DadJoke
It all comes down to gender identity. GC feminists think it's akin to a religious belief.
A lot of people who are not gender critical and/or feminists also consider gender ideology to be entirely faith-based (the clue once again is in the word - it's an ideology ie a system of ideas and ideals, a collection of beliefs).
Psychologists and most national and international health organisations and trans gender activists think it's a real thing, like sexuality.
Let's take this apart.
Yes, on the one hand, activists believe gender identity to be real. They describe it as an essence, a dis-embodied consciousness (if it wasn't, it couldn't ever end up "in the wrong body"). That's as clear a belief in a metaphysical entity as the concept of the reincarnated soul.
But on the other hand, psychologists, psychiatrists, health care professionals, paraphilia researchers and in turn national and international health organisations merely acknowledge the existence of people who have a genuine, earnest belief in the existence of this dis-embodied consciousness that inhabits "the wrong body".
They also acknowledge the existence of a number of associated medical conditions in those persons for whom there is a "mismatch" which can cause severe distress. Distress that can be alleviated by modifying their male or female bodies via cosmetic surgeries (including genital surgeries) and therapeutic hormone use in an attempt to resemble the opposite-sex body.
So far all of the existing research, including the most recent brain studies, has confirmed the existence of the medical conditions (ie the belief in the dis-embodied consciousness called gender identity and any resulting distress) and not the existence of the gender identity itself.
You can't point at it, but it's there.
You may refer to love here, or hatred maybe or any number of feelings. These are intangible yet real to those who feel them. They are also measurable in bodily reactions, in brain chemistry, in any number of ways, but they are not a basis upon which we make laws.
Because these are feelings and not material things, we legislate only to regulate the material consequences that may arise from these feelings, such as marriages or murders.
As is the case with gender identity. The state does not have to pronounce upon its existence in order to legally protect those who believe in this existence from being discriminated against because of this belief.
People who don't have disorders of proprioception don't even know they have it, and yet proprioception is real.
This is a bad analogy. Body space awareness develops as we learn through endless repetition in our early years what the body can do and how much energy and strength is needed to control it. Hence we go from having to focus intently on learning how to walk to being able to do a hundred other things while walking without being conscious of the process or mechanics of walking.
Deficits in body awareness in particular are caused by developmental delays and/or neurological disorders. There is no dis-embodied consciousness involved in learning to master one's body. On the contrary, mastery is only possible in a fully integrated, embodied consciousness. And deficits do not stem from a metaphysical problem, but from one rooted in our physiology.
And while many people have never heard of this and are wholly unaware of functioning proprioception, many others are conscious of body space awareness such as dancers, musicians, athletes or anyone who has ever consciously worked on their posture for any reason.
Of course, we are also not aware of travelling at huge speeds through space or of the electrons in our bodies and yet these are material things, too.
So you are right, in a sense, that human awareness or the lack of it, have no bearing on whether something does or doesn't exist. What matters is material reality.
We are talking about something however that is purported to be a dis-embodied consciousness and that has no externally quali- and quantifiable aspects to it. Nor does it have a coherent definition independent of arbitrary social sex stereotypes and sex roles that are known to vary both across the globe and human history.
How can you then assert that this indefinable dis-embodied consciousness exists in all of us and doesn't just manifest in those who suffer from sex dysphoria?
Only by resorting to a wholly faith-based position that asserts without proof or reason.
If your gender matches your sex at birth, you won't feel any conflict between your gender identity and sex, and because of that, you will know you are woman without any conflict. That sure and certain knowledge is your gender identity.
My gender doesn't match my sex. It never has. I was - as a great many of us here on FWR - gender-non-compliant from a young age. Not merely in gender expression (by which I understand appearance and mannerisms), but in the way of having "a male brain" as they used to call it back then, "male preferences", "male feelings", "male hobbies" etc. Not that I subscribe to such biological essentialism (ie the belief that our sex determines even those things for us that have nothing to do with biological functions).
But the fact is that the sex roles and stereotypes associated with my sex were and are wholly alien to me. Unacceptable, maddening, offensive and nonsensical. Worthy only of being rejected.
To hear you insist that if I don't identify as trans it means that I am not conflicted about gender, the tool our patriarchal society uses to oppress female people, is so far removed from the reality of my life as to be worthy only of scorn and contempt.
You know nothing, DadJoke, nothing at all, if you think that I would ever willingly embrace the tool of my oppression.
I am a woman because I was born female and survived to adulthood. Nothing more, nothing less. My female body, its functions and the experiences arising from being born female in a male-dominated world are the only things I have in common with all other women. How well I conform to or defy sex stereotypes and sex roles is a matter of personality, not gender identity.
Psychologist think that gender identity is established at a very young age - less than four.
This is incorrect. Early years research has established that children become aware of their sex and of the opposite sex by around age three or four. If you do not impose sex roles and sex stereotypes on them, they will happily and freely express themselves according to their personal preferences, not society's expectations, well into their teens at which point external influences exert a much greater power over our children (this is why interest and attainment in STEM subjects drops off amongst girls at this age).
And contrary to your assertion that gender identity is established by age four, what psychologists and in particular gender dysphoria researchers have found is that a child's "gender identity" is plastic and elastic, that means it can be shaped by outside influences and it can be changed (often well into their late teens).
That's why internationally, watchful waiting remains the best practice approach to treating children who suffer from sex dysphoria.
Now, if you think that gender identity is just a belief, then you might be angry at me for saying that you have one. I can't really help that.
No more than I am angry at flat earthers or the Jehovah's witnesses who like knocking on my door. The faith-based ideology that you espouse would be as irrelevant to me as the former, were it not for the fact that trans privilege activists and believers like you seek to impose this belief in a dis-embodied consciousness that inhabits the "wrong body" onto my life.
That alone is abhorrent enough to this third generation (militant) atheist. No one, not even the state has the right to impose a religious belief on me, no matter how much it disguses itself as a progressive ideology. But trans privilege activists seek to elevate this entirely faith-based ideology to an unshakeable truth, cemented in law, with all of the consequences this is already having on the rights of female people. That's what makes me angry.
And yes, you can help it. You can stop proselytizing, you can stop imposing your metaphysical belief in a dis-embodied consciousness onto unwilling disbelievers. I wouldn't ever tell you you're not allowed to believe in sexed souls in opposite sex bodies. But you have absolutely no right to tell me that I must believe in this nonsensical, regressive bullshit, too. And that you and your ilk think this is okay, that's what makes me angry.