People like this genuinely believe trans people don't exist outside the imperial core which is demonstrably false and they also don't know (or conveniently forget) the imperial core consistently erased or exterminated cultures with non-binary views on gender and queer people were routinely genocided by the very same liberal institutions that co-opt the culture today.
I don't find it surprising if some average person living in the global south associates queerness with imperialism (if they aren't well informed on the nature of queer people) because liberals co-opt every good thing and ruin it.
It's also just pure western chauvinism to assume that somehow westerners are inherently more "progressive" or accepting.
"Trans people only exist when I see them AND perceive them as trans"
Last sentence is technically correct but using that to back into the position of "transgender bad" is either bad logic or bad faith.