This tension crystallizes in the phenomenon of trans-exclusionary radical feminism (TERFs) and other forms of intra-community transphobia. The argument, most infamously articulated by figures like Janice Raymond in the 1970s and perpetuated today by some lesbian and feminist groups, posits that trans women are not women but infiltrators—men colonizing female spaces and appropriating female suffering. This is a devastating form of invalidation that weaponizes the very history of feminist struggle against trans women. Conversely, trans men are sometimes infantilized or erased, viewed as “lost sisters” rather than men. And non-binary and genderfluid people often find themselves entirely outside LGB’s binary frameworks. These conflicts are not minor squabbles; they erupt in debates over who can attend women’s music festivals, whether trans women belong in lesbian dating pools, and, most painfully, in the high rates of social rejection trans people face from their cisgender LGB peers.

Perhaps the most famous export of trans-LGBTQ synergy is . Originating in Harlem in the 1920s and exploding in the 1980s thanks to icons like Paris Dupree and Pepper LaBeija, ballroom was created because Black and Latino queer and trans people were excluded from white-dominated pageants.

Resilience and Revolution: The Intersection of Transgender Community and LGBTQ Culture