minorin

Presumably most people would agree that there are people who are confused about their sexuality.

"Confused about their sexuality" is a particularly uncharitable characterization of a transgender person. Many are not confused, rather absolutely certain. Unless you're using the term "confused" as a polite way of indicating that you believe such a person to be mistaken or delusional, in which case you would be begging the question.

By the way, gender is not the same thing as sexuality.

It would only be a counterexample to that model if the student was correct, but whether or not the student is correct is precisely what we are discussing.

If one models gender as a boolean switch that... (read more)

I don't know the LessWrong-like answer, so I can only offer you the human, empathic answer.

Based on the phrasing of your question:

whether someone born a male but who identifies as female is indeed female

and the fact that you have posted it to LessWrong, I understand it to be a question about constructing a useful and consistent model of the human condition, rather than about respecting an actual or hypothetical human being. If so, I think you are asking the wrong question.

Your students want to learn from you, but on a more basic level, they want to feel safe with you. If you have a trans student, or a student with... (read more)