That's what I thought too. Before said friend got too "offended" we took the discussion to PMs, and best I could decipher, it is apparently "offensive" and "hurtful" and exclusive blah blah blah because referring to myself/ourselves as women (you know, since we're ACTUAL WOMEN) means so in the biological sense. Having female bits, the ability to reproduce, natal female bodies, the experience / social conditioning of being raised as a woman, etc. All things trans women have not had and will never have, and using "women" to only refer to ourselves "reminds them of that constantly" and "triggers their dysphoria" and just reaffirms to them that "they will never be women" and is thus exclusionary and evil and bigoted etc etc etc etc.

It plays into the whole.. delusion that we have to pretend that trans women ARE WOMEN!!111one!! and are exactly the same as real women in every way, shape, form, and sense. Apparently challenging or questioning that at all is a HUGE no no. And that's where the discussion died, because I refuse to erase biological sex / the existence of sex and evidently TRA friends think self id'ed gender full on REPLACES sex, and sex is therefore entirely irrelevant now and only refers to "your chromosomes" and nothing else. It sucks honestly, because I was trying to tell them that I am 99% okay with referring to trans women as women "socially" but I cannot make myself do it in a "legal/biological" definition sense because, sorry, they AREN'T THE SAME as biological women. But nope, I'm still a bigot and a transphobe because I won't ignore sexual dimorphism and biologic reality. I have no idea how to bridge that disconnect when honest to god they're just being.. ridiculous and delusional. That my friends, who are all fellow biological females and have all experienced varying levels of sexual discrimination/harassment (I've known them since I was a young teenager) are seriously taking a stance that sex doesn't exist AND doesn't matter..?