I realise people have strong opinions, but it still boggles me how spiteful some of these posts are.

Even if you disagree with the idea of it yourself, you can still respect that the other person truly thinks of themself as the gender they claim to be, and address them in the way they ask to be addressed.

I also find it very hard to believe that people would "choose" to identify in a way that opens them up to such abuse, if they didn't really believe it to be true.

There's a lot more I could write. Anecdotes. People I know. A history of how I've felt about the issue.

But the core is: I know some of these people, and they're just people. They're not something 'other' that's less deserving of respect.

I don't know what to say, but I don't want to say nothing.

It makes me feel awful to see people talk like they do in this thread.