People do not "identify as" a gender. They ARE that gender.

The one person was going on about how I "identify as a woman".

I don't "identify" as a woman, I am a woman! (I think. Honestly I'm still figuring that one out!)

The whole "identifies as" thing comes off to me as "Oh sure, we'll TOTALLY acknowledge you're true nature!" in this backhanded compliment type of way.

Nobody goes "I identify as straight." or "I identify as 143cm tall."

And nobody goes "I identify as female." except for the occasional misguided queer.

It's almost exclusively someone else who does the "%s identifies as %s" thing.