"Help me"

In a sense, having all gender variant behaviour today fall under the banner of 'trans' is a bit unfortunate if only because we can lose track of where our focus should be. 

No one argues against diversity and letting people be who they are. What we want is an open society where people can be authentic which regretably is still an unattained target. 

We should want primarily to help those who need assistance. This means the focus should be on people who are struggling with identity issues who don't know or have access to how to address them. 

The other day at the thrift store my daughter saw a very confident gender variant person of approximately her age who wasn't disguising their birth sex. They were simply expressing themselves in a feminine manner including sporting traditional women's clothing. 

From her vantage point this young person didn't seem to need help. They were self-assured; certainly as much as anyone else in the store which I love to see as does my daughter.

I have a retired friend who I consider to be representative of the public. The nuance of the topic is lost on him because he hasn't had to think about it much over his life. I've had to patiently explain things to him which he then forgets. I find most people are like this and certainly my 90 year old mother (who is sympathetic) also is. 

Gender criticals pounce on this confusion on every case which suits their cause to point out the folly of playing with a rigid binary which only existed because it was so strictly enforced. 

However, I always go back to the most important and fundamental issue here which is: do you need help?

I certainly did. Now I'm just old and cranky.