Why do politicians keep clinging to this top-down stance when 8 out of 10 voters apparently don't really agree with self-ID (according to PinkNews!)?
Because they are authoritarian and they don't care about consensus or building consensus.
The don't care about debating an issue to consider the merits of a policy.
Why?
Because their ideology has already decided this, and applied a good/bad moral value to that policy. There is only a black / white narrative because this is social media friendly and precisely because it restricts debate which brings about nuisance and moderation.
Moderation is seen as weakness. It weakens the ideological purity.
Ideological purity also creates a power structure - those who decide policy as an elite - and those who obey policy as the subjugated. For those who are involved in protecting that policy from 'impure' debate there is reward in power. They are hailed as virtuous and hailed as brave warriors against tyranny.
When actually the tyranny is what is coming from above to enforce a policy without debate and without thought to its actual consequences in reality and against the best interests of the population as a whole.
The utopian ideological goal is more important than the well being of the population because of who that dynamic confers power on.
The extremes of politics are always self serving. They are always particularly harmful to women, as women are outside power structures for various reasons - often relating to biology.
Denying that women are outside these power structures tends to further extremism. And so you will see various ways to give the illusion that women are in leadership roles and thought about, when they aren't really if you scratch the surface of it.
Keep following this pattern. It's happening all over the place because there is a political vacuum and there are various forces now vying to take over. All of whom are in it for themselves and not for whoever they are claiming to represent.
We had peace because power was stable. We don't anymore and the whole shabang is a free for all.
And its going to get a lot worse yet.