“Identifies as” is surely OK unless you’re a cynic who interprets it in bad faith. It’s widely used by trans people, activists, resource centers and so on, with good reason: because identification is a precondition of identity. The assumption that the term “identifies as” is instrinsically transphobic really just tells me you’ve internalized transphobic frames of reference. Read one too many nasty helicopter jokes, perhaps?
Cf. the term “performative”, which originally refered to what is made real by performance (a legal verdict, the perception of happiness created by a smile, your gender) but cannot now be used without confusion with its toxified use to mean “posed”.
