Is it acceptable to discuss the validity of the preferred pronoun policy, and where can I do so?

Question

The question entitled "Post for clarifications on the updated pronouns FAQ" has become a protected post so that I cannot reply to it. I do not have a reputation greater than 10 without the association bonus, so I decided to post my question here. If this is unacceptable, please close it or do whatever you have to do. (Edit: The question has since been un-protected, but since I already posted this question, I will leave it here.)

I have been noticing over the last few days a trend of moderating where any attempt to question the new preferred pronoun policy is removed.

This is a genuine question and not an attempt to be provocative. I am genuinely curious if this moderating is going to be applied to the entire site, or if this was just selective moderating due to concerns of relevance for certain, particular questions. Does the new CoC prevent us from engaging in discussion about whether the policy on preferred pronouns is a good idea? I suppose if a moderator deletes or closes this question, I will have my answer.

The new FAQ does discuss whether discussion about pronouns is permitted, but the language it uses raises more questions than it answers. For completeness sake I include it here:

1. Am I forbidden to express my opinion about this?

In most contexts, your opinions about gender are off-topic. Some of our sites may have topics where gender is part of the subject and may be a valid question for the experts on that site. When answering these questions, it is important that answers report an objective answer to the question and avoid conveying the author's opinions on the subject. Since these objective answers may be at odds with the Code of Conduct, please take special care and frame them respectfully and politely — please be aware that many things you might want to say may be extremely distressing to some readers, and try to minimize that distress.

I am not sure if my opinion about the policy itself is relevant to the question, but for completeness sake, I include it here: I support the enforced use of preferred pronouns, but think people who disagree with this policy should be allowed to say that they disagree and why. I will not elaborate here further.

Answer 1

Right, so...

Protecting posts is a common thing to do with posts which are highly contentious or highly voted, or are drawing a lot of traffic from low-reputation users who only seek to disrupt the actual conversation as opposed to participate.

You only need to gain 10 reputation on this site in order to participate, and you've passed that barrier now.

This is not censorship.
This is preempting the trolls who just want to troll.

If you want to participate in the discussion, feel encouraged to.

Answer 2

Meta SE is a site that "may have topics where gender is part of the subject and may be a valid question" insofar as gender relates to SE policy, as it does in the case of the new CoC.

Obviously

Since these objective answers may be at odds with the Code of Conduct, please take special care and frame them respectfully and politely — please be aware that many things you might want to say may be extremely distressing to some readers, and try to minimize that distress.

still applies.

It has been suggested that

However, note that debating the core of the new rule ("please use stated pronouns") ... is off-topic, and we won't be entertaining those debates at this point"

means SE will prohibit discussion of the topic, but my reading is that that quote is meant apply to the FAQ post and not MSE as a whole.

This is tangential to the question as asked, but my impression is that there is broad support for the broad strokes of the new CoC, and it really isn't a good time if you want to "try to minimize that distress". So I would respectfully suggest that you choose a different time to debate the core of the preferred pronoun policy, but I of course have no power to compel that.