Why This Gay Man Stands Firm That Trans Rights Are Human Rights

I’ve seen this playbook before. Back in the ’90s, some in the gay and lesbian community argued that bisexual and transgender people were “too controversial” to include in our rights movement. Decades later, the same script, that I thought was in the trash, has been dusted off and resurrected.

Only this time, it’s being aimed squarely at transgender people by a group of lesbians, gays, and bisexuals. They have polished the words to appear positive and affirming, but the message is the same. Transgender rights are different from the rights gay, lesbian, and bisexual people have fought for and continue fighting for. As a gay man who has lived through this exclusionary view of the queer community before, I refuse to stay silent.

August is Transgender History Month.

I learned from my local Pride alliance that August is Transgender History Month, a time to recognize the history and contributions of transgender people while advocating for their rights and inclusion. Although I have a deeper knowledge of gay history, I am still actively learning about the history of the transgender community.

I have decades of friendships with transgender people and have watched them navigate a world that often refuses to see them for who they truly are. I’ve come to believe in a simple truth: every person deserves to live an authentic life of their choosing if it doesn’t harm others. This means we cannot view transgender people as undeserving of living their true lives.

I was disturbed when I found the LGB Voices Substack, published by the LGB Alliance USA. I hoped it was a space to uplift lesbian, gay, and bisexual people without harming others in the queer community. Instead, I found something chillingly familiar, an echo from the past I thought we had outgrown.

The LGB Alliance’s “friendly” facade

The LGB Alliance’s tagline, “Leading the Fight for Same-Sex Rights,” sounds like the beginning of a unifying message. Inside its mission statement is a dagger, the opposition to what they call unscientific ideologies, and protecting children from gender identity affirmations.

We are part of an international movement confronting a new wave of homophobia that — just like the old one — tries to tell us our same-sex attraction is wrong… We aim to protect gender-nonconforming children from unscientific ideologies and bodily harm, and to promote freedom of speech through informed dialogue

— Excerpts from the LGB Alliance Mission Statement

It’s a pattern I am sure you may recognize. Start with warm, inclusive-sounding language that is admirable to gain your support. Then they pivot to excluding queer people whose rights and existence are deemed too controversial. This is how prejudice hides and grows in plain sight.

A collision with the past

In the 1990s, the conversation around AIDS shifted from one of moral judgment to a public health crisis. Gay and lesbian people were gaining more social acceptance. A debate arose within the community, with some arguing that including bisexual and transgender people would slow or even erode the hard-won progress. They viewed bisexual and transgender people as distractions and liabilities. Many of us knew the opposite was true: our inclusion is our greatest strength.

In LGB Voices, I came across an op-ed, What People Mean When They Say, ‘Trans Rights Are Human Rights, which recycled the same old arguments in a modern wrapper. The author, Claire, cloaked her talking points in seemingly reasonable, heteronormative language, a language that quietly erases transgender people’s humanity. It recasts them as merely an ideology and frames their rights as a danger to lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) progress.

Claire’s seven talking points and my response

I’m sharing Claire’s seven talking points, where she attempts to dismantle the idea that trans rights are human rights. She offers her interpretation of what the phrase really means and suggests how well-intentioned people should respond to and support trans people.

I won’t dissect her views in detail, but I will present my perspective that affirms trans rights as human rights. By publishing her op-ed, Claire has invited both agreement and critique. My life experiences as a gay man offer a meaningful counterpoint. While I respect her right to express her view, I feel compelled to share how my journey has shaped my understanding of trans rights.

“People think they are supporting gender non-conforming individuals. They are really supporting medicalizing gender non-conforming individuals into conformity.”

I’ve heard this argument before, and it misses something essential: gender identity is deeply personal. No one else gets to decide who you are. Over the years, I’ve seen people transition into lives where they feel more authentic. They live lives far better than the ones they lived when constrained by the sex assigned to them at birth. Our role isn’t to police that choice. It’s to respect it, support it, and recognize that we don’t get a vote in someone else’s truth.

