This is a fair distinction. And you're right, neither of us knows exactly what it's like to be in the other's shoes. I think that for many cis people there's a great deal of confusion around language, in fact I've heard trans people admit that the different terminology confuses them sometimes. But the speed with which questions are often conflated with hatred makes it difficult to understand each other. I don't think this serves anybody.
Believe me, I'm not worried about whether Jordan gets pushback, nor am I questioning the right of the people who spoke out against him to do so. You're absolutely right, free speech goes both ways. But to be clear, as often as his argument is misrepresented, he didn't say that we should ignore transgender pronouns. He said that it was a dangerous legal precedent to compel people to use a certain form of speech. Whether or not you agree with him on that, it seems pretty clear he'd have made the same argument about any type of compelled speech.
He has said on the record that he would and has used the pronouns that he's been asked to, but has an issue with some of the new ones like "xe" or "xim". Here, again, we find ourselves at a point where our experience doesn't overlap. I don't understand why pronouns like these would be important, but it doesn't feel reasonable to say that my lack of understanding is hatred or erasure (I'm not saying you’re saying this, but I've heard arguments of this kind many times).
The point I was trying to make, maybe a little too flippantly, is that nobody can take your identity from you either. For centuries, people tried to convince black people that they were animals. But they weren't. They were human. And they never forgot that. Even if they weren't treated as they deserved to be, they never let somebody else define them. Your identity doesn't rest in somebody else's hands or the words they use. I think the people in this article are missing that. And I think it hurts them.
Absolutely my pleasure to engage, and thank you so much for doing the same.
