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Notes -
What does it mean then?
This sounds like its trying to answer the question? The word "relatively" here seems like its doing a lot of work. I don't want to put words in your mouth; this reads to me like you're saying transphobia is like a spectrum. One pole is treating trans women and cis women similarly on zero issues, and on the other pole is treating them the same on all issues. For you, treating them as relatively the same is good enough?
I can't think of any one issue on which LGBT activists are OK with treating cis women and trans women differently. Can you think of any?
Maybe cervical screening tests? Prostate exams?
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It means about the same as "step-fathers are fathers." I outlined this elsewhere in this thread, but I'm in favor of "translegalism" as the official line of the state on trans issue - the state creates a legal fiction of "adoptive sex", and decides where adoptive men/woman are relevantly similar to natal men/women, passing laws based on these decisions. Everything else is left to private individuals and organizations to decide for themselves.
The word I use was relevantly, not relatively. And I think we are in a very similar situation to any legal question of how individuals should be treated.
In a liberal democracy, we recognize the law is limited by a set of rights possessed by the people, but sometimes rights come into conflict, or people want to know the limits of a right. Does the freedom of religion allow for polygamy or animal sacrifice? No, we've decided that the state can limit these practices without infringing on religious liberty. Etc., etc.
Every society has to navigate these conflicts as they arise, and many will come to different answers. Compare French laicite to American secularism, and the different problems and circumstances these two policies were responding to.
I do think that a spectrum like the one you described can be said to exist. I'm not sure I'd call it a spectrum of "transphobia" though. If I wanted to locate "transphobia" on the spectrum, I'd probably just draw a line somewhere and say, "below this level of equality, trans people's lives are hell." Whether a regime that causes trans people to suffer unnecessarily is properly called "transphobic" is another question.
I don't think LGBT activists ever 100% agree with one another. I'm sure that some are okay with not extending trans inclusion to prisons and sports, while thinking that other areas like bathrooms are locker rooms are more central.
I consider myself to be pro-trans, but I'm not a trans-maximalist. I think there can be reasonable disagreement on trans-inclusion in certain domains, but I'm also in favor of policies like those adopted in my state that make discrimination in the realms of housing, employment, public accommodations, and credit and lending illegal. I'm in favor of minors being allowed to make informed decisions, with their parents and doctors, whether they want to transition, but I'm not dismissive of fears people have of sterilization, unknown side effects or the risk of overly permissive medical regimes resulting in a large number of detransitioners down the line.
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