For those who believe that the OP should change their language to suit their son's girlfriend. No one has to comply to a person’s philosophical belief.
And we have been shown repeatedly over even the past few months just how meaningless the language that some people demand is and how it IS based on philosophical belief.
Because to be a person with a transgender identity is not based on having gender dysphoria. We have been told this now by professional academics as well as trans people themselves. There is no medical problem needed to be a transgender person at all.
People who are supporting that everyone use demanded preferred language out of compassion are missing the point. The ONLY commonality between male people with transgender identities is that they hold that belief. It is not related to any medical condition as per Dr Crispi below.
"We’re still categorising being transgender as a medical problem, which it is not.". says Dr Vassili Crispi (he/they), an academic neurosurgery trainee who sits on the British Medical Association (BMA) UK Council, and who is part of the doctors’ union’s new LGBTQ+ network.
So, why is anyone trying to demand that we all indulge a male person's philosophical belief?
Meaning no one needs to comply with another persons philosophical belief. No one.
As yet, no one has produced the evidence that it is anything else that is common amongst those people with transgender identities. Plus there is no evidence forthcoming, despite numerous claims from posters, of any evidence that there is any biological markers to indicate someone is transgender.
No matter how kind or respectful that person who is trying to shame you into complying tells you that it is to use the preferred language, it is someone who is demanding that you support their own philosophical belief.
Pronoun demands are very harmful to the needs of female people and children.
Accurate language is vital to ensure adequate safeguarding is being upheld and many other aspects of life. Including ensuring that children and women can properly describe the people causing them harm, including rapists, those who assaulted them, abused them and so on.
Any person declaring that preferred pronoun usage is harmless, seems to only be focused on individual people. They are ignoring or dismissing the collective harm being done.
You, general you, are totally free to choose to base your own language on using the sometimes centuries old established meanings of words and the established protocols of language that are based around sex. Not someone's identity.
Using preferred language around describing someone is based on someone else's demand to believe in their philosophical belief. It is purely up to you.
What you don't get to do, is to shame others for not supporting your belief if they do not choose to. No one gets to infer / imply or to directly state it is ‘disrespectful’ in anyway to use accurate language that has commonly understood meanings amongst the majority of the population.