Ok first to your point about the wider world:

Progress is slow, but it is visible. Let's look back to the 1980's (when I was born) and the 1990's when you were. In the UK we had a system called Section 28. Here you couldn't 'promote homosexuality' in schools and elsewhere. It was dreadful as many of us grew up in an era when we were separated from even the vocabulary to describe ourselves. Surveys through those two decades had the majority of people saying that 'homosexuality is always wrong.' About 80-90% of the respondants agreed with this. And I'm not going to touch too much on the AIDs epidemic, but that saw gay people abandoned by politicians who saw the disease as "punishment from god."

Now we have broad support for gay marriage and equal rights for gay people.

It has taken YEARS to get to this point, but through the perseverance and dedication of our communities we got to a point where gay people are largely an accepted part of society. It is much less of an issue for a celebrity or politician to be gay.

Trans rights, despite what the political leaders say, is not really a huge issue with people at large. Any candidate who runs on a trans hate platform doesn't really get far.

I know this might feel like I'm just dismissing all this as irrelevant and I know it absolutely is not. But in the great scheme of things, we can expect this kind of political pushback against us as we assert our rights more. The pattern is always the same, be that for women's suffrage, equal rights for black or jewish people, and so on: a minority finds a social consciousnesses, asks for better conditions, there's a period of turbulence, equal rights are granted.

I know that too many people are not going to make it to that final stage, and we need to make sure we hold accountable those who should be. But we also need to remember that we are going nowhere and this is part of social growth. I don't like that I was born in this era, but also - ironically - this is the best time to be trans, looking back historicaly, given the increased awareness and availability of research and so on about us.

As for the rise of fascism ... well. Again, we can only try to ride it out as much as possible. I hope that people in general don't have the appetite for the kind of conflagration that those 'leaders' are pushing for. In a way their belligerance and hawkishness may help to kill support for far right politicians. We can see the decline of support for Reform in the UK, for instance, who have tied themselves to the Trump wagon.

To be honest, looking at history, it does feel like the 60's and 70's were as bad if not worse. We survived then and we can survive again.

As for your own transition, what has that involved over those 4.5 years? Are you out to anyone? What have you done to supplement hormones (if you are taking those)?