I saw a documentary on Hayley from Coronation Street (first trans character on a long running UK soap opera). She was (for the most part) reasonably sensitively portrayed and her actress (a cis woman) was at least very careful to listen to trans voices at the time and I believe has been a decent ally since (if I’m wrong please correct me). She ended up becoming a core cast member that stuck around for 16 years.

The thing that struck me was how the public conversation was really different to how it would be now. The right hadn’t yet re-organised and rallied against “woke”. The anti trans mob wasn’t really a thing (of course transphobia was very real, just seemingly less organised). There was a lot of language that feels icky now but it just didn’t seem like the same level of toxicity we have to deal with in current year.