[Vicky.]

Originally Posted by Jamie89

I suppose I'm somewhere in the middle. I think I generally just like to trust in what people say unless I'm given a reason not to, so if I met a man who said he felt he was a woman, but hadn't yet undergone any steps towards becoming a woman I'd take that on face value, and I'd refer to him as a woman if that's what he wanted, and I'd consider him a woman if I felt he was genuine, it's not something I've personally experienced so I can't really judge it and there's still not really a great deal of understanding around it. If I met someone though who gave me reason to think they had ulterior motives, or had beliefs that I disagreed with (such as the example of bullying lesbians to sleep with men or that it's transphobic to consider dysphoria a requirement in transsexuals etc) then that'd be different. I would hazard a guess that issues like these and these ways of thinking have always been around though amongst some people but are only becoming highlighted because there's more of a spotlight on all things trans related nowadays, rather than them being issues that are growing.

I dare you to post on reddit/twitter/tumblr that you think sex dysphoria is an essential part of being trans. I know those sites are not necessarily representative of real life but you will be called a terf, told to die in a fire, and get rape threats by the minute, from hundreds of different users. I assure you.