For decades, trans people fought alongside gay and lesbian people for decriminalization, HIV/AIDS funding, and anti-discrimination laws. The alliance was born of necessity: the same forces that hated gay men and lesbians also hated trans people. Despite this shared history, the alliance has not always been comfortable. Within LGBTQ+ culture, tensions have arisen, often centered on a few key issues:

From the documentary Paris is Burning (1990) documenting NYC ballroom culture, to the mainstream success of shows like Pose and Transparent , to the activism of figures like Laverne Cox and Elliot Page, trans people are telling their own stories. The rise of trans creators on TikTok and Instagram has created digital safe havens for youth questioning their gender. LGBTQ+ culture is not a monolith. It is a coalition of identities—gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, intersex, asexual, and transgender. Like any coalition, it requires compromise and active listening.

A small but vocal fringe of gay and lesbian people (often called "trans-exclusionary radical feminists" or TERFs, though many are not feminists) argue that trans women are men invading female spaces. They claim that the "T" should be removed from the acronym. This view is overwhelmingly rejected by mainstream LGBTQ+ organizations (such as GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign) but has caused significant internal trauma, as trans people feel betrayed by the very community they helped build.

The 1969 Stonewall Uprising, widely considered the birth of the modern Pride movement, was led by marginalized queers—including drag queens, homeless gay youth, and trans activists like and Sylvia Rivera . Rivera famously fought for the inclusion of drag queens and trans people in early gay liberation groups that wanted to present a "respectable" image to straight society.