@Life:
You're assuming that every person who refuses to use the pronoun a trans person identifies with, has something against transgender people
We're assuming that because that's exactly what intentionally misgendering means.
It is a show of disrespect.
Science is science and facts are facts.
You are not allowed to have an "Opinion" of a fact. It is a fact that the medical and scientific consensus OVERWHELMINGLY shows that Transgender identities are real.
http://www.apa.org/topics/lgbt/transgender.aspx
https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-science-can-tell-us-about-trans-peoples-brainsand-what-it-cannot
http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2016/gender-lines-science-transgender-identity/
https://www.endocrine.org/advocacy/priorities-and-positions/transgender-health
https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/gender-dysphoria
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-there-something-unique-about-the-transgender-brain/
The people who refuse to conform to this are doing so specifically to attack Trans people. Especially because the trans community has made very clear this is insulting.
The absolute ONLY excuse I will accept is actual ignorance. If a person doesn't know anything about Trans people and doesn't know what preferred pronouns are or the like, I'll give them a pass… until they are educated. If they either learn about the situation but then continue to willingly misgender people, or they refuse to educate themselves after being advised they don't know what they're talking about, they lose all sympathy from me.
@Life:
you have to separate the ideas from the people, some of them might do that because of reasons like these:
1. They have different definitions for the terms "woman" and "man", or they don't agree with the current definitions and what they include.
2. They feel like using the specified pronoun might be in conflict with what they consider to be the "truth".
3. Their friends and people they trust have other points of view about this topic, so when someone explains the pronoun thing to them, they are still confused.
Again, ignorance is only an excuse for so long.
@Life:
4. They might think that this is part of an authoritarian movement from the left.
5. They might perceive this as an infringement on their freedom of speech.
These are slippery slope fallacies at best, demonstrably false deflection attempts at worst.
They have the freedom of speech to say these things and I will NEVER try to take that away from them.
However, I ALSO have freedom of speech to say I don't like when they say those things and I find those things bigotted.
That's how Freedom of Speech works. We ALL have it. They are allowed to be Assholes, I am allowed to call them assholes for it.
The funny thing is, anyone who thinks me asking that they stop misgendering trans people and calling them assholes when they don't is somehow "Infinging on [their] freedom of speech" well… by that logic, you telling me I can't think that way and say that is infringing on MY Freedom of Speech.
(It's not. To be clear: I'm not speaking for myself there. You can think and say whatever you want, I'm just applying the same logic in reverse)
@Life:
6. They might think this is connected to the people that use terms like: "ve", "xe", "ze", "zie", etc, or even the otherkin subculture.
Ok, I had something I was going to say here but CCC's post hit before mine and his comment on this is better than mine. Just gonna quote it again here for emphasis:
@CCC:
6- Right, because those other wackos obviously actually deserve derisive disrespect from the downtrodden deplorables you're devil's advocating for. Also- we should def apply laxer hate standards to those lazy (?) trans people who aren't even trying to look the part…is something you've implied several times now, in a world where trans people who "don't look the part" are routinely murdered for not flying under the radar enough.
@Life:
Reducing the pronoun thing to just “is all about not being rude to the person" is a mistake, there is so much that is attached to this subject, questions about gender, sex, chromosomes, terminology, objective reality, intent, freedom of speech, etc.
I direct your attention to the list of scientific and medical resources that are all in agreement I posted above.
@Life:
I don't think that just the action of not wanting to use the terms that are being requested, is always equal to denying the existence of transgender people (that could be just an interpretation), in some cases it is more about a disagreement on the terms that should be used to refer to the people in this group. It’s possible to disagree with someone and still not wish anything bad to that person (btw, I’m not denying that there are assholes that mistreat, discriminate against and hate trans people).
It IS denying the existance.
The ENTIRE point of being "Transgender" is to transition in body and social interaction from one gender to another.
If a person is not accepting that the Trans person is the gender they are transitioning to, that is literally denying the entire point of what being Transgender is.
@Life:
But to say that there is no more complexity to this subject is not accurate, specially when it seems that the opinions within the transgender community are not uniform:
Ok, so cherry-picking a very small number of self-hating trans people, one of which is an admitted "Antifeminist Troll" proves there's a debate within the trans community?
This is like saying that because people exist that believe in the flat earth theory, we have to take them seriously and have to accept their arguments and give them equal consideration to the absolutely massive scientific consensus (Basically every single professional scientist in the field…) that the Earth of ROUND.