Team Gay

I have had the feeling that LGB is quite different to the TQ+. You know. It's nice to be inclusive, and give a bigger minority - or is that a smaller minority - a place to call home, but, really what does a gay man have in common with a trans man? What does a gay woman have in common with a trans woman?

Not really a whole lot.

Then I wonder if I just have some sort of inbuilt bigotry? Ah?

The stories of each group don't really have a lot in common, not really.

And now there is a kind of LGB revolt. We've always been used to poofs and dykes, as that is what we are. Poofs & dykes. And, I guess, when you look at it, any number of additional letters won't change the fact that we're poofs & dykes.

I'm not really the same as a trans person, not really, because I am gay and I am a part of the gay men & women team. I mean, I am a supporter of trans people, I am all for them making it the world, I wish them well. I will give supporting them a go, but I don't really understand them, because I am not trans. I am gay, and I have my own gay team to which I belong.

Funny, straight friends have asked me more than once to explain 'the trans thing' as they put it, or 'the non-binary thing' and while I used to try to explain it, now a days I reply with, "Ask a trans person. Or ask someone who identifies as non-binary."

You know, gay men and gay women have an interesting relationship all of their own, we're together despite having less in common than people think, but have the, er, um, same lived experience, so we hang together like brothers and sisters, we didn't exactly ask to be born into the same family, but we were, so here we are.

But being trans is a whole other story, which I am not, really, privy to. 

I'm for trans people. I'm happy for them to be trans. I think it is terrible how conservative politics is using them as a political football, essentially, because they can't sell any of their other policies.

But are gay guys and girls really on the same team as trans? I don't know? I'm not even sure I want to write this post as I don't want to give the impression I am not an ally, because I am. But am I the same?

Really?

So, I can understand the LGB backlash against TQ+. Even if I, probably, think we are all minorities and it is that similarity that should unite us to support each other.