Former conservative. Need advice.

Ok rant or whatever, I need some advice. I feel like an utter moron.

So recently I got a job in this cat cafe, which I later found out is really LGBT friendly, hence why so many gay folks are always coming in.

Which is a little awkward for me. Because I’m a straight dude who doesn’t understand it all. Idk obviously I know what gay, and lesbians means, but I’ve heard words like “heteronormative”, “straight passing”, and I genuinely feel like an idiot.

Anyways, there’s this guy working with me, and he’s awesome. I kinda felt envious of him for some time because he’s funny, and can hold a conversation whilst I cannot. But I wanted to get closer to him so I asked for his socials, and we exchanged a few.

And I found out he’s trans.

I remember 2 years ago, I was binge watching conservative anti trans media. I watched, Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, any anti trans content I could get my hands on I would watch. and why? because I thought transgenderism was this MASSIVE issue in society. This major hijack to our sexual orientation. Which yea I know. It’s not.

I guess what I’m saying is I know nothing about the trans community, other than it’s bad. And this dude isn’t bad at all, he’s awesome actually. So I feel like a moron for believing trans people are these mentally ill insane freaks who are venom to society.

Because I’ve never met someone so interestingly cool. We share similar interests but he knows more than me. Sci fi for example, maths and DC. So I’ve been wanting to hang with him outside of the cafe for some time. But after finding out he’s trans I feel idk confused?

I’m worried I could slip up and say something that’ll hurt him. But I can’t help but unfortunately feel the conservative views I indulged still be there inside of me on this topic. I want to learn more about the trans community though to understand gender dysphoria, their brains, and idk anything that’ll shift me away from these progressive views I still feel. Because I don’t want to mess up a potential friendship.

Any advice?