Don't get me wrong but...

[Guest Sarah Faith]

Mayo that is certainly one point of view and you are most definitely welcome to it.. However If there is concern among women at all about needing gender specific spaces, and concern about "men in dresses" invading their gender specific spaces.. Then I think one should take pause and listen, rather than simply telling them to sit down and shut up simply because we want all people who state they "Identify as a woman" with little to no backing evidence to feel good about them selves. Requiring a person to at least be in treatment to transition and have it as on the record proof is a relatively fair compromise. I did not even start using a womens restroom until I was full time and my ID said female. Contrary to popular belief compromises are not a bad thing.

At any rate you seem set in your beliefs, and you are certainly no where near convincing me to share your views.. So at this point I think this conversation has reached its end.

[Mayo]

I tend to talk from an extreme position, if only because you always have to ask for more than you think you'll get, but I admit that I'm unsure of how to deal with the issue of changing rooms and gender-segregated spaces where private cubicles are not available. I also fully support the idea of women-only safe spaces, though in general I think trans women (not CDs aka 'men in dresses', because they identify as men) should generally be allowed to access to those. Some day in the future I hope that these will no longer be issues, but we are not there yet and there will inevitably be 'growing pains' as society adjusts to acceptance of non-binary genders. Some compromises (and restrictions) will, as you point out, inevitably be necessary along the way.

I think I'm inclined to draw the line in a different place than you are. I can also concede the possibility that, having been socialized male, I'm less aware of the female perspective on these matters, though the things I've read generally say that many people (certainly not all) don't have a problem with trans women in the ladies' washroom. For example, two polls, taken two years apart, show a drop from 59% in favour of using the facilities of one's birth gender in 2014 to 43% in 2016.

The times, they are a-changin', and I think this is a good thing.