I can describe a little of my experience. At least two people in my wider circle of friends are trans, and I’ve been in a classroom environment where I sat next to a male-to-female trans person who took the female pronouns and new chosen first name. I’ve respected their desires to be called “she.” I did slip up with my classmate in the beginning – accidentally saying “he” and realizing it immediately – because the way she looked and behaved to me was so typically male that that gendered impression was stuck pretty rigid in my head and furthermore persisted despite the fact that I altered the way I addressed the person.
Exercising common decency doesn’t require the adoption of a particular identity theory. But when you legislate the use of pronouns, including completely made up words, as a reflection of a particular theory of identity, this enforces certain beliefs about gender that to my knowledge are not settled. For his part, Dr. Peterson believes these embedded beliefs about gender to be unhealthy and harmful.
Well my transgender classmate happened to be somewhat obnoxious and off socially. She would pound on her laptop keyboard in class to the point that no one could focus and ask questions to show off what she knew. But I got to know her since she sat next me. One time she was writing a paper for another class and she made some comment about having a great argument but getting marked down for her writing. I had been a writing tutor/consultant off and on so I offered to look at her essay and give her feedback. So we stayed after one day and it was cool.
“Transgender” is a serious mental illness. We need to be helping these very confused people, not pretending it is some kind of ‘right’ or ‘courage’ to be that way.