That schism—between the "acceptable" gays and lesbians and the "unruly" trans community—haunts the culture to this day. It is only in the last decade that the "T" in LGBTQ has moved from the margins to the center of the fight.
LGBTQ culture has always pioneered the concept of the "chosen family"—the network of friends and lovers who become kin when blood relatives reject you. For many trans people, Thanksgiving dinner is not at a childhood home. It is a potluck in a cramped apartment with a dozen other queer people, laughing, crying, and carving a turkey next to a pride flag.
"I was afraid my son would hate me," says Jamie, a 45-year-old trans father from Texas. "When I told him, he was eight. He looked at me for a second and said, 'Okay, Dad. Can we go get pizza?' Kids don't care about the binary. They care about love."
For the millions of people who identify as transgender, the story is not about "becoming" someone new. It is about the courage to finally stop pretending to be someone they were not.
