[Beltalowda]

I don't see anything about "the great trans bathroom debate"? It seems extremely reductionists and dismissive to boil it down to that.

> The difference is that she's an influential author with a wide reach who can reasonably be expected to think just a little more before she voices an opinion on something that affects a marginalized community.

So basically it's fine for people to have any opinion they want, except if they actually have an audience? That is literally self-censorship.

"Affects a marginalized community" is one of those things that gets thrown around left and right, but it's not at all clear to me that people really are really all that affected by someone saying "saying 'trans' and 'cis' acknowledges that there is a distinction between women born female and women who transition". This is something you can disagree with, but I don't see how it really "affects" or "harms" anyone. You make it sound like she said something horrible, but this really isn't that, and it's also something a large number of people – probably a majority, including on the left – would agree with. Previous: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33379058

The alternative is to unquestionably accept any argument from the marginalized people, and that doesn't strike me as a good idea. We accepted MLK's arguments based on the merit of his arguments, but also rejected various arguments from the Nation of Islam and other more radical groups.