Why? Because they recognized that the attack on trans kids is the vanguard of an attack on all queer people. The rhetoric used against trans youth—"groomer," "threat to children," "mentally ill"—is verbatim the rhetoric used against gay people in the 1970s. The LGB without the T realized that if the state can deny healthcare to a trans child, it can eventually revoke marriage licenses for gay couples. The alliance is not just moral; it is strategic.
Modern LGBTQ culture has begun to embrace "gender expansive" thinking. Non-binary identities have forced a reckoning with the binary assumptions even within gay culture (e.g., "masc4masc" gay male dating culture is now critiqued as transphobic and misogynistic). Queer spaces are increasingly moving away from "men's night / women's night" toward "no gender required." The Tensions Remaining: Assimilation vs. Liberation A deep ideological split persists. Much of mainstream gay culture (think: corporate Pride, suburban gay dads, Hulu comedies) has chosen assimilation . They want to be included in the military, the church, and the suburbs.
This creates a "roommate problem." The gay assimilationist wants to invite a cop to Pride for good PR. The trans liberationist knows that same cop might arrest her for "loitering." The question of "who is the face of LGBTQ culture" remains unresolved. If LGBTQ culture is to survive the next decade of rising authoritarianism, it must explicitly de-center the cisgender, white, gay male experience. That doesn't mean erasing it; it means expanding the table.
Historically, the gay bar was the only public space where a trans person could exist without immediate arrest. For a closeted gay man in the 1980s, the bar was a place for sex and connection. For a trans woman, it was a matter of survival—a place to find community, exchange hormones, or find shelter. While the goals differed (hookup vs. safety), the geography was the same.
But when the anti-LGBTQ bills come—and they are coming—they are aimed at all of us. The bathroom bill that targets trans women is the same impulse as the "Don't Say Gay" bill that silences a lesbian teacher. The ban on gender-affirming care is the same eugenic logic as the ban on conversion therapy for gay youth.
