2023.05.05
Ok, congrats on making arguments and not getting too personal.
Here's the thing: America was built on respecting the individual, and the group not being able to tell the individual what to do. If you love guns, the group can't tell you not to have them, no matter how much more dangerous it makes things for cops and other folks. If you have a religious belief, the group can't tell no, you're wrong, look at all these other beliefs, go with one of those instead (or like in commie russia, state mandated atheism).
But for some reason, you are part of the group telling trans individuals who they "really are". That (even leaving aside the surprising amount of people born intersex) if someone has a penis or vagina in their underwear, then the group knows who they "really are" and how they should act all the time. That at the moment of conception, this chromosome pairing always, 100%, no questions asked aligns with the soul god gives them or who they "must" be even though male-ness - any male characteristics at all really don't start 'til 9 to 10 weeks into natal development. And you use this fifth grade health class knowledge of fetal development - ignoring all the other later chemical and hormone interactions that actually put us together and make us us (like Psalm 139:13 says) - to make life abso-fucking-miserable for these people, because it goes against your intuitions you've had put into you about how people should be.
And I know there are challenges. Like ideally all restrooms would be unisex and private for everyone (and/or the ones with individual toilets and big shared common areas). And why do we make kids be naked together in locker rooms? How do we balance sports when some folks have had f'd up hormone histories. Etc.
But liberals fight for trans rights because they are the edge of standing up for vulnerable individuals knowing who they are more than the group. Almost all the arguments you have against trans apply to all gay folks. (and in some states they're looking to roll back those rights as well - hey last year it's ok not to sell you a wedding cake. Maybe next year it will be ok not to sell you a house?)
And going back before that, we spent a lot of time just telling people not to be so damn left-handed. Why, you can't possibly be BORN that way... everyone is right handed! That's why God has the sheep on the right hand and the goats on the left! We're going to FORCE you to be right handed and it's for your OWN GOOD. That attitude sucks, and why the whole boy/girl thing is even more fraught, it's the same energy. You think the group knows more about the individuals than the individuals in question do. That's ignorant and hurtful.
The True Size Of... is a fun way to compare the size of regions despite the usual distortions of projecting a globe onto a flat map, it's so pleasant to drag a country around and see it stretch accordingly.