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I’d like to believe that most people are like you and are just doing their best to make everyone productive and comfortable. I was a bit surprised to see how most people I interact with over the age of 40 or so (my parents incl.) are pretty stubborn about referring to people based on what they consider right, like it’s some act of bravery to disregard how someone else would like to be treated.

I agree with you that this hyper-focus and polarization on the topic is driven by some extremely opinionated media personas, and unfortunately when looking at my parents’ usual YouTube feed it’s apparent that the influence of this niche is far-reaching. I just wish people would get along.

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> I was a bit surprised to see how most people I interact with over the age of 40 or so (my parents incl.) are pretty stubborn about referring to people based on what they consider right, like it’s some act of bravery to disregard how someone else would like to be treated.

Crikey. Anecdote, for sure, but I’m 47 and can’t think of a single person I interact with in my age group (and that’s the majority of my colleagues and friends) who acts or opines as you describe.

Same here, though I’m considerably older than you. We might both be in a bubble though.

I’m sure there’s an aspect of that. That said, I include in my claim a raft of friends I’ve had since my teens, or others met through football (UK definition; I’m a Brit in southern England) - many of whom live pretty different lives to mine. And we have plenty of disagreements about other stuff - just not “treat folk how they wish to be treated”!

To be fair, I'm also just drawing from limited personal experience and social media exposure; it never really happened until the past year or so when this topic became so polarizing. My parents have a more nuanced take of "I will try to be nice until the gays push their agenda on my children", which I guess they have.

"I was a bit surprised to see how most people I interact with over the age of 40 or so (my parents incl.) are pretty stubborn about referring to people based on what they consider right"

Well, I'm 51. I don't think a man who takes hormones and gets operated on is actually a woman, and I'd rather not be forced to be complicit in a lie by referring to him as "she". By normalizing transgenderism society is encouraging a lot of young people to irreversibly damage themselves.

What do you do when you meet an androgynous person whose gender isn't immediately obvious? If they introduce themselves as female, do you take their word for it, or do you first need to inspect their genitals to make sure you're not being complicit in a lie?

It's not enough. You also need to look at their chromosomes.

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