Civilization is frivolous. This conversation is frivolous. Culture of any kind is only possible because of "serious people doing serious things." Farmers stop farming and power plants shut down and most people will stop writing novels, making films, playing music, or yes debating the edge cases of social norms like gender. Unless you code for power, farming, or health care applications you'd probably stop coding too.

The right only invokes this "get serious" line when it's something they personally think is unnecessary, ignoring the fact that 90% of what they do is also unnecessary.

The bigger and wealthier civilization gets the more frivolous things it will produce. Pretty soon we'll be spewing rocket ships to the Moon and Mars, which are really damn frivolous over any time scale that matters to any living person.

Also I'm sure for people who strongly feel that they are gender-atypical this is a serious issue. There's an article somewhere about someone who posed as trans for a week to gonzo-report on just how shitty trans people are treated.

Edit: you can do your own experiment in the frivolity of "identity politics." Find a stock photo of a cute girl and pose as her in programming forums for a week or two. Hope you like weird and inappropriate come-ons, lewd messages, and a 50/50 split between people pretending to hang on your every word and people ignoring your opinion. I have never dealt with any of that shit as a white male programmer but I've heard loads of stories.

I do get the concern about trans women in womens' sports. As far as I know that is the only "edge case" where the people pushing back on trans rights have an actual point. The rest of it is pure moral outrage trolling and obsessing over things other people are doing that don't impact you. There is no other job or activity I can think of where this matters. The outrage over it is as stupid as the outrage over plastic straws.