In my experience, the anti-trans trolls on Twitter are absolutely out of control. And it's frightening to experience their levels of naked vitriol.

I promote my stories, and Prism & Pen stories, on Twitter. That's the only reason I use the platform, but wow, some of the things that I see. When I write about trans issues, I know for sure that at least a few anti-trans haters will come out of the woodwork and say something nasty about trans people. Sometimes a whole mob comes out of the woodwork. It's like they're waiting to pounce. Trans people are nasty! (Or mentally ill, or corrupting children, or endangering women, or fill in the blank.)

I report comments, but Twitter mostly doesn't act on them. I wrote a story not too long ago about a trans teen in El Paso who got assaulted in the aftermath of the Uvalde shooting. Somebody who describes herself a "child advocate" but only tweets about trans issues, replied to me that there's no such thing as a transgender child, that all teens who call themselves transgender are abused and mentally ill. Her Twitter profile is full of tweets and comments that say exactly that.

Twitter refused to remove that comment or any of her other comments that I reported, despite their dehumanizing nature.

Actually, I don't have to tweet specifically about transgender people or issues to call forth the anti-trans-hater mob. They're waiting to pounce at the merest possibility of something trans. Then, wham!

I keep them blocked to the best of my ability, because it's distressing wading through all their senseless hate. But as fast as I block them, more are always waiting to ooze out of the woodwork.

I can't imagine what their lives must be like, centered around hating on people they don't even know, over an issue that can't possibly affect them.

Running into that crowd, though, as I do just about every day, makes me understand human witch-hunt psychology all the more.