I had heard of him, but I hadn't actually heard from him. I knew of the Atheist community at the time but just wasn't involved in it enough to know or care much. Gamergate was my first real introduction to them and I honestly felt lucky because it seemed like a lot of people really looked up to a bunch of people that turned out to be huge bigots. Easy for me to say after the fact, but your assessment seems to be wholly accurate.