This was a very interesting and thoughtful/thought provoking piece. Thank you for sharing your experience. As someone who's only a couple months out of the closet, I know how hard it is when you're just starting. Just a couple of things I thought after reading this:

Re: signal boosting/social media - I think there's a lot of truth in that, but I also think the reality of it all is in the middle. Social media, in particular finding other trans women to talk to (including some bigger name ones most of you have heard of) helped me so much even before I came out. There's value in signal boosting, as awareness and visibility helps change the big conversations. It's also how I see so many fighting back against caricature and stereotypical depictions in the media. And they do so by reminding everyone we're just people, we're all individuals and we all have unique experiences and we are all still learning. That said, community, like this group, are a huge part of helping so many learn those things.

re: The LGBT/Queer community - I cant speak too much to this, as my own experience was much different. I didn't seek out LGBT spaces and community to help me better understand what it meant to be transgender. I only sought out others who were. I understand the idea that we're supposed to be allied together and help each other, but to me that seems like trying to talk to someone with a family member with some sort of illness, as opposed to talking to someone with that illness or a doctor who has studied it. I want my allies to stand with me, and help promote me when I'm speaking, as a guy I really respect put it: "Allies are the ones who fight for you when you're not there." But they're not going to have the same shared experience, and expecting them to feels wrong to me. I know this is just me talking from my own view and experience, I just wanted to share that.