what qualifies as “just asking questions”
You just highlighted a transphobic dogwhistle, where people claim to be “just asking questions” and their questions are by nature invalidating or attempting to be invalidating towards trans people.
if you want to know what I meant by downvotes in the thread, many people who are transphobic aren’t bold enough to express it directly, they do it indirectly claiming they are just asking questions or that they just don’t support that one basic things that trans people expect to receive. Some are even more less direct, lurking and hiding but they still express their distain and transphobia through downvotes. On Reddit they were practically anonymous. The fediverse though allows votes to be seen by instance admins, so it’s really easy for admins to find the ones doing this and give them the boot. Votes aren’t anonymous.
I already did provide you with criteria for what counts as transphobia, though from what you’ve said here you sound like a typical apologist and discussion will likely not go anywhere.
It’s almost certainly transphobic people or bots run by transphobic people. Either way people who don’t bring anything positive to the discussion and who bear hostility to the trans community, hence why I say the downvotes on the post can be used to find some of the more quiet transphobes and ban them.