Hence the existence of the gender critical movement which rejects the concept, rather justly pointing out how regressive and self-destructive it is for people engaging in it
I am not sure where you are based, Brainer, but I am in the UK. Here, people with gender critical beliefs have, as I see it, been inflaming political debate about trans people, arguing for effective removal of their rights to access public services and fiercely resisting moves to make the public sphere more inclusive for them, opposing improvements in the health and social care available to trans people and even supporting further restriction of already appallingly poor provision, particularly for young trans people. They, intentionally or not, incite hatred against trans people, present an inaccurate caricature of what transness is in order to set up a false dichotomy between trans and women's rights and cause distress to a segment of society that already faces stigma and rejection. I do believe people with gender critical beliefs hold them sincerely and genuinely think they are acting for the best, but given the already high incidence of violence against trans people, and the rates of mental illness, self-harm and suicide amongst trans people who do not get appropriate healthcare, acceptance or support, I think it is no exaggeration to say that they are costing lives.
I say all this *not* in order to enter into debate, but to demonstrate it is impossible, in this forum at least.
I am sure you will disagree with my characterisation of the gender critical movement, just as I reject your characterisation of what transness and gender identity are about. I am sure I will not be able to change your mind and there is zero chance of you changing mine, so talking about our views just creates an unwelcoming environment for people on all sides of the question. Let alone for trans gamers themselves who just want to get on with their lives and have fun playing and talking about a game that lets them roleplay a character that shares their gender identity, and have this acknowledged, in a way that you and I now take for granted.
So given you, I, and many other gamers have irreconcilable preferences about whether or how the game deals with gender identity along with all kinds of other things (see, eg, a parallel debate on this forum about inclusion of explicit sex), where do we go from here? I would hope that we would be able to accept that we all have a right to our preferences, whatever the reasons for them, and that, in order to include content that allows players the maximum amount of flexibility in the characters they create and stories they tell, a cRPG like BG3 will likely include some content that we personally are uncomfortable with.
You started this thread by asking whether the gender identity feature that the game provides is worth including in its existing form.
The answer is that there are gamers who want to play a trans or enbie character and have that acknowledged by the game, and the feature gives them that ... so yes. It is not much, and there are still niggles with the way it functions, and some handwaving is required in order to accept the impact selecting the feature has on NPCs and the world, but for the gamers at whom the feature is aimed, ie those who want to roleplay a trans or enbie character, it is better than nothing. Anyone who does not want to play such a character just has to ignore a couple of options on the character creation screen.
Given that answer, I am not sure if you are willing to say something along the lines of "Oh, okay, I have views that make it uncomfortable for me to encounter representations of trans or non-binary genders in the game, but I understand that there are other gamers who actively want to be able to play a trans or non-binary character who will enjoy the feature, and I am willing to skip past a couple of options on character creation in order for them to be able to do that." If not, then I think this debate is at the end of the line, as what is being asked of you currently is pretty much the minimum possible. There is no reasonable compromise I can see that would ask anything less of you that would not just remove any trans representation from the game ... which is not compromise but just giving you what you want at the expense of other gamers.
I am now banning myself from posting any further in this thread, in order to remove any temptation to get further embroiled in debates about real world politics.
I hope, whether or not you agree with it, I have made my position clear and I suspect it's not going to help move the debate on any further if I say more about it.
