A common point of confusion within broader culture is the difference between sexual orientation and gender identity.

The trans community has forced the LGBTQ+ culture to evolve from a defensive posture ("Leave us alone") to an offensive, liberatory posture ("Change your definition of reality"). This is uncomfortable. Many older gay men and lesbians who fought for the right to marry and serve in the military do not want to fight for the right to use a different pronoun. But the trans community argues that marriage equality was never the finish line; it was a waypoint. The real goal is the abolition of the gender binary itself.