Transphobes who believe in gender identity

You'll often hear transphobes claim that there's no such thing as a "gender identity" — that it's a mythical feeling that can't be proven, so it's essentially a religious belief.

However, other transphobes will insist that you can have a gender identity, and you need to have the right one.

Here's a YouTube short with an example. The YouTube channel is @TheologyoftheBodyInstitute.

First, the clip begins with the assumption that there's such a thing as a "healthy gender identity."

The speaker uses the metaphor of a train that runs on two tracks: gender identification and gender complementarity.

Because the speaker is a man, he says he ought to identify with his father and complement his mother.

See, he's a man — in his view, not necessarily because he has a "sense of myself as a man" (this brief clip doesn't explore whether the sense of being a man is identical with being a man) but at least he does have such a sense (be it a standalone it is what it is or be it true or false, corresponding or mismatched, right or wrong, good or bad).

So when transphobes say there is no such thing as gender identity, I wonder what they'd make of this other homo/transphobe who says there is.

Some context

Thomas Zimmer says:

"Rightwing leaders could not possibly be clearer about the reactionary vision they want to impose on the country. They are telling us that they do not accept this egalitarian, pluralistic idea of a society in which the individual’s status is no longer determined by race, gender, religion, and wealth. They feel justified in taking truly radical, extreme measures to prevent that society from ever becoming a reality because they believe they are defending 'real America' in service of a higher purpose: To restore and entrench what they see as the natural order and divine will, as it manifests in strict, discriminatory hierarchies."

— "What Makes 'Project 2025' So Dangerous: Will the Right be able to implement these radical plans? Is Trump on board? What happened to traditional conservatism? Let’s tackle some of the key questions surrounding 'Project 2025'." Thomas Zimmer. Democracy Americana (Substack). March 21, 2024

Right-wing reactionaries do have to believe in, and essentialize, gender so they can continue to determine people's social status based on it. "Real" gender is part of the "real America," and they won't allow real gender to be the gender one really lives in. They seek some other basis of realness.