Not long ago I joined a site to make new friends. I've written to a few people, a little back and forth, not especially much yet, but it is interesting to see all the various kinds of people, and the question section is giving me a bunch of food for thought.
One of the women I clicked on randomly had done work similar some I had done in the past and has personal goals quite similar to mine. I wrote her a note of appreciation for what she has done. After all, people like to be appreciated for their hard work; and perhaps we might end up conversing.
At the end of the note, I mentioned that I am trans -- which I did to avoid the possibility of her feeling that I had "led her on". One of the transwomen I had communicated with on the site had mentioned that nearly everyone dropped her from communication when they found out she was trans, and I didn't want to go through that scenario. (Hey, I'm new there and still trying to figure out how to talk to strangers.)
We exchanged a few messages, such as her asking me to critique her profile (which I did.) She wondered how I had happened upon her specifically; I explained how I clicked on one of the near-random-selection buttons and been interested by what I saw.
Today she sent me a note saying that she had been wondering what attracted my attention, as she had herself transitioned a number of years ago and was concerned that her past was coming back to haunt her (nb. not the phrase she used.)
Opps! I did not know, I was just writing to someone interesting!