I think your response was right on. "Can't we just be nice to everyone?" is a reasonable question. It reminded me of a character on the series Reservation Dogs, which I really loved. It's about a group of Native American teens. One of them, Cheese, tells everyone he meets his pronouns, even though he's not apparently queer and few really want to hear them. When asked why he does that, he explains that he decided to just be nice to everyone as much as possible after a friend committed suicide. It's not too much to ask.