You know very well that someone else agrees with you. If you need to vent, call it a vent.
Yes, I think you are being ridiculous, although I don't know whether to chalk it up to hormones or not.
I *do* understand the difference that many people believe exists between gender and sex. I am aware of the politics involved and how people are really worried about offending the very small percentage of people out there who identify themselves as transsexuals, but it's not just informed by LGBT politics, but also feminism. Feminists - or at least the more extreme ones - believe there is no difference between the *genders* at all, and that every difference that we see is socially ingrained. I once believed in that myself in my naive youth. It's also a grave mistake to assume that such a difference - if one exists - isn't socially, culturally, or biologically important. They have always been important and they always will be - in almost every culture, esp. advanced ones - that have ever existed. There's a reason why we'll never have a completely androgynous society. In modern times, victim politics has gotten out of hand. No one wants to feel like they are marginalizing anyone - so they start pushing for changes in how words are defined and everyone starts to say things that are a little bit nutty.
It's not wrong to treat gender as a synonym of sex, because it's *common usage*. Common Usage is not wrong. It's how language works. Words have meanings because *people give them meanings*. Words can also have a variety of meanings - or do you not know that?
The only people who get upset about it are those who are usually politically motivated to push a certain agenda on the public at large. Again, this is for fear of offending somebody. And if you're going to tell me that the distinction between *gender* and *sex* is not made and insisted upon because of politics (instead of serious research and study), well, that's just laughable.
In common usage, there is no difference between gender and sex. It's what most of us have learned growing up, and it's only after going to university and being exposed to gender politics, that people start to feel guilty about it. I have no shame in using common usage, and I won't be bullied or guilted into changing the way I speak (or write).
I have the utmost compassion and respect for everyone - including LGBT people - but I have zero toleration for those who try and tell me how to think, speak, or act.