1. Anyone who in good faith uses a label is fine to use it for themselves
2. There is no way to always tell who is using it in good faith
3. Act like everyone is using it in good faith.
4. …including assholes clearly IDing to be an ass. Treating them like they mean it is a quick way to make an asshole get yuckied out and knock it off. If they seem to be committed to the bit, maybe they really mean it
I did that to a guy. He wanted to be a wolverine, clearly being an asshole to try and play a “gotcha!” game. I called him Wolverine in place of any pronoun at all. He looked angry after a while, so I stopped. When he left, he mumbled “not what I fucking meant” and sounded like he might do some thinking.
