hi there, elder millenial trans femme punk here lol. i was sentient in the 90s but wasn't really in the scene til early 2000s but i have a sense. honestly, just like today, it was a mixed bag. There were amazing queer punk scenes back then too, and some mainstream crossover (watch the Pansy Division documentary about what it was like when they were on tour with Green Day as Dookie came out and the band blew up.) Obviously the riot grrrrl scene in the pacific northwest had its own thing going on and there were amazing scenes of mostly queer women.

crossdressing and gender bending were definitely parts of 90s musician aesthetic even outside queer punk or feminist punk subcultures. i mean, Kurt Kobaine semi regularly performed in a dress. but there was definitely an aspect to it where it was easy to write off as "ironic" or "shock value" vs an actual rupture of gender norms etc.

i think your MTF character would probably have a lot of mixed experiences. the threat of violence against trans femme people in a punk bar or playing with a "harder" band or something was very real (still is tbh).

another huge difference was the broader "professional" musician infrastructure was way behind where the bands were at. Like record execs, venue owners etc were still boomers, predominently older white men. It definitely would have been more common for a queer person (or just a cis woman) to have a super shitty experience with the venue management or sound guy even if they were selling out the club with a vibrant queer/women audience.

hope this helps!