My mother has a neurological condition. This condition makes her feel like at times, her feet are being stabbed. Of course this isn’t happening irl, but the majority of decent people wouldn’t tell her that “facts don’t care about the fact that her brain makes her feel like she is being stabbed”
So why don’t we apply this same reasoning to gender? If I say “I don’t feel X”, my concerns will be dismissed because I look like X.
Don’t even know how to make sense of this blatant contradiction
My guess would be down to various factors
Various mental disorders have been known for a while and are fairly extensively represented in media (albeit terribly in a lot of cases). In general mental health is widely recognised and most people will know someone within their social group who has mental health problems. This means its more likely the general person will empathise and see them as a human.
Problem with gender dysphoria specifically is it has been isolated, heavily demonised and turned into a boogeyman to blame all of societies ills on. Practically no representation in media or normalisation, trans characters are usually the antagonist or mocked as a joke. Also since its such a small chunk of the population most people don't know a trans person so this allows the boogeyman to form.
That's my guess anyway. Being trans never permeated into mainstream media and only popped up recently as the crumbling capitalist empires needed another scapegoat to point the finger at.
But yes I agree they are logically equivalent but in my own experience trying to get someone to think logically when they've already descended into the blind emotional hate rabbit hole they just refuse to come back out. Haven't figured out why that is. I've found self critique is like a poison to some people and doubling down is the more likely option.