how the hell is a discussion about people biases in regards to someone's perceived gender when they are pretty much the same person with the same expertise not OBVIOUSLY connected to rationality? Tenuous my ass.

Re: "women are treated better" I don't know if you're straw manning the person you're talking about but different genders are treated differently in different contexts. It's pretty interesting to see what kind of effects people see when they transition in different areas of life, and I don't think that really counts as "gender politics".

Posts about biases that are fairly common and often unconscious/unintentional are not just tenuously connected to rationality. And since we're discussing preferences, I would prefer not to see any discussion of gender inequities immediately get labeled "politics", given all the connotations that label carries.

As to #1, though I know someone who has gone male-to-female and decidedly does not make that claim, I would not find it terribly unlikely that someone who goes through a transition in either direction will be somewhat more likely to find their new status superior to their old status.

I would prefer not to see gender politics on LW, especially when the connection to rationality is tenuous.

Agreed.