The rhetoric from activists has long been awful. I think COVID and the moving of lots of social interaction to the internet really fueled this recent movement, that and the LGBT activist machine needed a new cause.

Activists I think are the issue, most trans people I've been aquatinted with IRL were often out seeking attention in socially transgressive ways, I think because they were taking out their own inability to accept themselves on society at large, however I've been aquatinted with a couple of people whom I suspect are trans but they are otherwise avoidant of attention and are clearly not activists.

I think it's still a mental illness regardless but there's far less problems socially tolerating someone who wishes simply to be left alone and ignored vs someone who is constantly seeking the social validation of others by transgressing social norms. I think there's an exhibitionist trend in the modern expression here and they get off on negative attention.