I'm sure a lot of people well have damaged neurotypical development if someone, who is clearly "he" would eventually let everyone around call him "she" or whatever. If gender is social construct we are "it". Sorry, I'm not playing this game, it is quite boring actually.
Our brains is the means of how we perceive the world, experience, and understand it. Part of our brains handles how we relate to other people, mainly by mirroring their emotions and experiences onto us. These so-called mirror neurons don't understand the difference between us and the other person. So if you see a person eating an apple and enjoying it, your mirror neurons will fire and sort of simulate the experience.
It turns out that these neurons are far more important than that. During our developmental years, a sense of gender identity is constructed, that gender identity may be incongruent to our sex, and some sexologists hypothesize that mirror neurons are the culprit of the incongruence.
To the person, what they perceive as their gender is a very real thing, just as a boy knows he is a boy and develops that identity, a trans person knows they are X and have a developed identity.
Unlike the delusion of religion and mystical space daddies, this is well documented and founded in science, ct scans, mri scans, post partum brain biopsies, history going back millenia, and studies going back 150 or so years.
Just because gender is constructed socially, doesn't mean that the physical issues are not real. Even if there was no gender, nor gender roles, nor sexed language, transsexuals would still opt to transition because the differences and incongruence is a very real thing to them, not any more real than your reality is to you.
I can't speak for people who don't wish to transition as I don't know any.
To a schizophrenic, their delusions are very real. At a what point, when reality does not match a person's perceptions, do we judge their perceptions to be delusion, hallucination, or some other mental illness?
I don't know the answer to that question. There is probably not a clear dividing line, sort of like the heliopause at the edge of our solar system. But to declare these things as hard, clear facts is not correct.
> transsexuals would still opt to transition
We should be very clear about the results of transitioning. It does not result in female anatomy by an regular definition. It is a physical state that imitates the <female/male> anatomy, very superficially, with long term health consequences and perpetual maintenance. I suspect that this terminal state does not achieve the goals of trans folks, and is likely a major source of the ongoing emotional disturbance so commonly observed.
Given the scientific evidence from fMRI, and post-partum biopsies of their brain, those things are very much real. They do not misinterpret reality.
Schizophrenic people do misinterpret reality, whereas transsexuals do not. Had transsexuals misinterpreted reality, they would not experience GID or Gender Dysphoria, nor would reality ie their sex, be a stressor.
> We should be very clear about the results of transitioning.
People are very clear about the results and consequences of transitioning, people don't do it on a whim, and fyi, transitioning is a very long and arduous process. It does not happen over a day; over a week; a month; or even a single year. The person chooses to walk that path every single day, and at least in Europe, they are well aware of both the consequences and the results.
> It does not result in female anatomy by an regular definition. It is a physical stake that imitates the <female/male> anatomy, very superficially, with long term health consequences and perpetual maintenance
Nobody is claiming it provides the person with a uterus, ovaries, or - if the person has transitioned into adulthood - skeletal structure.
On the other hand, it has very real changes; from brain region activations, taste, muscle tissue change, skin change, and a lot more. To claim that it does nothing would imply that it is needless, had it been needless, people wouldn't be fighting for better coverage, wouldn't ask for treatment, and on and on.
> I suspect that this terminal state does not achieve the goals of trans folks,
Sorry but at this point you are imposing your beliefs to argue for the experiences of other people, millions of them who contradict yours. At this point, it is good to listen carefully with the intent to learn over claiming what you believe is the truth.
> is likely a major source of the ongoing emotional disturbance so commonly observed.
Transition is a source of emotional disturbance when the person is not accepted, in fact, discrimination in workplace, housing, along with overall lack of acceptance from the broader society is the main source of stress and the main cause of detransition.
In-fact, people who transition early pass significantly easier, have the same outcomes as cis people, and get to live a happy life, in fact over 98% of people who transition early do not detransition. That's a big super-majority.
I recommend spending more time with actual trans people and being more empathetic towards people whose shoes you can not walk in.