Back in 2018, Andrew Sullivan questioned whether the L.G.B.T.-rights movement was heading in the wrong direction. (Yes, back then there were just four letters.) Focused for decades on civil liberties and marriage equality, the movement, he wrote, had become “rhetorically as much about race and gender as it is about sexual orientation.” Most worrisome to Sullivan was an emerging hyper-focus on transgender issues that he worried could lead to a decline in support for L.G.B.T. rights as a whole.
From baseball to beer to college sports, gender identity now dominates nearly every square inch of the “queer” public square. The established L.G.B.T. movement is dead, replaced by a social-and-political agenda almost entirely centered around transgender concerns. Proponents argue that this shift is long overdue—and they may have a point. But the tide Sullivan anticipated is now a full-scale tsunami that could leave most gays and lesbians behind. If it provokes an electoral backlash, they might even find themselves worse off.
