What is the LessWrong-like answer to whether someone born a male but who identifies as female is indeed female?
What do you mean by "indeed"? That is, neural categories seems like the right place to start. (And, especially as a professor, that seems like the right thing to talk about when students ask about a political issue--not your position, but the mental algorithms you're executing to determine your position.)
(Very similar to PeerGynt's response, and drawing on the same sequence.)
This thread is for asking any questions that might seem obvious, tangential, silly or what-have-you. Don't be shy, everyone has holes in their knowledge, though the fewer and the smaller we can make them, the better.
Please be respectful of other people's admitting ignorance and don't mock them for it, as they're doing a noble thing.
To any future monthly posters of SQ threads, please remember to add the "stupid_questions" tag.