At the recent Republican National Convention, former presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson ridiculed transgender identities. ThinkProgress.com reports him as saying "Wouldn’t that be the same as if you woke up tomorrow morning after seeing a movie about Afghanistan or reading some books and said, 'You know what? I’m Afghanistan [sic]... This is how absurd we have become!'"

Transgender identities are not absurd. Current science overwhelmingly indicates that gender identity is a physical brain characteristic present from birth and is not changeable. As a medical practitioner, Dr. Carson should know this. Transgender people experience crushing dysphoria if they try to live as the gender dictated by their body sex at birth, but can live happy productive lives when they are true to their internal gender. Flip comments like Dr. Carson's fan the flames of hatred and subject transgender people to discrimination and obstacles to living as they need to. In short, it easily meets the commonly accepted definition of hate speech.

Until denial and ridicule of transgender identities are correctly identified as hate speech in our culture, transgender individuals will continue to be marginalized, harassed, and forced to live in a way that brings untold misery.

If a respected figure claimed that a particular racial, cultural, or religious identity should not be respected, that would quickly be seen as the hate it is. It is high time that transgender identities receive the same respect.