(Question -- has anyone here actually known any trans people, online, or IRL? The ones I've run across are pretty cool)
I've known a few; from RL gay coffee meets. I only know/knew one as a close-ish (spoke daily) friend. All bar one were MtF.
The ones in person I knew as acquaintances (3 MtF) were bona fide troons. The MtF's made a sort of effort to look female but lacking chest implants and some of the post-40's having very prominent square jaws it was very clear what they were and then way they dressed (like teenage girls) only emphasized their "otherness". They were basically indistinguishable from the La Zorra cows and shared many of the same concerns. The one deviation though was when it came to gender; it could be because they were all post-thirty but none of them agreed with non-binary/spaceship genders. They were female, and damn anyone who suggested they were something else or something else outside the male/female binary existed.
The only one I knew fairly well transitioned at eighteen and by the time we knew each other was twenty three and had fully transitioned. They didn't pass in person if you were sat across the table from them talking but to their credit they did go all out trying to present female; they were incredibly skilled at makeup and purposefully chose a sort of Japanese Gothic style that did make them look childish (their words) but did downplay most of their male features (lace turtle-neck choker hid and slimmed down their adams apple, a sort of bulky half crinoline thing made it look like they had hips etc). Walking down the road they would have passed.
The only "weird" thing about that one wasn't actually them being trans. They'd had an injury in early life that seemed to leave them with this bizarre fascination with lovecraftian horror (all the gore I think). They never explicitly said it, only ever alluded to it when talking about other stuff but some of the comments they made seemed to give the impression they thought of themselves as a Lovecraftian monster. I could never tell if it was being trans or just not liking themselves, since they were incredibly shy and introverted.
That to me seemed sad; they were a very kind and thoughtful person. They were also the only trans person I met in that scene who didn't really take pride in being trans the same way the others would openly talk about it and shyed away from kicking off about bathroom laws in the US the same the others would (and for this reason they seemed to be shunned by the other trans at the gatherings). We still talk sometimes, though they've got less time since they found a natal male boyfreind.
They know what I think about trannies from the local troons reeeeing about me (I refused to donate to their transition fund and when asked I explained why) but neither of us have ever brought it up.
