I really hope people understand where we as admins are coming from, we really take no enjoyment out of banning anyone (except for spammers).

That's one of the most transparent lies I've heard. Power corrupts, and I've seen plenty of lemmy.world admins who certainly do enjoy it, and who do it to people to prove a point or as a knee jerk reaction to disagreement. You can call it whatever you want to call, you can deny this fact but it does happen and I've seen it myself, and I'd prefer you don't try to feed me lies I'm smart enough to see right through.

For real, this type of apologia is downright disgusting.

Thankfully I'm too old to be drafted. 32 as of writing this, if it had happened when I was younger I probably would've tried to get out of it, different ways though since I was so stubborn and I didn't end up realizing I'm trans until I was 26, almost 27.

My problem is having any pickle (penis) of any size down there. Gives me really bad dysphoria. It's better than it used to be, but I wish I didn't have anything sticking out down there ya know. Like cis girls.

Many get into computers when they are younger and before they realize they are girls, they continue doing it after they come out because they like it and/or it pays well.

I'm already armed and thanks to only coming out about 6 years ago I was taught how to shoot as part of a "father-son bonding activity" So thanks dad, you may be a transphobic ass but you still taught me how to shoot, and I'm grateful for that, even though you regret it.

My mother uses that excuse though, same excuse she uses to call me my old name, and to say that I'm a man. Horrible old witch. I know it's an excuse because she doesn't bother correcting herself, she keeps going and is insistent that I'm actually a man and that it can't be changed.

I'm doing better now. That was before I was on HRT that I tried to do away with them myself. I'm feeling better now, less grossed out and uncomfortable because of how much they've shrank. I still wish they were completely gone though.

It's almost certainly transphobic people or bots run by transphobic people. Either way people who don't bring anything positive to the discussion and who bear hostility to the trans community, hence why I say the downvotes on the post can be used to find some of the more quiet transphobes and ban them.

what qualifies as “just asking questions”

You just highlighted a transphobic dogwhistle, where people claim to be "just asking questions" and their questions are by nature invalidating or attempting to be invalidating towards trans people.

if you want to know what I meant by downvotes in the thread, many people who are transphobic aren't bold enough to express it directly, they do it indirectly claiming they are just asking questions or that they just don't support that one basic things that trans people expect to receive. Some are even more less direct, lurking and hiding but they still express their distain and transphobia through downvotes. On Reddit they were practically anonymous. The fediverse though allows votes to be seen by instance admins, so it's really easy for admins to find the ones doing this and give them the boot. Votes aren't anonymous.

I already did provide you with criteria for what counts as transphobia, though from what you've said here you sound like a typical apologist and discussion will likely not go anywhere.

The downvotes on this thread might be a very good way for admins to identify transphobic people, most of them are likely either transphobes or bots run by transphobes. If you're not interested maybe still collect the names and send it to @ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone so she can use it to better clean up their instance from silent transphobia.

I will definitely report it more often when I see it.