Arguably, one of the reasons the LGBTQ movement has been fairly successful in the US is that empire is quick to adopt and recuperate that which it can use to further its goals abroad. The liberal wing of US Empire only embraces feminism and queer liberation because those are also weapons that can be used against socially regressive periphery countries. That’s not to say that they are illegitimate causes, of course in almost every way it’s a good thing that those movements have been fairly successful in the US, but interest convergence is the only way for them to flourish as much as they have.

In contrast, countries that aren’t constantly looking for reasons to do regime change have less impetus to expand their recognition of human rights, and have less reason to side with their own minorities against some enemy outside their borders. This generally applies to any country that doesn’t bear the load of opening up new frontiers for imperialism, so it doesn’t explain TERF island by itself. There’s some other factors that exacerbate transphobia in TERF island, namely the success of second wave feminism, lack of development of intersectional feminism, etc etc.