As to the second paragraph: in a "perfect" world yeah gender would probably be meaningless and yeah we could disregard it. But in the real world if you have one

As to the second paragraph: in a "perfect" world yeah gender would probably be meaningless and yeah we could disregard it. But in the real world if you have one group of people that says "I don't 'see' gender" on the one side and the North Carolina legislature on the other side: the first group loses. Every Time.