Are We Capable of Having a Mature Conversation as a Society About Ellen/Elliott Page?

Did you hear about Ellen Page? She just came out as transgender and now expects to be referred to as Elliott Page and referred to as a he. Not only that, but some people strongly believe I have committed a violent act by referring to Page as a “she” at the start of the previous sentence as a means to denote the transition.

My initial reaction is just confusion. Does this mean that Ellen Page is on her way to becoming a man? Is she (or he) already a male and does this mean by a biological, emotional, or symbolic measure? I would have assumed the press release, in the case of the former, would have read “I am on my way to getting a sex change” (in the manner of, say, Caitlin Jenner)?

As of now, I hold no judgements about whether Page is doing something good or bad or healthy or unhealthy. I’m not a fan of Page’s blanket attacks on the religious community (Page was recently in the headlines for attempting to cancelling Chris Pratt) and this person’s (I’m going out of my way to choose a pronoun for Page as my piece is intended to be speculative) extremely generalized statements that all Churches and Churchgoers are anti-LGBT. However, that is a separate issue than what to make of Page.

While I am a democrat and believe Civil Rights are important, that doesn’t take away, that my initial reaction when I interact with this piece of information (if I were to think about this news) is confusion.