Personally I can respect people who are open about their viewpoints, so in that way I appreciate authenticity. But when I strongly disagree with their viewpoint

Personally I can respect people who are open about their viewpoints, so in that way I appreciate authenticity. But when I strongly disagree with their viewpoints I still may not want to hang out with them. I wouldn't want to have Adolf Hitler in my book club, despite him being unapologetically authentic. I expect the people who rejected you feel the same (hopefully to a lesser degree than if you were literally Hitler).