When I saw the title of your story, I said ::what?!?!:: and clicked to read immediately. I hadn't heard!!
Following the link to Jessica Riedl's X post that you provided, I read her announcement on Substack, which she launched yesterday with the blog tagline "I'm not planning for regular posts yet" and pledging that this one post "will be the only time I publicly discuss my own gender identity." (She's disabled comments and likes.)
She says her new name is Jessica and that she's transgender. She doesn't say explicitly that she identifies as a woman and wants to be referred to as she, but I infer that from context.
She says "I’m not an activist and I’m more moderate on transgender policy issues," whatever the hell "more moderate" means.
She provided a lot of links to information about biological sexual diversity which I did not read because I do not require that information to accept her or anyone's gender. Anyone can live in or identify as whatever gender, as far as I'm concerned. A person may be intersex (neither they nor I control the fact of it) and they may get medical testing to search for those traits if they want (it's up to them). I personally don't require them to say they got medical tests to prove their gender to me nor to do anything else to justify their gender to me.
Had I been able to comment on her post, I would have said briefly that I accept her gender unconditionally, completely, and immoderately — both for her benefit and for the benefit of Heritage Foundation folks who might see it. I suspect that many people do not know what it feels like to have their gender simply and thoroughly accepted, and so they pledge to be "more moderate" in their acceptance of others. Maybe if they knew what it felt like to receive really good trans-accepting energy, they could learn to give it. Similarly, I suspect that many Heritage Foundation folks do not know what it's like to be inside a group conversation in which one person simply accepts another person's (trans) gender and moves on. If they were exposed to a bit more of that, maybe they could learn to copy it. Maybe.
#@¢%&$ Heritage Foundation.
