The first tranny I was aware of was Christine Jorgensen, who surgically transitioned in Denmark in the early 50s. She then went on to be a successful singer and entertainer.

In the early 70s, around the time I started high school, Jorgensen's autobiography was published. Christine became an immediate celebrity and a household name. The subject of prominent magazine spreads and a guest on countless radio and TV talk shows, Jorgensen and the transsexual phenomenon were common subjects of conversation and even came up in Civics and Current Events classes at school.

I don't remember any of this as particularly mean spirited or hateful although, of course there were jokes, giggling, and moral disapproval from some. Mostly people found the whole thing strange and, therefore, interesting.

I never bought into the narrative of systemic existential threat against these people. If anything, I have seen FAR more cases of trannies committing heinous violence against others (mass shooting, axe assault, rape, etc.) than I've seen of the reverse.

The APA was WAY out of line when they normalized this stuff by declaring that, absent other diagnostic criteria, believing that a person had been 'born into the wrong body' was not delusional. Of course, in the majority of cases, it is delusional.