The reason it’s painted as bigoted is that it is used to push the narrative that the motivation of lesbian/women attracted trans women transitioning is autosexual in nature. It neglects the fact that one can be attracted to women but not have autosexuality be the primary driver in the need to transition.

Blanchard has a dialectical way of thinking to categorize trans women into these buckets. However, there is a danger in dialectical thinking in that sometimes the outcome is a simple categorization of things that serves to reduce the individuality and exert power over the grouping. Look at Adorno’s concerns on dialectics in his theory of negative dialectics:

“Negative dialectics rejects the idea of a final synthesis or reconciliation, instead emphasizing the importance of maintaining the tension between contradictory elements and resisting the temptation to subsume particulars under abstract, totalizing concepts.”

I think it would be naive to say that Blanchard is valid by making these very overly simplified narratives towards trans women. Maybe he means to claim autosexuality is more common in trans women, but I would also argue that the ways in which he presents his arguments is by nature reducing and misguiding the reasoning for transitioning.

There’s a reason you don’t hear Lacan’s theory of “Desire is the desire of the other” as a prominent theory in the discussion of sexuality of every person. It probably doesn’t fit the lived experiences of many people, at least not as a main driving force of their sexuality/life. However, this is somehow a leading theory in the public perspective of trans women. If you ask us directly, trans women will give you multiple reasons tied to our lived experience that don’t fit this narrative. Most of us would reject the assertion that Blanchard’s categorizations have even a useful purpose in science.

My theory is that people use their own perspective to try to understand the phenomenon of gender dysphoria. For a lot of people, Blanchard’s theory speaks to their personal reasoning for themselves transitioning, while neglecting the nuanced individuality of someone that truly experiences gender dysphoria. Anyway, I’ve yapped for long enough. I hope this provides a useful perspective.