Transexuals

[Neo-Scholastic]

My point is that all sides need to move beyond rigid ideological agendas and irrational fears.

Well you could start by showing a modicum of respect and not referring to trans people as their birth gender. This is extremely hurtful and harmful in the way of all forms of prejudice. That is because you are treating them as people who you think they are, not what they actually are. By using the wrong pronoun you are not allowing trans people to be themselves.

At one time sex and gender were synonyms for an objective biological feature. Then at the insistence of critical theory proponents, with whom I normally disagree, the meaning of gender was shifted to refer to the subjective social constructs associated with biological sex. This move was not problematic since it allowed people to discuss the subjective associations of otherwise asexual things with traditional notions of masculinity or femininity. For example, how did the color pink came to be associated with femininity? In other words, the shift added clarity. The shift in meaning you are asking society to embrace not only reduces clarity of expression, it undermines any distinction between objective reality and subjective experience. For example, the phrase you used, "allowing trans people to be themselves," is ontologically ambiguous. It does not clarify if "be themselves" refers to something they believe about themselves or their objective identifying features. If you were mugged, you would not identify your attacker by recounting anything about how the mugger feels about him or herself.

If a specific individual in private conversation wishes to be referred to in specific manner, like using only their last name, the pronoun of their choice or title, I am happy to oblige upon being informed of their preference. Until then I will use the most common conventions. I cannot read minds and neither can you. Your insistence that I speak according to your ideological preferences as part of a general conversation is nothing short of totalitarian.

BTW, the post you quoted does not contain a single personal pronoun.