Trans identity is just about being an effeminate man
Andrew Gold said:
“I'm sorry. Well, you're I know you you you you wanna feel like a woman, but you are actually just an effeminate man.”
It sounds like a plain-speaking alternative framing: rather than complicated identity language, just describe the behaviour. Many people find this intuitive because they conflate gender expression with gender identity.
Gender identity and gender expression are two separate things, and this claim collapses them into one. A trans woman who presents in a conventionally masculine way, cropped hair, work boots, no make-up, still experiences the same profound mismatch between her identity and the sex she was assigned at birth as anyone else. The ICD-11 and DSM-5 both define gender incongruence as a condition of identity, not of mannerism or personality style: there is no list of approved feminine behaviours a person must pass to qualify. When the public conversation reduces trans women to 'men who act like women', the immediate, practical consequence is that clinicians and courts start asking the wrong question, and people who genuinely need care are turned away because they did not perform femininity convincingly enough to be believed.
What I said at the time:
“Well, it boils back to I mean, we we could come back to that anorexia thing if you like, because it's in it's something that people bring up and it is interesting. But it it comes back to do we believe that gender incongruence exists or not?”
Trans women, who are misrepresented as merely non-conforming men, which is used to deny them appropriate healthcare and legal recognition.