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Dcc, CodexSeraphinianus,

I think one has to select ones words carefully, particularly when speaking about the "right to choose" a gender identity. There are some in the trans debate who insist that gender is fluid. A logical consequence of this is that gender does not really exist. (If gender can change on a whim, what significance does it have in the first place?) The people who follow this line of thinking would therefore have no use for separate men's and women's bathrooms; they mean to deconstruct gender entirely.

It seems to me that we can allow for the rights and dignity of trans people, but in order to make sense of the locker room scenario in which we maintain some separation between the sexes, we must require that the gender of trans people is fixed (post-transition, naturally). I'm not sure that "choice" correctly captures the mechanisms of gender identity when it comes to the issue at hand, and, as I said above, it creates a false parallel with sexual preference and freedom of religion.