When did GG start becoming an offensive term ?

[PretzelGirl]

Spoken like someone with privilege. You have never been in a situation where words can and do hurt. People who think that PC isn't needed and should grow a thicker skin need to walk a mile in the shoes of those who ask NOT to be called something.

This a thousand times. Privilege is a big problem and results in many of the issues we see today. "I have mine so the world is good and I don't have to worry about others". What we should be doing is listening to others and understanding what they are saying instead of calling it political correctness. The minute you say PC, you have flagged that you are not listening to what the person is saying. You are marginalizing their opinion/experience.

So what do we do? How are we to know when it's ok to use words?

Well, you don't necessarily need to step gingerly with every step you take. But if someone is speaking up and saying something is problematic, do them the service of listening instead of disregarding them by saying statements like "troublemaker" and "They are just being politically correct".

And if there is, who the heck decided their opinions mattered more than the rest of us?

When did you decide that your opinion mattered more than someone's feelings? You can marginalize them and when they draw your attention to it, you can marginalize them some more?

I think this is the underlying problem. Many (but not ALL, cripes do I have to keep writing that to avoid those who will attack me with their exceptions) 'women who were born women' (gee, is this what it's come to? We have to use that whole phrase every time we want to distinguish who's who?) take offense that MTF TS want to be referred to as women, they take offense that crossdressers refer to each other as 'girl' or anything that is usually used to refer to a female, because to them, none of us are women. At all. We're crossdressers, drag queens, transsexuals...but we're definitely not women to them, they see us as just men in dresses.

I don't know what nether regions you are pulling this from, but I talk with a lot of women that know I (a TS individual) am a woman. I didn't need to explain it to them. I didn't need to ask them. I was just me and they accepted me.

By definition, crossdressers are not women. Miriam Webster has this definition: "the act or practice of wearing clothes made for the opposite sex". If you are wearing clothes of the opposite sex, you obviously can't be the opposite sex. If you wear woman's clothes and say you are a woman, you need to pick another identity. You aren't a crossdresser.

Drag Queens are many different identities. I know DQs that are gay, transsexual, and some that are female identified at birth. DQs are a rather big "box".