I was, and still am, very sympathetic to transpeople, you know, because I’m not a bigot or a transphobe. I know several transpeople who are, or were friends of mine. I thought it was a bit trendy, but I went along with it because I blythely assumed it was for them, and wouldn’t have any impact on my rights or status as a woman and a lesbian.
Somebody, another MN poster as it happens, opened up a conversation on a lesbian message board. I joined in because I was curious, and some of the topics of discussion, the cotton ceiling, and self ID seemed a bit off to me, so I went away and did a bit of research. I started posting, asking questions, presenting arguments, then the things that other people had been posting about, bullying, personal attacks, started happening there as well. I got plenty of it, and some pretty nasty shit to. Stuff that would be immediately deleted without question on here.
It can be a nasty environment for gender critical women over there, a lesbian message board, so it was a bit of a baptism of fire. MN is a tickling competition in comparison, but it certainly sharpened up my tools and got the sleep out of my eyes.