I learned the same years ago as a mod. It's dumbfounding & terrifying how absolutely terrible some decide to be. Even back then, gender-based attacks were frequent and conducted by some of the worst and most persistent (ban-evading) individuals.
It's horrible, and what really troubles me is the effort that people put in to go out of their way searching for people to harass. It's not even defensive/acting in fear, it's just unadulterated hate.