It's not really. People don't disagree on whether or not one can change sex in terms of their reproductive function & system. If they could, there would be no trans people. The word 'trans' indicates a difference between biological sex & gender identity. 1/3 https://twitter.com/darkst/status/1200078104871522310

And belief in gender identity & 'born in the wrong body' is not actually postmodern ideas. Queer theorists come down strongly against 'born in the wrong body' because this implies stable categories & that bodies have some essential connection to gender identity. 2/3

The idea of an innate gender identity & born in the wrong body are two different claims but they both really assume that 'masculinity' & 'femininity' have some biological basis & that it is one that is found in the brain & endocrine system.

This understanding of gender as cognitive, psychological & behavioural traits that are found more strongly in one sex to various degrees is not generally well-regarded by postmodernists or gender critical radical feminists who relate it to a sexist concept of 'lady brain.'

People who accept that such differences between the sexes exist - eg, women are more interested in working with people and men with things on average - tend not to be postmodernists but people with a respect for biology, evolutionary psychology & neuroscience.

This then raises the question of whether or not 'trans' is a biological phenomenon where a biologically-produced gender identity does not match the biological reproductive system & is a conflict between two aspects of biology & not between a subjective belief and biology.

If you are thinking you are not sure that gender is a useful concept at all, you might want to think about whether the sentence 'He is a very feminine man" makes sense to you. If so, you already have concepts of both sex & gender & recognise that they usually correlation.

In fact, the best argument against trans identity is not one that denies the existence of gender as cognitive, psychological & behavioural differences that usually correlate with sex but sometimes don't, but one that questions that this means some people are trans.

Because differences in gender presentation are often found in gay men and lesbians, with some gay men having traits & presentations widely considered feminine & some lesbians having those widely considered masculine, some people fear that L&G youth are being refigured as trans.

For ideological reasons. Or that girls who are "tomboys" & boys who like more typically feminine things, who are just outliers from general trends & neither trans nor lesbian/gay are being encouraged to 'take on' a trans identity.

I think it is clear that such an ideological/identitarian movement/trend is happening and strict measures need to be put in place to ensure that psychologists involved in the treatment of gender dysphoria are looking for this, but I do not think this is the whole picture.

I think it is likely that within the next 20 years, neuroscience particularly, will have given us a much clearer picture of how gender - cognitive, psychological & behavioural differences - works & it will explain why trans people exist & why they are not just gay or lesbian.

I could be wrong, of course, but for now, I think the ethical thing to do is encourage rigorous investigation of this & defend it against any attempts by gender ideologues of various kinds to pressure it to come to the conclusions it wants or squash any findings that don't.

There are other practical & ethical things to do and @ConceptualJames and I wrote about them here: https://areomagazine.com/2017/09/27/an-argument-for-a-liberal-and-rational-approach-to-transgender-rights-and-inclusion/

I should also point out that the higher incidence of gender dysphoria among people on the autistic spectrum does not indicate whether or not we should accept the gender identity of trans people although it does strengthen the evidence that it has to do with brains.

If gender is a product of brains & there are more typically female brains & more typically male brains, the fact that more people whose brains are atypical in terms of autism are also atypical in terms of gender doesn't provide us with any argument for or against gender identity.

I understand the concerns some people have raised that autistic people are overrepresented among those with gender dysphoria at a time when there is so little understood about why and so much emphasis on affirmation.

However, I am also concerned about the argument which essentially goes "People are being diagnosed as trans when they're actually just autistic" because this assumes they aren't really trans & that only one diagnosis can be correct. An either/or.

I hope there is a liberal & rational approach to autism advocacy. I keep coming across SocJus approaches within disability studies which embraces autism as a victimised (& often self-diagnosed) identity & a pushback to this from a perspective best described as autistic supremacy.