A better debate I think is about what actually defines gender. I am MTF trans—a conclusion that has taken me 6 decades to embrace. The underlying theme I discern in the GC debates is the idea of whether you think you are a woman makes you an authentic woman—framed as a psychological issue, not a physical characteristic. Some identity concepts are clearly ridiculous. If I believe myself to be a tree, that clearly does not make it so. I think we can all agree on that. So the issue is whether natal primary and secondary sexual characteristics are intrinsically required to be an authentic woman or is there something else at work.
In the last 25 years (primarily through postmortem examination of trans brains and rapidly evolving genetic research) medical science has discovered that the structures of natal and trans female brains are virtually identical. Further the metabolic response of trans and natal brains are similar. External body structure can be modified. Other than a uterus and ovaries a natal male can have his body conformed to match her identity as female and it is functionally indistinguishable from a natal female.
I would posit that trans brains are in fact biologically female. I think like a woman; I share the female world paradigm. My cis women friends, once I came out as trans, immediately accepted me as a member of the sisterhood. I have finally come home from my life long odyssey as a fraud.
So is gender identity a matter of modifiable body parts or immutable cerebral metabolism and structure where our sense of awareness—our very soul—is located? I would suggest the latter. To my cis GC and TERF sisters I would ask for acceptance and understanding. Continue to question, but do not dismiss me out of hand. Get to know me. I am one of you.
Most bigotry is a matter of discomfort with those who are dissimilar—an us versus them tribal mentality. We fear those we do not know—those who appear different; our group interests and values seem somehow threatened by some vague, external, undefinable, existential threat—until we take the time to actually reach out in friendship to those who are other and realize that we all share the same hopes, fears, dreams. As FDR once said, we have nothing to fear but fear itself. We are far more alike than different.
