I totally agree with you. My first circle of fannish friends was mainly pretty similar to me in terms of background and outlook, but almost all of them came from the opposite side of the world. And as I moved into fandom more generally and met new people, I defintely came into contact with people of vastly different experiences and identities. (For me, it was originally very eye-opening to meet so many people who were open about being gay, lesbian, bi or trans, because growing up in the 1990s, this was not, in general, something that people were open about. I grew up in what were for the time very socially liberal circles, but the attitude was very much, 'there's nothing wrong with being gay ... but I'm straight!' I think if I'd been in fandom when I was a teenager, rather than only starting to participate when I was in my twenties, I might have understood my own sexuality better, from an earlier age.)