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National Post

Leslie Roberts: LGBTQ rights used to be about equality. Now it's about ideological coercion

Every June, rainbow flags fill our streets, storefronts and social media feeds as the world marks Pride Month. As a gay man who remembers a very different time, I feel a genuine sense of pride and gratitude for how far we've come. But I also find myself increasingly uneasy, not about being gay, but about what the LGBTQ movement has become. Article content You won't find me dancing shirtless on a float or wrapped in a feather boa. I'm more likely to be found in the suburbs, where many of us now live, raising children, caring for aging parents and commuting to work. That, too, is what being gay looks like today. And it's a vision of normalcy we fought hard to achieve. Equality, after all, meant being treated like everyone else. Article content Article content Article content But somewhere along the way, the movement changed. What was once a focused, hard-won campaign for equal rights and recognition has been absorbed into a broader cultural project — one that many of us no longer recognize, and increasingly struggle to defend. Article content Article content This is especially true when it comes to the current direction of trans activism, which has not only dominated LGBTQ discourse in recent years, but has also sparked sharp political and cultural backlash. Let's be honest: many in the gay, lesbian and bisexual communities are quietly asking how and why the T became the centrepiece of our shared movement. Article content The transgender cause, particularly as it relates to children and adolescents, raises medical, ethical and social questions that are far more complex than the fight for same-sex marriage or workplace protections ever was. Puberty blockers, irreversible surgeries, pronoun mandates and policies around sports and shared spaces — these are issues that affect not just trans individuals but families, schools and society at large. Article content Article content And yet, to even raise a question about any of this is to risk being branded a bigot. That's not progress. That's ideological coercion. Article content Article content For years, the LGBTQ community stood united because we had to. We faced the same threats: violence, discrimination, marginalization. But that solidarity was based on common ground: sexual orientation. Now, gender identity, a fundamentally different concept, is redefining the movement's priorities, its language and its public image. Article content Let's not forget: many moderates in the gay community stepped back from activism once the major battles were won. When same-sex couples could marry and adopt, when we could live and work without fear of legal consequences, many of us moved on. We integrated into the mainstream. We cut our lawns, raised kids, joined school committees. And in doing so, we believed, perhaps naively, that the struggle was over.