I lived as a trans woman for 6 or 4 years depending on your definition of transition.
I had never been a trans activist, I was "truscum", followed Blair White and such. Always been open to listening to opposing viewpoints. I love to argue!
The ways in which I came to my decision to transition were the similar to what's happening today but different in many ways, but there was this narrative that transitioning is for sure the best and only way to solve my dysphoria. Not to say I have solved my dysphoria, it's still a struggle for me. But it's still a struggle for people who do transition, so to me this doesn't mean anything.
At some point I learned about BIID, and essentially some people have dysphoria for their own limbs. That's horrible to deal with, and not too different to having dysmorphia over my genitalia. I was close to the point of seeking out surgeries when I noticed this logical inconsistency. I thought that people with BIID were insane and delusional, and that people who operated on them should be in prison, essentially. I don't think it's controversial to say that, even in trans spaces. Is the cure for someone who desperately wishes that they were blind due to a psychiatric condition, to blind them? Or is the solution to address the root cause of this psychosis?
I realised that this is the exact same thing that's happening to people suffering with gender dysphoria. We're being taken advantage of by quack surgeons and groomers who encourage gender-nonconforming teens into believing that transition is the answer. If there's any possible way a person can learn to cope with dysphoria without transitioning or surgery, they should take it, hands down.
I'm still coping with dysphoria, I'm very fem-presenting to the point where people still do mistake me for a woman. I'm ok with this, I'm aware though that I'm a man and I can never be a woman, to think otherwise would be, delusional (and harmful) thinking. To chase a goal or idea that is simply impossible.
I wouldn't affirm someone with BIID, I wouldn't tell someone having a psychotic episode that the voices in their head are actually real, so why oh why do we tell people that they are the opposite sex?
once i made this connection i went down the magdalen berns pipeline and the rest was history :P