Yeah, sorry about deleting it--I think there's discussion to be had here, and am not opposed to further exploration of why I feel as I do; it's good sometimes to examine why you think things! But I'm really just anxious and unsettled today, I don't know why, but as I need to get some things accomplished I thought I'd take myself out of one arena anyway.

I do actually think you're right, independent of my personal feelings on a word I don't like. (That part may be coloured, as well, by the part where my first encounter with it as a word was someone using it to tell me why I could not possibly understand my own insides.) On a personal level, I work by my own set of rules, which include using or not using whatever labels a person chooses to accept, and expecting the same for myself.

On a societal level, of course you are unfortunately right, and my personal playbook isn't the one the rest of the world uses. In those instances I'm usually happy to take on whatever makes the playing field more even and fair. So I suppose the amended version of the deleted comment is, 'I don't like it, and won't use it for myself. I'd rather my friends didn't use it for me on a personal level. But if on an impersonal level it makes trans people's lives any easier, then I guess call me whatever.'

Still going to keep working toward the 'people, with variations' thing, though. ;)