A lot of people have never once in their life had a conversation with a trans person. It’s a lot harder to weaponize someone’s existence when they become a fixture in your life.

I saw this happen in real time at a previous job. An FtM trans person was hired to work in a very male-dominated industry, in a deep red state. There was some grumbling at first, but the dude turned out to be really good at his job, which had everyone treating him like “one of the guys” after a month.