Within LGBTQ organizations, this tension manifests as a “LGB vs. T” split. Some gay and lesbian individuals argue that trans issues (e.g., access to puberty blockers or gender-affirming surgery) are distinct from and even antithetical to “same-sex attraction.” This position ignores the lived reality of trans people who may be gay or lesbian after transition. As Serano (2016) notes, “To argue that trans women are a threat to lesbian spaces is to replicate the same patriarchal logic that once excluded butch lesbians from women’s restrooms.”

The transgender community is a diverse group of individuals whose gender identity—their internal sense of being male, female, or another gender—does not align with the sex they were assigned at birth. LGBTQ+ - NAMI