On the subject of experiences in middle/high school with players portraying other genders, one of my best friends always played women in D&D. Those characters never came off as creepy or disrespectful, but it was a noteworthy pattern. Now, twenty-odd years later, turns out she’s trans. She’s far from the only trans person who used roleplaying games as a safe way to explore their identity before fully coming to terms with it, and I think that’s a big part of why we get so many LGBTQIA folks in the hobby, despite it having a history as a bit of a boy’s club.