Cis, straight male over here, so take my thoughts and experiences for whatever they’re worth to you. As open-minded as I like to think I am, I honestly can’t see myself being sexually attracted to trans woman except maybe at a superficial level. Then again, I’m borderline asexual, so I’m really not sexually attracted to much and I overlook superficial attraction all of the time.

But none of that is the point of this comment, just some context. What I’ve noticed in my travails in online/modern dating, it’s excruciatingly painful. You put your heart out there on the internet, and of course it’s going to get smashed.

I wonder how much of her reaction was coming from a place of pain of all-too-familiar rejection? Yet rather than deal with the internal pain, she lashed out a perceived external “attack” or discrimination in her mind?

It’s a subtle difference, but one I’ve noticed in my own behavior and experience. It’s all too easy to blame other’s prejudice for our own pain, trying to fight perceived outer demons without looking within to our own homegrown demons stoking the flames of our suffering.