If you are physically a man, you are a man. If I decided to say that I am a 140 year old cat, does that make me a 140 year old cat, even though I'm clearly not 140 or a cat??
generally when trying to make a point, you should avoid making a nice big strawman
Gender Dysphoria is a real thing, and gender reassignment is, for most people, the best way of dealing with it. There has been research looking into what might cause it and although nothing is at all clear (nor probably will it ever be) some studies have found that there are some similarities between the brain anatomy of Women and MTF transpeople (and vice versa) and also some other stuff that I couldn't really understand because I gave up Biology two years into High School - although again nothing conclusive, its one of those "further research needed!" things that all research into anything starts out with. Thinking that your a cat or a ghost or all the other rubbish that people try to link trans issues with is different because medical research has not found those to be legitimate medical issues: its chalk and cheese.
But I don't actually think that any of that really matters. I don't see how letting trans people live as their real gender affects me as a cis guy at all, and I just think that pursuing policies like this is just mean and nasty. I don't see how I lose out because Britain has a system that allows people who may not have the same anatomy as me pee in a Male toilet, or put "M" on their passport, or do whatever else they want to do with their life. That's what my parents taught me to think when I was growing up, and I think that its a very good way of looking at these sort of things, its a bit Libertarian-y but on this it makes sense.
I just think it should be a long, drawn out process with every opportunity to change your mind.
I dunno what the guidance is in the US but in the UK it already is, even not factoring in the shockingly long NHS waiting lists that force many people to go private. It could have changed since I last looked into it (did some voluntary work which involved looking up this sort of stuff a few years ago, it could have changed) you have to live as the gender that you identify as for a year before you become eligible for reassignment surgery, although during that time hormones are available and that's as big a part of the process as anything from what I've been told. That time is there purely to make sure that the person wanting to transition isn't making a mistake and is probably reasonable, although there could be arguments against it. This is the theory, according to
a Guardian report from last year there are huge delays of over a year before some people get forwarded to a gender clinic, followed by more delays before getting surgery, which will especially hurt lower income trans people that can't afford private healthcare. Not all trans people get surgery though, its actually quite rare for trans men, apparently because the medical procedures for that are less developed and more risky, and surgery is not required to get a Gender Recognition Certificate (the legal document that officially recognises a change in legal gender although you can change gender marks on some documents well before that - I'm pretty sure the only thing that the GRC changes is your birth certificate). This could have changed since I had to look into it, although I don't think there has been any big legal changes at least. I know that the government is apparently considering moving to a self-definition policy like Ireland has (which I support), but I'm not entirely convinced that its something that the Tories will pursue even though there should be a majority in parliament for it because a lot of Tory MPs would vote against it.
It could be different in America, I tried to look up the laws there just now and frankly it seems like a right muddle because its a state issue, and lots of states don't seem to have updated their laws at all on the thing.
I dunno whether this is straying off topic again: if it is I'm sorry!
