You know, I joined Queer Nation in New York City in 1990 responding to a surge of street violence that was making us LGBTQ people unsafe in our traditionally safe spaces like Greenwich Village. We took to the streets chanting "We're here, we're queer, get used to it," knowing that the most vulnerable targets of violence were trans folks and gender-nonconforming "street queens." The LGB without the T crowd like to pretend that 20th-century queer activism was almost entirely about LGB people, but they have their fingers in their ears trying not to hear people like me who were there and who know they're not being honest with themselves or the public at large.

Today, as violence surges all over the U.S. in response to hateful political rhetoric, all queer people share common cause. I'm more than frustrated to watch fringe anti-trans LGB folks try to divide us. Not only are their motivations remarkably unkind and inhumane, they are frighteningly counter-productive.