Wyllow3
Historically there have always been people who have identified as man or woman when born otherwise:
There are also people posting on other threads in GN who have someone in the family who is trans and accept the situation as it is, the relative is "happy in their own skin". They dont appear on threads actively hostile to them - who would?
I have a trans friend of 70 who wouldn't dream of offending others in the ways often described on these threads. These people are not part of the "100 possible identities" or have any interest in harming others.
Please accept them as they are: of course no one should fear losing their jobs or feel threatened in the changing rooms, or expect to play sports as women if they are transwomen and so on. And great care needs to be taken society wise that no one is persuaded or able to get treatment who isnt really genuine.
The problem is that accepting people as they are is how we got here. People like your friend were accepted (rightly) and those with a sinister agenda jumped on that and started colonising women’s spaces shouting ‘be kind’ and ‘no debate’.
People like your friend have suffered as a result, but all too often don’t speak out for women - instead joining the ‘be kind’ lobby. Women, on the whole’ are kind. We are socialised from birth to put others first, and that ‘kindness’ has been used against us. It is not kind to refuse women the right to female-only spaces, and to tell children they are ‘in the wrong body’.
How can we have a situation where your friend has access to women’s spaces but other males don’t? If you can explain how that would work it would make acceptance easier. If your friend uses male loos and changing rooms etc, then it’s a different matter, but I suspect that’s not the case? I understand why your friend might not want to, but surely it’s obvious that there can’t be different rules based on who feels they are ‘genuine’ and who doesn’t appear to be so?