Delurking to say that I think they have shot themselves in the foot, but for different reasons, and I think moving too much of the conversation to a private forum would be a mistake. Please please please don't underestimate the number of lurkers here who are listening and learning, even if they feel they don't have anything to add, or feel that others say it much better, or because they have trouble setting down their thoughts coherently.
I lurk. A lot. I've posted a few times under various usernames, but not enough for a persona to stick (and I'm never very good at having an online presence anyway). I don't expect to be able to join this new group because I'm aware I haven't posted enough to prove my credentials, and that's fine, I understand that, but I'm not the only lurker who will be excluded. There's a lot of us, and the more these threads appear in Active, the more people like me formerly someone who, happily ensconced in a naive little bubble, would have been very willing to describe myself as 'cis' and agree 'Well, of course 'transwomen are women', what's the point in denying them that? will click on it, have a read, and think, 'oh hang on...'
Apologies for the bold, but: Ultimately, I'm afraid it wasn't your arguments that changed my mind: it was their behaviour. It was the spiteful viciousness. The policing of language. The Facebook Labour against Transphobia group.
This might look like a win for them: it's not. It's really really not. I think in the long run it will prove to be a really bad idea on their part and a very petty little victory in the grand scheme of things. The comments on social media are shifting. There was a post recently about a woman deciding 'fuck it' in a queue for the female toilets and quite a few people were aware of self-ID. I don't think that would have been the case not so long ago. This is more evidence of how unreasonable they are, and the evidence is mounting up. Their audience is shrinking and ours is growing. So let's pick our battles, and keep on doing what we're doing, while keeping it as public and civil as possible.
Of course, as an alternative couldn't we all just sign up to Pistonheads and start posting there?