Originally Posted by
Lithrael
Just for clarity, Arg, are you saying that you prefer to refer to people as the gender you think is appropriate based on how well they are passing as that gender in your judgement, and if they request something else you want to be free to ignore that?
The issue in these sorts of thread is that we're frequently presented with a conflation of two things: objective reality and etiquette. Just because I think someone isn't a man just because they think of themselves as a man doesn't mean I go around telling random people on the street their gender according to my observations.
My crucial point is that one's beliefs does not change reality, and that sex/gender are not determined by one's beliefs. It's that simple. The idea of challenging people on those beliefs was brought up by others as a distraction.
Quote:
Do you think that people in this situation need you to remind them that they don't deserve to be called sir or madam as the case may be?
There's that word again, "need". Everything circles right back to how people feel, when I'm arguing about objective reality. So it does seem like people are arguing that the former should trump the latter.