According to Gail, she wanted to make sure that Alysia had this moment with Barbara. As a writer, she wanted to make clear that Alysia was trans within the story.

“She was created as a trans character,” Gail confirmed in an interview with NewNowNext. “I want to do this right, representation is important. No one wants stereotypes or tokens. We want believable characters we can care about, that we want to know more about.”

Source: https://www.distractify.com/p/who-is-alysia-yeoh-dc-comics