People think they are supporting open-mindedness. They are really supporting a lack of discernment.

Open-mindedness, when paired with discernment, is a powerful asset, not a liability. When you approach issues like transgender rights with compassion and logic, your willingness to be open-minded becomes a strength. I have challenged myself to look past hot-button issues and focus on the person. This isn’t about being weak and too vulnerable. It’s about showing care and understanding for a person, even when you may oppose their views on transgender lives and gender ideology.

People think they are supporting progressive ideas. They are really supporting conservative ideas.

Inclusion isn’t about being conservative, progressive, or partisan. It’s about human dignity. Wherever you fall on the political spectrum, taking away someone’s rights, including those of trans people, is never justified. You have the right to form opinions. The heteronormative belief that queer rights lead to harm or moral decay is simply false. History shows that religion and politics have often been wielded to punish those who are different. The measure of any idea, whether progressive or conservative, should be whether it causes harm or silences others.

People think they support LGB individuals. They are supporting TQ+ individuals at the expense of LGB individuals.

This is queer tribalism, claiming that including people beyond gay, lesbian, and bisexual identities harms the wider community. It has long been debunked. The LGBTQ+ community is more than sex and sexual attraction. It’s a movement for authenticity, dignity, and equal treatment. As a gay man, I’ve never felt my identity diminished because we welcome those beyond the LGB. In fact, the more inclusive our umbrella, the stronger we all become.

People think they are supporting women. They are really supporting giving predators access to women and girls.

The trope of a trans man as a predator is false, much like the debunked theory that gay men are a danger to boys. Cisgender men overwhelmingly commit sexual abuse of girls and women, not transgender people. What a person does in the privacy of a restroom cubicle is their own business.

People think they are supporting life-saving medical interventions. They are really supporting elective cosmetic surgeries.

Transition isn’t a cosmetic fix for emotional stress. It’s the process of bringing one’s body and life into alignment with one’s true self. Anti-trans rhetoric often reduces gender-affirming surgery to a quick nip and tuck for new sexual organs. That’s far from reality. Transition is a long, deeply personal journey. It’s not about what’s on the surface, but about what lies beneath. No one undergoes these changes without careful thought. It’s about affirming a life that society has too often denied, a life that belongs solely to the person living it.

People think they are preventing suicides. They are really supporting genital mutilation, castration, and infertility.

Here’s the hard truth: queer teen suicide is real. Research from The Trevor Project and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that queer youth face alarming suicide risks beyond their peers, and affirming care significantly reduces those risks. To argue that all teens outgrow their anxiety with enough parental love and therapy is shortsighted. That thinking echoes what I heard as a gay boy and teen, “It’s just a phase, you’ll grow out of it.” That mindset caused me, and countless others, needless pain. Today, we have the facts and the expertise to move beyond that outdated view. Affirmation saves lives.

Queer tribalism is prejudice in the LGBTQ+ community that must stop

Claire’s op-ed echoes the anti-gay rhetoric I remember from decades past. She argued that supporting trans rights means endorsing harmful medicalization, inviting predators, indulging cosmetic whims, and endangering women and LGB people. This is queer tribalism; history shows that tribalism divides rather than unites. Lesbian, gay, and bisexual people would do well to learn from that history and work toward a larger, stronger, more diverse community that lifts everyone.

I’ve lived long enough to know that prejudice against queer people never disappears. It just changes form. I refuse to let a new generation, particularly queer generations, repeat the mistakes of the past. My support for transgender people is unwavering. Transgender History Month is a time to celebrate progress, confront the battles ahead, and stand firm in a world where queer existence itself is under attack.

Let people live their lives. When we deny anyone’s humanity, we diminish our own. And I will not give up another inch. Trans rights are human rights, and I’ll keep saying it until the rest of the world says it.