issue because 0.6% of all persons seeking abortions may self-identify as male.**  Some activists object to listing a baby's biological sex on their birth certificate because it might clash with their gender identity 0.6% of the time.  And some urge people not to make any assumptions about a potential sexual partner's genitals because they might get it wrong 0.6% of the time.  A few urge parents not to tell their children whether they are a boy or girl because that might be wrong 0.6% of the time and children should be free to "choose" a gender.

Once again not all generalizations are bad.  Any generalization that works 99.4% of the time is good enough for every day use.  And people are going to resent being told that a 99.4% accurate generalization must not be made in order the accommodate the 0.6% of all cases where it is wrong.

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*Obviously, the whole question of gender identity vs. biological sex is controversial, but the rate of transgenderism is also controversial.  In particular, many people suspect that activists are pushing way too many people to identify as transgender.  But I will ignore that for the sake of this argument.

**Probably less, since taking cross-sex hormones can have the effect of reducing fertility.