My main problem with transgender rights is that a lot of them are reinforcing the gender binary that they claim to subvert.
There may be some true transgender people out there, whose brain chemistry causes them to feel like a female or male. And I wouldn't be able to understand that, just as straight people cannot understand being attracted to the same gender, and gay to the opposite.
But I think those make up a small number of transgender/transsexuals. Most are transgendered because they cannot reconcile their personality and society's expectations. e.g. I like shopping and dolls, but society says those traits are feminine, ergo I feel like a woman. I am biologically a man, but society tells me I am psychologically a woman, and must fix this.
I think the problem here, though, is the very notion of masculinity and femininity. The idea that certain traits must be masculine or feminine, that gender binary so many people talk about. Dolls are feminine, trucks are masculine, etc. etc. This does indeed need to change in society, that men and women should be able to like what they like, without society's notions of masculinity and femininity interfering. This has been happening for the past 50 years, with gay rights subverting these notions. It is feminine to like men, and masculine to like women. Well, that concept has certainly changed since the 1950s. But more stuff like that needs to change.
But then here comes transgendered rights. They feel like a woman, because society tells them they should feel like one, and so declare they are a woman and feel this is challenging society's notions of gender? I really don't see any logic here at all. If you like masculine or feminine stuff, it should be just that. You are a person that enjoys those things, and your sex or gender should not matter. Being a man, and liking feminine things, and declaring to the whole wide world that you feel like a woman, this is not progressive, it is regressive. It reinforces stereotypes, not subvert them.
