I also wonder, given how successful the TQ+'s "lesbian = woman who's exclusively-same-gender-attracted" con has been, if many young lesbians-- upon noticing their complete lack of attraction to "transbians"-- genuinely think that they must be "ace" somehow. Since there are these "women" they MYSTERIOUSLY just can't see in a sexual way at all! How else to explain it...?

It's interesting to me how different (lesbian) individuals react to the TQ+ shaming: "If you don't want to date a trans woman then you're a horrible person!" Some lesbians respond by calling themselves asexual; that's one pathway.

My own pathway was different. Ironically, "trans women" were part of what made me realize I was lesbian. I had been hiding behind the bisexual label for years because I knew I couldn't deny my same-sex attraction, but assumed that I had to be attracted to men, some man, somewhere, in spite of the fact that I was never attracted to the ones around me. I realized scrolling through AGP-dominated "lesbian" Tumblr posts that dick grossed me out and that I didn't want to date a guy, and that I perceived "trans lesbians" as male. And then I saw all those shaming messages and felt horrible about myself. Eventually, I confronted the possibility that I might be lesbian, and the idea disturbed me so much that I believed I had to transition and was a "man." So there's another pathway-- identifying as nonbinary or as a "trans man" instead.

I wouldn't say that TQ+ shaming was the only thing that drove me to the belief that I needed to transition. My homophobic religious upbringing laid the foundation for that. But it did give me a shove in that direction. "There's something wrong with me-- with my sexual orientation; I can fix it if I transition."

(Sorry, that's a very navel-gazey wall of text in response to your observation, lol.)