There's a growing ... movement in the LGBTQ community to separate from the TQ+ part and focus solely on the LGB part. Since there's no central LGBTQ headquarters or president or anything, this would be mostly a social thing, though I suppose activist organizations would have to decide if they'd go with the LGB people or the TQ people.

I have opinions. On the one hand, being trans is indeed unrelated to sexual orientation. You can be assigned male at birth but know you're female and also be attracted to women. In other words, there are gay men who also are trans, and lesbian women who are also trans. And there are trans men who are attracted to women, and trans women who are attracted to men. So why, the reasoning goes, should men who are attracted to women be part of the gay community? They aren't gay. Women who are attracted to men aren't gay, either.

More reasoning goes that lumping trans folk in with LGB folk confuses straight folk. A shockingly large number of straight people believe that 1) gay men want to be women; 2) lesbian women want to be men; and 3) a transgender person is gay or lesbian. Separating the groups would help with this problem.

However, the real reason, I think, is fear. Not fear of trans people. Fear of right wing nutjobs. The current administration has put a target on the back of every trans person in the country. It not-so-subtly encourages violence against trans people, who already experience one of the highest rates of violence in the world. Several states have also passed anti-trans laws. LGB folk may be afraid that they're next. By distancing themselves from the TQ community, the LGB community can avoid collateral damage.

Also, more people are becoming accepting of LGB folk than they are of TQ folk. The thinking goes that the TQ folk are holding back more acceptance of LGB folk. ("I can handle that you're a lesbian. At least you aren't one of those transgenders!")

I find this thinking invalid.

In my experience, anyone the right wing perceives as as not-straight by is in danger, and it doesn't matter to the RWs if a person is L, G, B, or T. What matters is that they're different, and fine shades of meaning are unimportant. When the RWs are aiming real or metaphorical bricks, they don't ask if their targets are gay, trans, or lesbian first. They just throw the brick. But this is just my experience (after spending more than 50 years as a G).

Also, trans folk are a tiny, tiny sub-group. The trans population in the USA is about .08%. A group that tiny doesn't have many resources to fight bullies and oppressors, even if you add in their families, friends, and allies. The LGB community is a larger group of about 2.38%, and that's a conservative estimate. It's probably closer to 5%. Although this group is still small, it has way more resources and allies than just the TQs. It would be a lack of compassion to deny TQ folk those resources now after being part of the group for so long.

And even when trans folk aren't gay, they go through most of the life experiences LGB folk do. These include having feelings as a child that you don't understand or know what to do with; going through life without role models; having a secret that could get you kicked out of your home, family, or job; and living in a society that actively discourages you from being who you are. These shared experiences bind us together. All of us.

I looked at a Facebook group that's dedicated to splitting LGBTQ into the two groups. I wanted to see what they were saying and what their arguments were. But when I got to the questions they ask before you join, I saw that the group is actually anti-trans. I opted not to join.

So, no, I don't support splitting up the group. We're LGBTQ+, and we're proud of every one of us.

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