British teacher suspended after calling transgender boy a girl

I don't know the circumstances here. And likely, I'm not going to know them. So I'll just say that if the guy was being deliberately offensive, then he's in the wrong...plain and simple. If it wasn't deliberately offensive, then I find no problem with it.

People, as far as I'm concerned, can view themselves anyway they wish. However, when we start complicating things by adding more and more mandatory descriptors to ourselves, and then taking offense when people don't adhere to them, we open ourselves to issues like this.

Why do I say this? Am I being obtuse with respect to transgenders? (And yes, I used this as a noun.)

The answer is "no", I'm not being obtuse with respect to transgenders. There are, as of the google search I just performed, upwards of 63 genders.

SIXTY THREE.

And some sites say that's a MINIMUM number.

But the vast majority of the "genders" on that list aren't based on any actual physical traits associated with "gender". They're based on gender "identity"...in other words, on what people THINK or FEEL they are, not what the actual reality of their biology is.

All of which means people are just applying various adjectives to an ACTUAL physical gender in order to describe who they think or feel they are.

"Transgender woman". "Cisgender male". "Gender non-conforming". "Genderqueer". "Non-binary". "Pan gender".

Here's the deal...if you were born with dangly bits, then you're male. If you weren't born with dangly bits, then you're female. Outside of extremely rare biological instances, that's the way it is.

You're not "assigned" a gender when you're born...your gender is determined at the chromosomal level. There's no "assigning" to it.

If you THINK you're something other than male or female, I'm down with that. No different than, say, being homosexual in my opinion. But that doesn't change the biological fact of your genetic gender.

If you're female and you wish to be addressed as a male, so be it. Same for the other way around. I could care less.

If you wish to go through gender reassignment surgery, that too is fine with me. Doesn't change the biological fact of genetics, though, the reality of which, contrary to popular belief, is important in many medical issues. But that's a matter between you and your doctor. As far as I'm concerned, if you surgically reshape your genitals and body to a particular gender, I'm perfectly happy with addressing you accordingly. If it's not obvious, then let me know and I'll correct myself.

BUT...if anybody expects me to keep track of a minimum of 63 "genders"...sorry, Charlie. The onus is not on me for that.