we cannot separate our sexual orientation from our sex, they go hand in hand.

Oh, fully agreed. I just found that 'sex' is always the deciding factor of one's orientation. Some trans men pass as males to some less observant folk and the true "oops, attraction gone" moment is always taking off the underwear for them.

every time there's an article with the headline about a woman committing sexual assault, and then you read closer and find out it's a trans woman that's being referred to as she/her, and is being sent to a woman's prison, and this crime is being documented under female crime statistics, that is a problem, because it obscures the root of the issue - that it was an act of male violence

That's a very interesting point. But then it's a case of language manipulation and it goes more into the field of journalism ethics.

furthermore, distancing trans men from the term "woman" is damaging to trans men as well - trans men are still female and thus still subject to the same heightened threat of sexual assault as the rest of us other females, they still require female healthcare, they still need abortion and birth control access, they grew up as girls and thus share commons experiences with other women, etc.

Fully agreed but then, they made this choice and risk themselves (or did they? That's one of the true issues: trans people should be always well informed of the consequences of their actions and TRAs really don't like that idea for some reason) and it should be respected.

i understand the motivation to reach a compromise, but i don't see how it's possible without damaging implications for the female class. language is important for identifying our persecutions and passing laws protecting us from them. and because lesbians and female bisexuals belong to this female class, this is why "misgendering" is an issue for us.

I truly believe this problem is a result of their actions to erase sex and let the gender (which they know how to control) be responsible for things. That needs to change. Sex is clearly a very important factor and we need to defend this concept.

i see in the thread both you and cuteasduck briefly argue about brain-sex. brain-sex is still a hotly debated topic as there is conflicting research on it. until a scientific consensus is reached, believing or not believing that "someone can be born in the wrong sexed body" is simply a matter of personal opinion at this point.

Hence why I said "I believe" not "I know".

And I never told this person that they have to believe as well.

a lot of people in this server aren't going to like this, but the truth is, people with extreme lifelong chronic GD exist, and sometimes medical transition is the only option to alleviate symptoms for them. i do believe they're the minority of current trans-identified people, and most GD can be treated without medical transition, but there will always be exceptional cases. and until there's a cure for extreme GD, either through changing social norms and abolishing gender roles or through medical research (if there is indeed a bio-neurological basis for GD - the jury's still out as noted previously), there will always be a very small amount of medical transitioners. should society toss away all rights for the 99% of people who don't suffer from this condition? obviously not, but society will still need to find a way of incorporating them nonetheless. regardless, this onus should not fall onto LGB, how society should incorporate this very small percentage of extreme GD cases is not an LGB issue, that is strictly a T issue, and i think is in line with what LGBdroptheT stands for.

Again, very interesting point and I agree that it's not our issue in a greater scheme of things. But it is a little bit our issue, hear me out: our movement is gaining friction. More and more people in shitholes like Twitter or Facebook start to notice the truth being TQ+. The moment when we will have to prove that we're not hateful group is coming. If we fail to deliver, our cause will start moving backwards. Rational people whose voices matter won't support us if they see us using the same transphobic rhetorics as right-wing lunatics.

This is a game, just like everything is. If we play it out badly, they will win. It is what it is.