I agree. If being mistaken as the wrong gender causes someone significant enough distress to make them commit suicide, they need (and likely are getting) serious mental health attention.
It is not the burden of anyone to cater to a stranger's mental illness. If you look vaguely male, I will say "excuse me sir, could I get past you?" (and "madam" for a vaguely female looking person). And there is no place where that should be illegal or morally wrong.
Deliberate misgendering is definitely a separate discussion from a genuine mistake.
I get misgendered all the time, and I'm just some guy who never recovered from the 80's and 90's and still sports a ponytail. Once in South Carolina, I got, "Uh, sir, uh, ma'am, uh,..." -- That checkout guy never made up his mind!
I thought it would be clear I was being sarcastic but apparently not. This was really the point I was trying to make — that these speech laws really aren’t doing anything to address the problem.
Additionally, the idea that the incredibly high suicide rate is because of oppression doesn’t match up with other data at all. If this is true, why do whites commit suicide at 3 times the rate of blacks?
It is not the burden of anyone to cater to a stranger's mental illness. If you look vaguely male, I will say "excuse me sir, could I get past you?" (and "madam" for a vaguely female looking person). And there is no place where that should be illegal or morally wrong.
Deliberate misgendering is definitely a separate discussion from a genuine mistake.