Gender Identity, Self-Deception, and Respect

There are cases in which someone insists to themselves that they are the gender they were assigned at birth without “deep down” believing this. In such a case, which is to be respected, the identity an agent avows or the identity that they fearfully deny? We consider three forms of respect for gender identity and argue that although avowed gender identity should generally receive the first two forms of respect, there are two special contexts in which avowed gender identity can be respectfully challenged. The third form of respect, meanwhile, might equally be owed to avowed and unavowed identity.