You: “I do ask that YOU recognize (no matter how you identify racially or ethnically), that when people who identify as non-Black make the comparison you made in your article, of gender slurs to racial slurs, it’s HURTFUL. HARMFUL.”

Me: At no point, anywhere in my piece, do I compare “gender slurs” and “racial slurs.” In fact, my piece has nothing to do with either topic. You’ve made an unwarranted leap from my use of the term “hate crime” to the topic of “racial slurs.” That leap is yours, not mine. You read that into my words because they are — quite literally — not there. There is LITERALLY nothing in my piece about race. NOTHING. Nada. Zip.

I stand by my assertion that (for me!) intentionally misgendering a person is akin to a hate crime. “Akin.” Not “is.” “Akin” meaning “of similar character” not “exactly the same as.” Your fixation on this statement of personal values, which is only tangential to the central argument in my piece (about the power dynamics of public requests for a person’s gender pronouns) mystifies me.