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Deanna,

Thank you for drawing attention to the author's erroneous statement about sexual identity as a choice. I'm not sure if it was typo or a platitude-gone-wrong, but either way, I'm surprised that it made it to press, seeing as how it's the same argument that has been used by religious conservatives for generations to torture homosexuals. Your exposition on the nature of gender identity is very eloquently expressed and captures its multifarious components, only one of which could be said to relate to free will.

However, you conclude with a very radical assertion, that the "internal experience and the outward manifestations are not anyone else's business unless [a] person chooses to share their own truths." I am inclined to strongly disagree unless you can qualify this statement further. As a society, we acknowledge the existence of gender and understand that there are certain public realms where it ought to be declared. The obvious example is a shared bathroom or changing space. To deny the relevance of gender in these situations is tantamount to denying its existence. And a person's "own truths" are nonetheless bound by the tenets of society, or else society itself becomes equally meaningless.