While "there's no such thing as bad press" doesn't apply when increased trans visibility is putting us all at risk, I would argue that the increased visibility is mostly in online spaces and actually results in better attitudes over time (not initially) because people are forced to think about it, and most people, when the memes are done, will put some serious thought into it. I'm not gonna start using transwomen without a space like terfs do or anything weird like that, I just think that I have control over my world and embracing the memes around me is a way of influencing others But it's also a great chance to share the same language and interact more easily. Obviously trap is a poorly defined term that only loosely refers to us based on an agreed upon definition. Dialogue and discourse does require a common language of some kind. The slipperly slope there is that we'd end up with an entirely distinct language and it seems like politics are just a game of using different words for different things and calling people on it when they use the word the other team uses. I don't think it's the end of the world if someone uses a meme who we don't agree with.
Clearly underneath the meme is an attempt to deal with a relevant issue in the way that people are comfortable doing so
Whether or not you like the meme, I've chosen my attitude and I hope others respect it. I meet people halfway on the meme because it's so prominent and this is how I've chosen to deal with it being everywhere. I view it as a way for eggs to talk about the issue that's somewhat normalized, however briefly it will be. I get questions like "are traps gay" and I say "some of them are, you'd have to ask". But If I'm playing a game and someone asks "Hey TrapStar are you an actual trap" I'm gonna say yes, because I like the dialogue it opens and I don't have a rigid boundary about it. Obviously some people are set off by the "traps are gay" meme and it's reasonable to respect that if it's very prominent. Of course I use a different display name because I have some notion of respect but I didn't feel like I fit in on the one discord I should. I was really rejected and I didn't want to go back. I learned I was trans because of traps and last time I went to an all trans gaming discord they told me to change my discord name (which like this username, resembles the gamertag I use) because the term was considered in violation of their ToS. I use things ironically to cope with them. I think if all trans spaces start to take themselves super seriously it will be hard to me to turn up.