obviously this isnt targeted at anybody here, but ive noticed in european progressive liberal and leftist spaces there is more frequent terf-ish sentiment. why is it that in those spaces in america, it seems like transphobia is frowned upon more?
am i imagining this? is it really just the uk and spain?
This might be completely off base, but here is my take one it.
In the last 2-3 decades of America political life LGBTQ issues have been primarily furthered by the liberal class through their control of the cultural output (hence you see a lot of push back from the right when they decry "identity politics", "political correctness", and minorities & women ruining "their movies"). These same cultural products are less dominant in European countries and often compete with the nations own output. For this reason amongst others European sentiment in general is "lagging" on these issues.
Furthermore European politics has in the last decade also seen a stark shift rightwards. With the crumbling of the neoliberal order, the failure of the EU to improve many peoples lives, it has become more difficult to make progress on liberal issues, and we've seen many countries revert to much more socially conservative postures.
These are probably only partial reasons, as this stuff is typically very dependent on each countries culture.