@OldCrone
I have read through some of those replies, and i'm concerned about some of the voices cited. The 'intellectual dark web' are not credible academics, they are mainly grifters rebadging old conservative ideas about various inequality being due to some natural order of things, they are certainly not allies to feminism. On the other MN thread, someone cites the quilette, they are pro-eugenics and defend race science. I am not very comfortable if gender critical ideas sits well with those people.
@NotMiranda I agree it is not entirely clear why they are discussing intersex people, but my take away from it is that humans are very complicated. sex is not black and white, therefore I am not surprised if during development people develop in different ways so that mentally their gender does not align with their body.
The neuroscience suggests there are observable differences between trans and cis people and similarities between identified gender and average for that gender, doesn't that suggest there is a physical basis to it. I can see how the intersex discussion informs that, by explaining how complex it is when it comes to the body, it is probably just as complex when it comes to the mind. I agree that a spectrum and outliers do not mean two large clusters men and women don't exist, but what should people who don't neatly fit in do. It seems like the medical establishment position is that affirmative treatment is the most successful, and given the high levels of victimisation, mental health problems and suicide, why are people so resistant to it if it helps people.
It is a very small number of people, and it is men who are the much bigger threat not trans women, why is so much energy put into undermining this one small and vulnerable group. A lot of the threats seem very hypothetical and don't seem to have materialised, I can't imagine most trans women would want to draw attention to themselves in communal changing areas. if they act in a lewd way of course it would be appropriate to ask them to leave, just as if it were a non-trans women. Would people be more comfortable with trans men (who are not men by the logic) being in womens changing rooms? What about androgynous-looking people, or women who happen to look masculine, how will they demonstrate their status as women. When it comes to women's shelters, surely anyone that is a threat to another woman in a shelter would not be tolerated. Don't many of the people who run women's shelters support trans rights to access their services? isn't the biggest threat men that both trans and non-trans women need to be protected from.
When people object to 'trans women are women' it seems a very reductive position and not the simple biological truth they are claiming.
It really seems to be that so many of the arguments against trans rights seem to be very similar to arguments used against gay people in the past, grounded in ideas about simple natural biological truths
I don't know, I am not convinced by these gender-critical ideas at all. It seems like there is no solution and you just want these people to not exist, or be able to live in the world, sadly many take that option