During a private support group health care meeting in October, the Vermont Pride Center got some unwanted and unknown guests.

"So we were just trying to help them, not realizing that at the same time they had a whole new agenda that we hadn't experienced before," said Interim Executive Director Rex Butt.

Right-wing activist Steven Crowder runs a website and podcast. He and three people associated with him posed as a family from Montreal, trying to get more information on health care for their trans son. They filmed the entire meeting with hidden cameras, asking questions about getting free health care.

"To have folks outside the community, yet alone coming in with mal-intentions to expose this conspiracy of trans folks trying to access services, is absolutely absurd," said Pride Center employee Taylor Small.

The meeting happened months ago but the story only came to light recently after the video was obtained by Seven Days. Now, the Pride Center and its members say they are ready to move forward.

"We do not want to be defined by this victimization," said Marcus, who asked we did not reveal his last name. "This was an invasion of our privacy, it rocked our community."

Marcus was one of the facilitators at that October meeting. He says Vermonters shouldn't stand by idly.

"Things like this might not be able to be prevented but we can stop these bigger issues by starting to combat the smaller ones. Like hey use this person’s proper pronoun, hey this person wants to be called by a certain name, please respect that," Marcus said.

The Pride Center has already taken steps to prevent any incident like they saw in October. More facilitator training, addressing questions that seem off-kilter, and signs that read "no recording" were posted.

"They were provoked by it, I would say. It’s like, oh yeah, you think you can come into our playground and pull this nonsense, well we got news for you, were stronger than that and I'm proud of that approach," said Butt.

The transgender community says it’s violations like this that keep them fighting back, now stronger than ever.

"At the end of the day we just want to live our lives, we just want to be authentic. What a concept, to just to want to be present in a community and not worry about how your identity shows up," Small said.